I remember a well known stock maker [Pissano??] wrote an article on hand rubbed oil finish for gun stocks.  I think it may have been in the Journal quite a few years ago.
If I am correctly remembering this, he used True Oil with Mineral Spirits to finish sand the stock.  Sort of a wet sanding approach.  25 years ago, my CPA turned out very well using his method.

Keep on hav'n fun!
MikeT

No "oil finish" will provide the same protection as a barrier finish will.

Proprietary oil finishes, TruOil, Formby's, etc., are nothing more than very thin viscosity wiping varnishes. Once the first coat dries, that's it- no more successive coats will penetrate beyond that. Thinning the stuff with solvents won't help matters either- the solvent will penetrate deeply, for sure, but it doesn't carry the solids with it. The "good stuff" in the finish will remain behind on the surface.

All in all, an "oil finish" is pretty, but lacks true protection against water fenestration. Ok for a safe queen that gets fondled occasionally but not good for a stock that will make lots of trips outdoors. At the very least, after oil finishing maintain a protocol of waxing with a good paste wax- therein lies at least a modicum of protection.

I normally just go straight to glossy spar varnish.*  8-10 coats, blocked out with 320x thoroughly between coats. Along about the 6th coat the pores in black walnut are finally filled level, then I go two to four more coats for good measure. Rub the final coat out with either rottenstone or oil-free 0000 steel wool to dull the glossy shine, then wax with a good paste wax to restore a soft glow/luster. Sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but top notch results don't come cheaply nor to the faint of heart in this man's world. Total mil thickness of the finish isn't huge, it won't look "piled on" because of the sanding between coats. I kid you not that a common response I get about my finishes is a claim that they are hand rubbed oil finishes- and I chuckle to myself, secure in the knowledge that I treated the wood to a far better finish than possible with oil.

When I do apply an oil finish I always start out with varnish to fill the pores, sanding back to the wood surface repeatedly until pores are filled, then proceeding with the oil. "Sanding in" an oil finish to fill pores is letting yourself open to shrinkage in the pores over time. But, I often figure that once I've gotten that far with the finish why am I not doing the Full Monty with varnish anyway?

* Glossy varnish provides much better UV protection than semi-gloss or matte. But any varnish has UV protection way better than oil which has little or none.

Agree Joe you pick out a real nice piece of wood and then you try to hide the depth and the true beauty of all of the nicely figured grain when done makes no sense to me at all.

After final sanding i rub in one good Coat of True oil and set aside for a week then i use linseed oil.
Once a day for a week 
Once a week for a month
Once a month for a year
Once a year for the rest of your life.

40 Rod

Chuckster wrote on Feb 28^th, 2021 at 10:51am:


WOP comes in two sheens, gloss or satin. I prefer the gloss as it's easier to knock it down if it's a bit shiny, vs. trying to raise the sheen if it's too flat.
I wet sand coats after I get about 8 coats on new wood. Applying later coats and using 340 grit wet or dry emery cloth to the finish wetted with WOP. Then wipe off the excess against the grain.
Once I'm done with about 12-16 coats I let it dry for 3-4 weeks. Then using rottenstone powder on a damp rag I rub the stocks all over to get the finest finish possible. After that I rub in Minn Wax paste and buff the finish with a soft cloth to a nice sheen. Looks like the hand rubbed finish done in the 1800's and early 1900's rifles.

I did these stocks with WOP maybe 2 decades ago? They have 14-16 coats, then rubbed with rottenstone. I wipe it down with OL West Snake oil as I do the whole gun after shooting.

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Always planned to have it checkered, but they feel so good I probably never will.

I have been using boiled linseed on a custom muzzle loader for the past several months.  It's just as slow as always reported. I unusually use Tung Oil, much faster. Bear in mind hardly any of the commercial linseed or tung products have much of the original formula in them anymore.  They have synthetics.   I'd like to know what Stevens, Ballard, Winchester used in 1900, because if you have a well kept one, they will still look fantastic after 120 years.  Certainly it was some type of varnish or shellac or lacquer.  I don't agree with those that say "that's all they had" or "it doesn't protect in weather", especially since I don't carry my single shots out all day in the rain anyway.