Milt,
I rarely use the fingertip technique. Take a tiny drop on your finger and the first thing you do is put a puddle on the wood, right? Then you try to spread it as thinly and evenly as possible; invariably, I end up with a streak here, a drip there, or I keep going until it gets too tacky and I leave a fingerprint. I prefer to use a 3" square of non-absorbent, lint free cloth (T-shirt works) stretched tightly around my index finger. I dip it in the oil and wipe it on as thinly and quickly as possible. I've also used brown paper towel like you find in a public restroom, not the super absorbant kitchen type. My grandaughter gave me a package of gun cleaning squares as a stocking stuffer this Christmas; they work well,too.
This brings up a characteristic of finishes I refer to as "tack time." How thinly and how long can you spread it around before it starts to get tacky? In this regard, boiled linseed oil rates A+, right up there with motor oil....cures about as fast, too. Tru-oil has pretty good tack-time. Unfortunately, Waterlox comes up a bit short in this department. But I can get around it by using a cloth dampened with the finish as an applicator and working as fast as posssible. I'd say, working on just the butt stock, it takes me about 90 seconds to apply one coat. Fortunately, even though it tacks quickly and I can see tiny streaks when I'm done, it does tend to level itself substantially in the next 20 minutes or so. The next night, I apply another. Maybe a third microscopically thin coat and I'll be able to feel some slight imperfections in the finish, maybe a dust particle or two.
About every fourth coat, I use 4-0 steel wool dampened with the oil for a LIGHT rub down, wipe it off with a dry cloth and immediately apply the first coat of another 3-coat series. Somewhere around 30 coats and I'll be done. I'll give it a final 4-0 rub out, possibly also with rottenstone, and do a last, final wipe with 50/50 oil/mineral spirits.
With Tru-oil and other linseed-based products, I've moved too quickly and built up coats over others that weren't fully cured. I've had finished stocks sit for 2 months before checkering them, only to smell linseed oil when I make the first cut. I've never experienced cut-through when rubbing out Waterlox or found sub-surface, uncured finish when checkering.
regards, Mike
