There certainly are collectors more knowledgeable than myself. However, after over 20 years of collecting and restoring classic American guns it is my opinion that true varnish was rarely if ever used by American gun manufactures as stock finish. I think the confusion come from the fact that the word varnish has been used as a generic term for any finish that could be "built-up". This includes shellac, lacquer, and true varnish. Prior to WWII shellac was the finsh of choice. At the time shellac was often referred to as varnish (although it is not true varnish as we think of varnish today). Shellac is alcohol based and dries very quickly. It was the choice of finish for American gun manufactures because a stock could be finished with it in a relatively short period of time (because it dired so quickly). Varnish takes hours to dry completely. After its developement, lacquer quickly became the finish of choice. Like shellack it dries quickly. When lacquer is sprayed many stocks can be finished in less time that a single stock with shellac. To confuse things more, lacquer was has also been generically referred to as varnish. Most American gun manufactures offered an "oil finish" which would have been several coats of boiled linseed oil. The so called "pre-64" finishes sold today have little to do with what Winchester actually used to finish gunstocks. It is just a clever marketing ploy to sell an over priced product. If you want it to look correct you need to use what was originally used. For a pre-64 Model 70 that would have been sprayed lacquer unless a customer special ordered an oil finish. In the post WWII era special order oil finishes were rarely done. Many Model 70's that survive in original condition today can appear to have an oil finish. This is due to the nature of the lacquer used by Winchester and other manufactuers of the time. The lacquer was reatively soft because of the wax that was used in manufacturing it. This causes the original stock sheen to be lost over time and can appear to be an oil finish.
