doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Lin-Speed

Kutter,

There is a simple trick to keep it from drying out in the bottle. You just poke a pin hole in the foil seal, then squeeze out a few drops into the cap. I'm unsure what you mean by never dried on the stock. Been using it for a long time, and never had that to happen. There may be superior finishes out there, and I keep considering trying something new, but TruOil always works so well for me that I just keep using it.

Puzzling.

SRH

They have foil over the bottle opening now?!.. That's a good thing and I can see where it'd help keep the stuff from drying up in the container.

The old trick was to put marbles in the bottle to boost the liquid level up to the top,,keeping the air out.
All that did was leave me with a petrified bottle of Tru-oil with some beautiful old cats-eye marbles suspended in it.
I think it's still around here somewhere buried on a shelf!

The stuff would tack up but never completely dry on the wood. Always remaining a bit soft and gummy, never a real honest to goodness hard finish.
I tried waiting days and even weeks to dry, micro thin coatings, drying boxes,,,,time to move on.

I've used a lot of different things for finishes over the years. I do a lot of restoration,so simple shellac, usually orange is used often.I mix my own from flakes.

For a varnish finish I prefer a tung-oil based varnish. A plain off the shelf product from a HomeDepot type store is all. They are usually well thinned and sold as wiping varnishes. That's OK too as they work very well to use as a sanding medium to fill the pores of the wood if needed. No extra thinning needed.

It actually does dry and rather quickly, usually 24hrs is enough. It dries hard and is never gummy or tacky like some linseed concoctions.
It can be colored or toned to match older finished easily and gives a great 'in the wood' finish look when you desire just that. Can be built up too.
As a top coat over the last sanding and rub out w/pumice or rottenstone I use a commercial artists Rapid Dry Oil Medium (Martin Weber is the mfg name on the small bottle).

A couple drops of it mixed w/a couple drops of linseed oil dotted around the stock and rubbed to a micro thin layer and left to dry. It will dry hard because of the 'medium' but not glossy. Just a nice glow to it. Water proof too and won't water spot unlike plain linseed.

I stain just about every piece of wood I work on. I usually use an alcohol stain the first coat. Then follow up with oil based stains over that. Sometimes several different shades. I reapply oil based stain lightly in between sanding the coats of finish too no matter what finish I may be using. Surprising how much you can enhance the color and tone by these inbetween the finish coats stainings. Make sure you let them dry completely before continuing the finishing process.

Well that's what I do,,doesn't make it the right way or only way by any stretch of course. It just works for me.
Results are what matter.
If T/Oil works for you, then no need to turn away from it.
I just wonder how people do it when I see some of the nice finishes done with the stuff.

My very first stock finishing job was done with Lin Speed, and it worked great. I had to buy a new jar for my second attempt because what was left in the first had jelled. That second batch I tried was extremely slow to harden. I just wonder if they have inconsistent amounts of dryer additives. I never had that problem with Tru-Oil, but I still found it very hard to save unused amounts, and I've moved on to other finishes that are much better and much more economical, being purchased usually by the quart. Still, it is not pleasant to open up a half quart of Permalyn, tung oil, or other fairly expensive finish and find that it is jelled or hardened. I read about a product called Bloxygen that is an inert gas that is sprayed into opened cans of paint, varnish, etc., and being heavier than air, it displaces the oxygen in the can that spoils it.

http://www.bloxygen.com/

Great idea, but Bloxygen is fairy expensive in itself. Then I remembered that I have a couple argon-CO2 cylinders for my MIG welders. I just lift the wire feed wheels and pull the trigger on the MIG gun to shoot some gas into my partial cans of expensive wood finishes and automotive paints, and it does a good job of preserving the leftovers. Bloxygen is pure argon and the Ultramix I normally use for the MIG welders is argon- CO2, but it seems to work well. It has even done a good job of purging air out of cans of one-part moisture cure urethanes. I see from the Bloxygen website that it can also preserve gunpowder, which is another use I hadn't considered.

The aerosol cans of "Blo-Duster" stuff, with the little red straw nozzle, that you use for cleaning keyboards, work well for purging the oxygen out of bottles, too. Just go eeeeeeasy with it or it will blow the contents out all over you. Don't ask how I know.

SRH

I doubt you can stop the drying problem completely. I have used Tru-Oil for years and keep the bottles stored upside down which seems to help quite a bit. I use the finish on gun stocks and also on guitar and ukulele projects. There is a good write-up on using Tru-Oil for guitar finishes on the lmii.com site.

The trick with most of these finishes is to put only a few drops on and rub it in.

Another good way to stop the finish was drying out at the top of the bottle is to store it cap down.

Most store bought Tung oils are a wiping varnish with no Tung oil in them. True Tung oil dries clear.

Also do not be mislead by finishes called Sanding Sealers, they are just thinned down finishes. Any finish is a sanding sealer and work better at full strength not thinned.
A gun stock is no different than a piece of quality furniture in giving it a finish. Just depends on how many coats you want to do.

No tung oil in tung oil varnish?,,that line was started by an article in a high brow wood working magazine some years back. The writer taking a shot at the Formby products and stating there was no tung oil in its tung oil finish. He offered no explanation but the statement has never faded.

That many are 'wiping varnishes' is true,,thinned out w/ mineral spirits and they say that on the container. That's no problem, even a good thing. Thin coats you want, thin coats you get.
It stays usable in the container after it's opened for over a year too. No argon, upsidedown bottle, marbles or tinfoil top w/pinhole.

a lot of experience and advice here. thanks, again. i rubbed the stock with the palm of my hand and the heat generated seemed to harden it off. it does show off the figure, but I am a typical downstate new yorker, no patience.

Go to brownells order chem-pak gun sav-r aerosol spray , drys fast fills fast ,can be rubbed down if you like ,light coats ,
forget all that work with other stuff

Sunlight cures a lot of finish problems. I have added Japanise Dryer to finishes to speed up the cure for the first several coats. It works because I sand back most of these coats to fill in the pores but it is a dryer often added to the finish when made. When finishes get old and slow to cure adding JD returns them to faster drying like when fresh.