linseed oil for stocks?

[Cosmoline]

BLO does get dark with age and develop a patina. It also picks up skin oils and dirt over time. This is how you can tell whether old military stocks have been refinished. If you don't want the finish to get dirty, you simply clean it off and do a fresh coat after the end of the season. No great mystery.

 

[DrDeFab]

+1 Tung oil

Excerpting from http://www.sydneywoodturners.com.au/site/articles/finishing/oils.html:

The high proportion of linolenic acid in nonconjugated oils (like Linseed oil), affects its drying characteristics. High concentrations of linolenic acid can result in rapid drying, yellowing and brittleness.

Conjugated oils like Tung oil, are considerably more reactive than nonconjugated oils (like Linseed oil). Conjugated double bonds favour polymerization and oxidation and dry more rapidly than nonconjugated oils. The resultant film offers a high resistance to yellowing and increased resistance to water and alkalies.

YMMV of course, and there may be specific reasons (e.g. authenticity) for using BLO. In general, though, Tung oil provides a more durable finish and requires fewer coats.

 

[308win]

Ahh, maybe because it is an oil finish and never dries? OTOH, you can apply the coats too closely together and get a nice gummy mess, ask me how I know? It will wear off over time and needs to be renewed. At least any piece of household funiture I ever refinished - oak, walnut, mahogany whatever that was ever used more than occasionally needed a coat every so often depending on the amount of use.

Edited to add: And Japan Drier even though boiled Linseed Oil is used will speed the 'drying' time.

 

[308win]

Article on how to get a high sheen on oil finishes if that is your goal, short and sweet.

 

[RugerOldArmy]

Boiled linseed oil was around far longer than the last 100 years. It was pretty much a mainstay in traditional american longrifles. (Remember, in this era, flintlocks were pretty much the military state of the art for nearly 300 years.) Building old/replica flintlocks was pretty much my intro into guns, and you can still find some magnificent specimens of originals, with some of the best wood from the original old growth forests.

Back then, labor was cheap, and materials were the significant cost. The equation is reversed today.

The real beauty is the ease of repair. The greatest difficulty, at least for me, is keeping a dust free environment.

Tung oil dries faster, but doesn't seem to fill pores as well, and needs to be lightly buffed with degreased steel wool to take the shine down.

Great stuff, with great results, for the patient.

 

[Gewehr98]

That's exactly what I noticed when I tried it...

Tung oil dries faster, but doesn't seem to fill pores as well, and needs to be lightly buffed with degreased steel wool to take the shine down.

I did about two rifles with tung oil, including one M1 Garand. (Supposedly the USGI finish for the rifle, although I've read they also got dipped in linseed oil)

Never could get the grain to fill as nicely as BLO.

Maybe I'm exceptionally patient, but all the rifles I've done over the last 15 years or so haven't shown signs of picking up crud and dirt on their BLO finishes. I do, however, work them to a hard finish when dry, and they usually get a rubdown with Birchwood Casey Stock Wax once cured, to protect and add a touch of lustre without excessive gloss.

 

[HankB]

I personally like tung oil . . . but note, most of what's out there is tung oil finish. So while it contains some tung oil, it may also contain varnish and who-knows-what. These will likely give the super-glossy finishes.

Also, as I look at my latest CMP M1 closely, I see the pores in the wood are not completely filled. No surprise - you think government arsenals went through a sanding, whiskering, and rubdown process when they were mass-producing gazillions of rifles for the army?

 

[Gewehr98]

HankB, you're right.

My technical manuals for 5th echelon depot rebuild of M1 Garand rifles says the stocks got a dip in a tank of tung or linseed oil, then air-dried, no sanding, rubbing, or dewhiskering between multiple coats. My U.S. Navy Trophy Garand has a brand-new (1966) stock, and it's very evident that it got simply dipped and dried. I'll leave it that way for posterity, but my other Garands have nice satin finishes.