Traditional Oil Stock Finishing

[bichettereds]

Great thread!

 

[DGP4]

Fantastic thread on slackum oil finish. I had read many years ago about the Purdey finish developed by their employee. I have used several variations of it over the years with good success. I don't think there is one perfect formula. One thing to note is that beeswax was probably most often used, rather than carnauba wax. This makes it much easier to apply.

 

[SGK]

Give us a "guess" at how many hours you think you have in this project, please. I am certain it is "many", as I have done stock work and finishing, myself.

Stripping prior finish: about an hour
Sanding and raising the grain, through to burnishing: about 4 hours (better to spend more time working in the wood than in the finish)
Red oil application: about 30 minutes total but over a couple of days

Applying the slacum finish: as long as it takes. More seriously, it takes about 10-15 minutes to apply and then you wait 1.5-2 hours and rub it off. Apply the rottenstone and rub that off. I'd say that takes, in total, 45-60 minutes of work if you are slow and meticulous. Probably less actually. Twice a day. The 'trick' is to try not to obsess over it when nothing is needed. (On a shotgun the fore-end is a bit more finicky to handle.) The better your foundations the faster the finish will be done. I had to do a good deal of cutting back as I moved too quickly through the foundational stuff and didn't deal with some grain that I didn't think was a big deal. If you use a (sanded) grain filler it would be much faster.

 

[SGK]

Fantastic thread on slackum oil finish. I had read many years ago about the Purdey finish developed by their employee. I have used several variations of it over the years with good success. I don't think there is one perfect formula. One thing to note is that beeswax was probably most often used, rather than carnauba wax. This makes it much easier to apply.

Thanks!

The carnauba wax is fully dissolved in the slacum and doesn't affect application. A variant of the formula I posted is 50:50 carnauba: beeswax. The latter is much softer and will produce a different sheen although I haven't tried it. Yup, lots of different formulations around and some of the older ones have some peculiar ingredients one wouldn't touch today. At their heart, though, they are all a drying oil base (flax seed), a varnish (copal resin, larch tree gum resin etc dissolved in turpentine) - these two are a 'medium' in the artist's world - and fillers/waxes. Some have colorants added (eg red oil).

PS: don't ever wax a proper oil finish else you'll have to strip the wax to repair it.

 

[Kiwishooter]

I refinished a Rem 700 stock many years ago, I used Tung oil and finer and finer grades of wet & dry, sanding the stock and using the sanding dust and tung oil to fill the pores.
It's been very waterproof and durable, oil finishes are so much better than plastic.

 

[ronemus]

I also finished a stock wit many coats of Tung Oil. It is a birch laminate which has large pores that I didn't entirely fill. It still looked great, high clarity with an appearance of depth. Unfortunately, the finish gets sticky in high humidity; fingerprints and handling marks are very obvious. For now I'll strip the finish and settle with the classic satin sheen of most oil finishes.

I used Hope's 100% pure Tung Oil. Is the sticky/soft finish in high humidity unique to this brand, or are all Tung Oil finishes susceptible to this?

 

[SGK]

@Kiwishooter That's one way of doing it, but I can't recommend it and it can be very slow to fill the grain with sanding dust alone. It's better, in my view, to do all the papering dry and get the wood to the best possible condition before beginning to apply the oil/slacum. Think of grain 'filling' as a two stage process: the first is to raise the grain as much as possible through successive wetting, rapid drying and then sanding. You can get all this done in a relatively short period of time (one morning or afternoon). It also gives you time to figure out the challenging areas that might be assisted by a sanded filler or dents that need raising etc etc. Then what follows is filling in what's left. The slacum provides a very sticky deposit on which to layer filler (rottenstone or whatever) which will then 'dry' (rigidify) and create a sort of cement before the next layer. It can be surprising just how much of a filler like rottenstone can disappear into the grain.

(Unfortunately, Tung Oil these days is rarely its original: oil from pressed Tung tree nuts. I've not used real tung oil or any of the synthetics that have adopted the old name. Note that true Tung Oil has a lower iodine value than flax/linseed oil, a key property regarding 'drying'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_value )

Anyway there's lots of ways to skin a cat. What I've outlined here is the traditional way of doing an oil finish.

 

[TaperPin]

. . . or are all Tung Oil finishes susceptible to this.

The ironic thing about most tung oil finishes, is they rarely have much tung oil in them. Modern consumers seem to want everything to build a hard film and that point is $$$ to manufacturers. There is one supplier of many different finishes and many of them are very hard to tell apart if you didn’t see the bottle it came out of.

 

[Kiwishooter]

I also finished a stock wit many coats of Tung Oil. I is a birch laminate which has large pores that I didn't entirely fill. It still looked great, high clarity with an appearance of depth. Unfortunately, the finish gets sticky in high humidity; fingerprints and handling marks are very obvious. For now I'll strip the finish and settle with the classic satin sheen of most oil finishes.

I used Hope's 100% pure Tung Oil. Is the sticky/soft finish in high humidity unique to this brand, or are all Tung Oil finishes susceptible to this.

All I know is the Tung oil I used doesn't get tacky in high humidity, also there is no oil on top of the wood the tung oil is in the wood.
That Rem 700 was purchased new in the 90's and was refinished about a year after buying it, the photo was taken approx 20 years after refinishing it.
The time taken to refinish it didn't matter, no one was paying me and all I wanted was the best finish I could do at the time.

 

[Kiwishooter]

@Kiwishooter That's one way of doing it, but I can't recommend it and it can be very slow to fill the grain with sanding dust alone. It's better, in my view, to do all the papering dry and get the wood to the best possible condition before beginning to apply the oil/slacum. Think of grain 'filling' as a two stage process: the first is to raise the grain as much as possible through successive wetting, rapid drying and then sanding. You can get all this done in a relatively short period of time (one morning or afternoon). It also gives you time to figure out the challenging areas that might be assisted by a sanded filler or dents that need raising etc etc. Then what follows is filling in what's left. The slacum provides a very sticky deposit on which to layer filler (rottenstone or whatever) which will then 'dry' (rigidify) and create a sort of cement before the next layer. It can be surprising just how much of a filler like rottenstone can disappear into the grain.

(Unfortunately, Tung Oil these days is rarely its original: oil from pressed Tung tree nuts. I've not used real tung oil or any of the synthetics that have adopted the old name. Note that true Tung Oil has a lower iodine value than flax/linseed oil, a key property regarding 'drying'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_value )

Anyway there's lots of ways to skin a cat. What I've outlined here is the traditional way of doing an oil finish.

Yes there are a number of ways to skin the cat and what works for some may not work for another.
Also here in New Zealand sourcing some stuff that is easy to get in the USA or the UK isn't easy.

I've enjoyed reading your write up and may even try it on a stock in the future, if I can source all the required materials.

 

[SGK]

Let me know if I can help you get stuff. Happy to help another kiwi. The good news with regard to slacum ingredients is that they are all used by artists so ought to be available.

 

[SGK]

I had intended to post some pics of the checkering border recutting. However, I didn't do a good job at all and so I don't think anyone has much to learn from me on that subject. I used an Ullman 3/16", 75 degrees, right angle, pull, single line cutter. I wish I could have found 60 degree cutters. (I also purchased a 3/8" 75 degrees, push, single line cutter, but didn't use this in the end.) I have some cleanup to do in the finish. Ugh. If I were to offer some tips to an absolute checkering newbie I'd suggest:

• if at all possible, practice on an old stock you don't care much for
• go slowly, really slowly
• don't cut too deep
• do a practice run well before finishing the stock finish (it will be easy to take out the little finish that might end up in the border from the later coats)
• have good lighting and wear over-powered reading glasses at a minimum
• if you make a mistake - and very likely you will - try not to get frustrated (I ended up in a foul mood) and, if need be, walk away and return later

 

[whatwind?]

First coat of “red” oil ….alkanet and refined oil
going to give it a go with this style of finishing
i stopped at 800 grit

 

[SGK]

Good stuff! Don't stop at 800 grit. Do as much of the work in the wood before doing the finishing. Go up to 2000/2500 and then burnish with a chamois and some red oil. The couple of hours of sanding is very well worth it.

Where did you get your red oil?

 

[SGK]

Nice looking wood!

 

[whatwind?]

Good stuff! Don't stop at 800 grit. Do as much of the work in the wood before doing the finishing. Go up to 2000/2500 and then burnish with a chamois and some red oil. The couple of hours of sanding is very well worth it.

Where did you get your red oil?

i cooked the oil up using alkanet root and refined linseed oil, got all from amazon

basically following your recipes

 

[SGK]

How long did you leave it to steep? One would normally leave it for 6m to a couple of years...

 

[SGK]

If you are going to make the finishing oil, it's likely worth trying a slightly 'heavier' version also. The recipe I posted before is copied below (pre drier). I'd try a recipe that's the same but with just 200 mL of linseed oil. You'll probably have enough materials to try a batch of each. A heavier oil might make filling the grain that little bit faster.

Refined linseed oil 250 mL
Gum Spirits of Turpentine (best you can find) 2 tbsp (US) / 30 mL
Venetian Turpentine 2 tsp (US) / 10 mL
Carnauba wax 110 grains / 7 g

 

[whatwind?]

How long did you leave it to steep? One would normally leave it for 6m to a couple of years...

2 months so far

 

[whatwind?]

If you are going to make the finishing oil, it's likely worth trying a slightly 'heavier' version also. The recipe I posted before is copied below (pre drier). I'd try a recipe that's the same but with just 200 mL of linseed oil. You'll probably have enough materials to try a batch of each. A heavier oil might make filling the grain that little bit faster.

Refined linseed oil 250 mL
Gum Spirits of Turpentine (best you can find) 2 tbsp (US) / 30 mL
Venetian Turpentine 2 tsp (US) / 10 mL
Carnauba wax 110 grains / 7 g

thats the components i used, i will see how it goes to start