Tung Oil over BLO?

[Fatelvis]

Can I put Tung Oil over what appears to be a very light (almost non-existant) coat of BLO, on a new walnut Garand stock? Thanx-

 

[Badger Arms]

How can you tell the difference? The answer is yes, but I would clean the old oil off with some finish remover first.

 

[5ptdeerhunter]

I would just remove the BLO. I removed some with some hot water and a brillo pad. It removed all if not most of the BLO.

 

[Blackcloud6]

If you are trying to get the military look, the best thing to do it to take the rifle out of the stock, spray the stock with Easy Off Oven cleaner. let it sit for a bit them wipe away the easy odf with 0000 steel wool (be careful not to erase any markings). Then afte the stock dries for a day or so, steam up any dents then put on the Tung Oil.

What rifle is it? The US Army always used BLO until mid WWII then switched to Tung. There's a good article about this on Culver's Shhoting page at www.jouster.com.

 

[cratz2]

While I've never used Easy Off, it has been suggested by several serious MilSurpers.

All the guns I've refinished have been with Tung Oil. If the BLE finish is that thin, if you're not worried about uniform color, you should be able to just clean with some hot slightly soapy water and let dry then apply the Tung Oil. If the BLO is still on pretty good, it isn't going to soak up much Tung Oil.

I did apply some Tung Oil to my BLO-finished Enfield and the wood got a bit darker and the grain became a bit more 'featured', for lack of a better word. But it didn't soak up very much Tung.

Here's a before and after picture. BLO only in first pic. Notice the difference in the grain towards the top of the stock. And remember, the second picture is Tung on top of a very well applied BLO.

 

[Ledbetter]

on a new walnut Garand stock

you absolutely can, and make it glossy or satin.

 

[jacks308]

For removal of oil finishes grease and normal crud I've had great results with lacquer thinner . It will melt grease off right NOW , imerse the stock in a wallpaper paste tray and cover to prevent evaporation . Useing the tray I've completely stripped a stock , worst case in thirty minutes . It doesn't have lye in it as some compounds do which has degraded wood in the past . And It will dry out ready to work on in about six hours on a hot day due to it's evaporation rate being much faster than water .

I really prefer Tung oil over Boiled linseed oil , I've done both .

Jack

 

[Hand_Rifle_Guy]

Stock work.

Collated a few links to some excellent references all about Tung oil, linseed, etc.

http://riflestocks.tripod.com/bstock.html
http://hometown.aol.com/jackcrawf/
http://pub109.ezboard.com/bparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums
http://www.arizonaresponsesystems.com/notes/wood/pagewood.htm
http://www.jouster.com/Bulletin/TUNG.htm
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=138918
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129064
http://www.jouster.com/Bulletin/refinishing.htm

Have fun.

 

[Fatelvis]

Great sites Handrifleguy! I particularly liked the first one, very informative!! Thanks a million!

 

[444]

Something I have used to take the oil out of mil-surp stocks is a soap called Purple Power that I bought at an auto parts store. I am not sure, but I bet it is very similar to Simple Green. I put it in a pump spray bottle, disassembled the rifle and put the wood in the shower. I then sprayed it down with purple power and let it sit for about a half hour. Most of the time the stock was bare after 1/2 hour. A couple times I have had to do it twice. It didn't seem to stain the shower at all since it is soap. This stuff will take all the moisture/oil out of your skin. I have used oven cleaner, but it is more of a pain with the fumes and the skin irratation. It must be done outside etc. However the oven cleaner works great on plastic finishes like polyurethane.
I have used both tung oil and BLO. For the mil-surps I always use BLO since it leaves a nice matte finish. Just as an experiment, I took a Marlin Model 25 in .22 Mag and refinished it's stock with tung oil. The stock looked terrible out of the box. I spend a month or more building up two coats a day. It is gorgeous now although I probably did this three years ago and never put the rifle back together.

 

[Ledbetter]

Hey.

As I understand, the question regards a NEW walnut stock with a light coat of BLO on it. The last thing it needs is a bath in degreaser and hot water.

Just wet sand it with the tung oil finish or apply by wiping on after lightly sanding with fine (220/320) grit.

 

[Fatelvis]

Thanks Ledbetter, Ive been really digging into this, and wet sanding with wet/dry 320 grit paper and Tung Oil sounds like the way to go.

 

[JShirley]

My IAI M1 Carbine stock was pretty rough. I used some fine sandpaper on it, then finished with several coats of tung oil. It's perfect now.