How to do the World's best oil finish

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Thanks for the replies, Minwax it was. Working on a stock off a franken Garand that I got suckered into (it was my first Garand, so of course I did all my research after I bought it). Took me a WEEK of sanding with 80 grit (yes 80, not 800)to get down to good wood (and that was after, stripper, steaming, etc.) Managed to keep the stock shape correctly, and the wood and metal still meet right. Was mainly asking on the filler as the woods pretty grainy (it'll pull you whiskers when shooting), and it hasn't cleaned up much with all the sanding.

-Jenrick

And yes I did eventually work down to a reasonable grit on the sandpaper
 
Here's a pic of the stock

This M1 had a lot of little dings and nicks that I didn't try(didn't really want) to remove, so I cleaned up actual roughness and splinters, etc, and sanded it a bit, so it's not a really smooth, perfect surface. Took about two weeks in current weather; warmer weather, it'd have taken a few days less, I think.

Not the best of pictures, but I can tell you that this finish is as smooth, the grain as filled, as you could wish for. Feels pretty hard, too.

Dfariswheel, is there a way to make it more of a matte finish instead of glossy? For some things that would be a better appearance, I think.
 
"is there a way to make it more of a matte finish"?

Yes, just don't apply a last "Color coat" and don't buff with the burlap.
After you get the last coat on, steel wool it off, clean everything up and don't buff.
The finish will be more matte.
 
Just to try, I took a piece of practice checkering I did on a piece of walnut and applied the Minwax with a soft toothbrush, let it sit a few minutes, then used a soft cloth wrapped around the brush to clean out the excess.

Looks pretty good, and did not to anything bad(filling, etc.) to the checkering. Going to give it a few more coats and see how it comes out.
 
I am interested in trying this on some beautiful Turkish walnut that I'm going to make into 1911 smooth stocks. I'm concerned about getting too much or uneven amounts in the counterbore where the grip screws recess. Would you:
a)plug the holes & just apply in the hole & counterbore when finished,
b)not drill holes & counterbores until finished then treat them seperately, or
c)drill & counterbore as usual (early in the operation) and just clean them out
as best as possible between coats.
 
Whatever works for you.
The best option is to drill the holes after the finish is done. but you can also clean them out every coat too.

Here's how the Marlin wood looks with the Minwax finish. It looks much better than the photos show:

MarlinStockRight.jpg

MarlinStockLeft3.jpg

MarlinStockLeft2.gif
 
If you want the absolute best finish, just use you hand and either Minwax or what I use is Waterlox.


Sand the wood to desired smoothness and cover the checkering with a good high tack masking tape.

Pour a little minwax or waterlox on the palm of your hand and start rubbing. repeat until the wood is filled. As the finish is pushed into the wood and it starts to get real stiff, add a little more to your hand. It will take time and will wear the finger prints off of your hands and fingertips. This takes a lot of work and pressure from your hands to push the finish into the wood grain of the stock. If you do not feel any heat building up as you do this you are not pushing hard enough or you are using too much finish on your hands. I have not done a stock in a long time but I use this method to finish or refinish furniture. It is the best way I know to fill and finish a piece of wood with an Oil based finish.
 
I was at Lowe's yesterday. They had it in stock. Minwax is a common brand so I'd assume most hardware stores would have it. I'm going to try it on the next stock I do. Great looking finish!
 
Sheesh, how have I missed this thread for so long?! I've seen many pics of dfariswheel's finishing abilities, and they are quite impressive. When someone says they don't particularly like the work, but does research and produces results like he does, you gotta admire that. I agree with the idea of making the original post a sticky. Like Brian, who has some good tips BTW, I use Waterlox for most projects. But I have used a lot of Minwax products over the years and highly recommend them.
 
dfariswheel:

I agree that your stock has that classic look.

Did you apply any stain to your stock or was there stain remaining when you removed the varnish?

I'd like to get the same color on my BRNO #1 walnut stock (mostly sapwood) that I have stripped and TSPed to remove old oil.

I'm wondering if I need to stain it or just apply the Antique Oil Finish?

Apprieciate all comments.

Thanks,

BigYoung
 
My Marlin is a 1950 model and the walnut was pretty much that color.
I used no stain.

Newer Marlin's used a lighter colored walnut, and recent rifles are approaching a blond color.
On newer rifles I recommend using a stain, since the Antique Oil Finish doesn't darken the wood much.

For a good match, buy one of the "red" stains used to duplicate the earlier American gun stock look.
These are often sold as "pre-1964 Red" stains.
These give the walnut a darker slightly reddish, brown color that's the color of older American guns.
Brownell's carry several:

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=9816&title=CLASSIC+SPIRIT+STAINS (The Pilkington Pre-64 is good, also buy the thinner so you can thin the stain to a lighter tint. This prevents getting the wood too dark).

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=6706&title=GUN+STOCK+STAIN (The Early American)

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=5536&title=MILITARY+STOCK+STAIN

The trick is to darken and color the wood a little, but to not get it TOO dark and obscure the grain.
 
Second both the Gale Early American and the CR. I have used the Gale recently on a very, very light Turkish stock set for an O/U with excellent results. The CR is an old favorite for light walnut and I've even used it on light cherry (furniture) to bring up some of the red color you expect to see.

Be advised that although you don't want to darken the wood too much, if you wipe the wood with a cloth (waste, please, because you'll never get it clean after this) dampened with alcohol, you can significantly lighten the stain effect.
 
Mr. Wheel and Mr. Newell:

Thanks for the links and your recommendations; I'm ordering stains from Brownells today. I want a little red in my stock.

Young
 
When working with stains, always take the wood outside for a true-color check after the stain has dried.

It doesn't have to be direct sunlight, even an overcast day will give you a look at the real color.
 
I've used Minwax Satin Poly vrnish on several rifles and like the results. I bought a can of the anitque finish but haven't tried it yet. Your stock looks really nice. Better than those I finished with the satin poly varnish which are pretty decent.
 
darfiswheel's recipe is certainly reasonable. Just a couple of comments I'd like to make about Tounge oil and Boiled Linseed Oil. BOL will never dry, completely. Thats just one of it's characteristics. Tounge oil, however, will dry to a completely hard watertight finish. I'm a part time wood turner, and I have some wooden soup bowls finished with tounge oil, seven or eight coats. We eat hot soup from them with no problems from soup penetrating the finish. You can get tounge oil in a pure form or with added dryers. I use the pure form for eating utensils, although any finish when completely dry should be food safe. But for decorative finishes tounge oil with added dryers goes a lot faster. It can take pure tounge oil a week or two, depending on humidity, to dry completely.
 
Jmtgsx

I recommend not drilling until you're done finishing. It's quite easy to funnel or otherwise mutilate the holes. The just apply a little finish to them; it won't be visible anyway.

You can also fill the pores by wet-sanding with the finish, producing a mix of finish and sawdust. Once the whole stock is wet-sanded, you wet it all over with finish and wait a bit, wiping it down gently before it gets too tacky. You may need to do it a few times before filling is complete, but it looks great and it won't dull your checkering tools.
 
I tried something: after the last steel wool cutting-down, I got just a bit of Minwax on my fingers and rubbed it into the surface, kept rubbing until it felt 'dry'. Kept doing this until the entire stock had been covered, then set it aside to dry. When dry, hit it with the burlap.

This gave a finish about halfway between the steel-wooled down surface and the gloss finish, looked very good on that piece.
 
What's the next best thing to use after the Minwax? NO ONE in town has it - not Lowes, not Ace, not the specialty paint stores. I'm trying to refinish a stock for my dad for xmas, and if I order it online I might not get it done in time :(
 
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