My latest rifle is a .50 muzzleloader by Thompson Center. Very nice rifle!
I didnt like the finish on it. Nice wood grain, great fit but the finish looked more like shellac and could easily be scraped or chipped. I stripped it and used linseed oil on it like I have done with other stocks. I did the minimum amount of stripping so as not to remove any stain and then steel wooled it, degreased it and applied the oil.
Linseed oil is suppose to dry in 24 hours. 8 days later it was still wet and tacky. I gave up on the oil, steel wooled it all off and applied Maguires car wax. It flat looks awesome! Just the finish I was trying to get. It is a satin finish and looks like I spent many hours on it. I did..sorta
I'm still puzzled why the linseed oil never dried? Any ideas? Still happy with the results though
It was boiled linseed and it was a few years old. I did think maybe it was old and no good. I did thin it very slightly with paint thinner to let it soak into the pores of the wood. That was my first thought. It went bad.
Ox, I'm sure the old finish was completely gone. I also use some stuff called liquid sandpaper followed by steel wool. I didnt want to remove any wood with sandpaper.
Only a few things I can think of that went wrong. I put it on too thick but it still should have dried, the pores of the wood didnt allow it to soak in, or there was some kind of oil left behind. I doubt that one though. I used acetone to degrease it.
I'm not exactly sure but I think maybe I just put too much on for one coat. Still should have dried...oh well, turned out nice and I learned a lesson.
Snake, I like a mixture of Tung oil-mineral spirits.
The first five or six coats I use a 50-50 mix and after that I do a couple of finish coats with an 80-20 or 90-10 mixture.
I refinished my dad's .270 stock a few months back and it turned out fantastic and each coat dries in hours instead of days and it makes for a quick application.
If you get a chance give it a try. I think you'd like it.
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it may be because the stock was still saturated with oil. to get that out, you need to take it to a furniture finishing place and have them treat it (basically by boiling it and getting out all the oil). then treat it with the linseed (boiled linseed oil, not just plain ol' oil), an you should be fine.
I like the wax idea, tho. I did something moderatedly similar to this by mixing linseed oil and beeswax and rubbing it into the stock on my mini 14 (the factory stock, which I modified). it looks great, I used a blow dryer to get it to melt into the stock and then steel-wooled off the excess. and with the adjustable cheekpiece I put on, it looks just great.
You have to use very very thin coats and let dry for a day in between. If you use to thick of coats it just wont dry and you'll have to do what you did.
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I was taught that with BLO (boiled linseed oil) that you rub it for at least 15 min by hand, then wipe it all off and let it sit until dry. My first coat dried in about 45 min, following coats I let sit for a day. I didn't see any advantage to applying more than 3 coats, even though I did about 6. I gently steelwooled between coats. My father has an old model 94 that he finished with BLO 30 years ago. He hunted with it a lot in all kinds of weather and the finish has lasted.
Anyway, I wonder what the Casey Birchwood stuff is composed of. It has always worked great for me. I agree, thin coats 4~6 0000 steel wool inbetween, good to go rock & roll :right:
