After viewing Joe Balicki's video on stock finishing a few years ago, I finished a couple of shotguns with Permalyn sealer. One was a field gun and one a target O/U. I got acceptably beautiful results, and the game gun, which got carried a lot under tough conditions and shot all too little, fared well. It gets refreshed after every season and looks as good as all my others.
The comp gun doesn't get as much exposure to the weather and none to briars, but it gets cheeked an average of 300 times a week year 'round. I quickly found that the oil in my skin passes through Permalyn like water through a sock. In short order there appeared a big dark oval on the comb of my honey-colored CA English stock. Eventually, I stripped it, extracted it with solvent and refinished it completely with Permalyn a second time. The problem recurred.
I refinished it with Waterlox and it's impervious to the oil. Couldn't resist my usual plug, since I've actually finsihed stocks with about every commercial finish available...TruOil, Permalyn, Formbys, ProCustom, Pilkingtons, Linspeed, Napiers...
They're all good products and any will do 98% of what I expect from a stock finish. It's the last 2% that separates the top 4 or 5 for me and Waterlox wins hands down.
