Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Sitka Deer,Some Stock Sealing Questions?

A couple of questions I going to try your stock sealing method,boat building has proved it.This piece of french walnut needs all the help it can get,it's very soft.Do you checker before or after? I have used tung oil finish,which I really like,can I get that glow with out the plastic look of a BDL.thx

Downwind

The checkering is done after finishing like every other finish. I once worried a lot about sealing the checkering, but now I simply rub in a little finish with a toothbrush and have not had a problem. The epoxy actually gets in quite deep and the results say it is possible the seal is not broken with reasonably fine checkering.



The finish you see is whatever you put on top. An oil finish over the epoxy looks like a regular oil finish with perhaps a bit more depth... The soft look of finely polished oil looks good this way. I prefer varathane 66 over french (or other lighter colored varieties) rather than Tru-oil. The yellowing that Tru-oil does is a little distracting.



Do not listen to the hype that surrounds various oil-based finishes. The differences are all in compromises over how they are applied and dried. If they are not pure oil (and they WILL say so if they are) they are a mixture of oil, waxes, resins and solvents. Each element is there to highlight some aspect of the finish application because is service there is not a nickle's worth of difference between.



Most of the biggest differences are based on extending the shelflife. ALways buy in very small containers and use a fresh container for a new stock and you will save yourself money and grief.



If you would like to call and chat about the process give me a PM for a number or send your's with a good time to call.

best to you

art

Thank You,Art.
I beleive you on oil finishes,I use polmerized tung oil because it easy and looks good.

The rifle is a FN that Bill Leeper reworked,( it looked like swiss cheese),polished, and rebarrelled to 338.06. That man can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse,he certainly did on that rifle.I have a black walnut stock that's not inletted.I thought to use my plunge router and templates for rough inleting,but I haven't made the templates or jig,yet.So.itching to shot the rifle,for a temporary,I picked up a used Parker-Hale stock,you know the one,the overdone Weatherby look.To cut down on the gag reflex ,I replaced the grip cap and fore-end.Now to refinish and repoint the crude 16 tooth checkering.thx

I do not understand why everyone is so afraid of a simple inletting job?!? The difficult part of inletting is cleaning up the wood-to-metal areas, not hogging it out, yet everyone wants to use a router or duplicator to do the easy part??? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Screw some inletting pins in that (smoked) action and start cutting! I think it will take longer to build a jig than to whack out some walnut. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I do know the stock... good recovery...
art

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />Now you have gone and made me feel inadequate as a wood butcher <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You have touched the class distinction in woodworkers,by eye with hand tools or by jig with machines.One takes sharp tools and skill,the other engineering and lay-out.

Hey,it's only six mortices and a box with six bolts and two pins.I'll make it rough,1/32" or so short.So long as I stick with mausers, stocks can get to be lots of fun. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

As a kid building my first stocks I had no idea that blanks came in any form other than solids... a little lampblack and a sharp chisel and in a little while you had a stock...

The jigs will only get you close and the clean-up is the only difficult part anyway...
art