[thegoodfight]

Have you ever seen a gun with bare wood(no stain, gloss, nothing)? What would the downside of a bare wood gun be? Splinters? Dry rot etc etc. What would be the most simple looking finish to put over a wood stock and forend?

[Zoogster]

Swelling that over time would change the dimensions.

Unprotected wood swells and then contracts. Even if the wood is not damaged the shape can be distorted. A change in dimensions even by a fraction of an inch can severely change the handling and ergonomics of the firearm, sometimes permanently. Something to close tolerances can suddenly rub and push or pull in places it didn't when the wood was installed.

Wood is also organic and will degrade if not protected. That means fading, splintering, warping, and dirt, grime, fungus or bacteria can enter into the porous wood.
On protected wood the pores are filled and it is more of a solid object with a barrier both at the surface as well as deeper in the material.

[mnrivrat]

Bare wood is going to absorb something - moisture, dirt, oil , sweat, or whatever else.

Boiled Linseed oil is a common finish for military guns (or was I should say) . Just hand rub it in, let dry overnight and do it again for a few coats.

[mejeepnut]

The finish helps protect the wood,like the posts before me said.But not just against moisture.A good finish also protects against dings,dents and scratches to a point.Boiled linseed oil (B.L.O.)and turpintine are ok but you need to make it mostly turpinetine to start so it soaks deep into the wood and slowly over many coats(letting it dry for a day or 2 between coats) go to almost straight B.L.O. Adding something like toung oil and a little bees wax makes it a better,stronger and more moisture resistant finish.You also have to do every surface of the stock,what you see and what you don't see when its on the gun!That way if it does suck up any moisture it will do so evenly and it will also dry evenly,keeps it from warping and splitting.
The end result is up to how much time and effort you want to put into it.Once the stock is as smooth as you can get it you can wet it to raise fibers in the wood,you then carefully burn these off.You can lightly sand with wet/dry sand paper as you apply coats to fill the grain and buff off the sludge by hand before the next coat.After the final coat you can leave as is or lightly buff with the finest steel wool/steel wool substatute you can find and then wax the stock for nice matt finish.
or you could just paint it or use a finish designed for floors or what ever but don't leave it bare and do every surface!

[PotatoJudge]

On a shotgun you'd probably notice the grime on the wood first, then quickly after that you'll notice how rough the wood is when the moisture from your hands raises the grain. Sometime in the not too distant future you'd probably see distortion of the dimensions (twisting, cupping, bowing) followedby some checking and splitting of the wood. In a rifle, this would translate to poor accuracy.

I got to thinking about a finish that most closely resembles unfinished wood, but nothing great comes to mind. Maybe a satin water based poly, clear lacquer, or clear shellac, one or two thinned coats, with some light polishing afterwards to remove any texture the finish imparted.

[thegoodfight]

Thanks guys...I already removed the old finish on my Ithaca 37 wood, stripped it with airplane stripper. Nasty stuff. Anyways, I sanded it, then degreased and cleaned it. Went out and bought some tongue oil finish. I'll be sure to post pics of the final product:) So far it looks like it's gonna be a nice, darker satin finish. I bought the "low gloss" stuff.

PS...Are all the parts of an Ithaca 37 deerslayer steel? I'm looking to get the receiver and barrel parkerized, and I didn't know what else could be parkerized as well(trigger group, slide etc). I'm not gonna parkerize most of the internals(bolt, bolt carrier etc). I'm assuming the magazine cap and all the screws can be parked, correct? I just had an older wingmaster/police gun parkerized and it looks phenomenal.

[rcmodel]

You're the one with the Ithaca 37.
Get yourself a magnet and find out.

If a magnet sticks & it isn't chrome plated, you can probably Park it.

If it don't stick, not so much!

rcmodel

[Bud Tugly]

I'm sure guns must have at times been made with unfinished woodwork in the early days. The first time someone got caught in the rain would make them realize that some sort of protection against water would be necessary.

[Brian Dale]

About the simplest finish you can have on bare wood is wax. They've been finishing wooden tables and other furniture with beeswax since long before there were firearms. As folks have already posted, they finished the wood because they didn't want the furniture to break.

The wax resists water, it keeps dirt, blood and fat out of the grain (on a dinner table just as on a firearm) and the finish is easy to repair: rub more wax on it.

Johnson's paste wax by itself would give you that, but I don't recommend it. The finish wouldn't be durable enough if you did more than stand in the living room with the gun.

Boiled linseed oil yellows a bit with age. Tung oil can be a bit darker or not, but it's slightly tougher and more water-resistant than BLO, and it doesn't yellow.

The simplest looking finishes (from the wording of your original post) that I'm satisfied with are:
1) either pure tung oil thinned with mineral spirits in several coats - it's not wrong to substitute thinned BLO;
or a commercial, flat or satin (not high-gloss) "Tung Oil Finish"
(choose an oil & varnish blend such as Minwax brand, not a wiping varnish like Formby's);
then
2) put a coat of Johnson's paste wax over the top of it.

THR's Search function can give you more detailed descriptions of how to do this, for those folks who are new to the fun you can have with wood finishes.

[thegoodfight]

Here's the end result:)

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/alienzarecool/Picture075.jpg

Airplane stripper. Sanded. Formby's Tongue Oil. 3 Coats. Steel wool in between coats. Bees wax.

Came out pretty natural I think. Very similar finish to the wood handle on Helle knives. Has a better feel than a glossy finish as well, IMO. Very silky. The figuring in the wood is more vibrant than before as well. Got a chance to give the gun a nice cleaning while I had it apart.

[Brian Dale]

Excellent! I like it.