Need advice on how to finish these wood grips.

**dteed4094** · July 22nd, 2014, 07:32 AM

I've always been told; never use any finish over oil but oil.

**bigandy1966** · July 22nd, 2014, 08:32 AM

Tung oil.

**alpacaheat** · July 22nd, 2014, 12:53 PM

I recently stripped and re-finished some stairs in my house. I did not want a shiny, new look, I wanted it to blend in with the floor that's not glossy.

I stained and then instead of poly, I used some old-fashioned shellac and I love the look. If you skip the stain and just try the shallac over bare wood, the grain would look great.

Bought the Bulls Eye Shellac from Lowe's:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_208943-90-30...lac&facetInfo=

**39flathead** · July 25th, 2014, 07:42 AM

I exclusively use either boiled linseed oil (BLO) or Toms Natural Mix.
http://www.thegunstockdoctor.com/Products.html

Here is a Birch stock I just did using one application of BLO, allow 24 hours to dry, then two coats of Toms Natural as per directions on label:

This is the same moldy gun in the next pic.
(I didn't think to take before pics, the wood was almost turning gray from the mold)

Be aware guys, linseed oil can mold if not waxed afterward.
Store a gun that has been finished in linseed oil in your safe and depending on conditions, you could have a problem later.

Yellow mold from linseed oil and a damp/humid environment:

I only took this pic to keep track of the shims, not to show the mold, the outside of the stock was all fuzzy.

This mold will decay your stock if left to grow.
It will take years, but some guys have rifles tucked away for that long.

This is a bad pic, but this FR8 suffered from molding, after cleaning and a couple coats of BLO, you can see the blotches left by the mold:

Bripro, I'm assuming you are done with your priject by now, but if you do things like this often, try some of that mix.
The wax is soft enough to clean out of checkering, but it is still a bit time consuming.
It's a mix of BLO, turpentine and beeswax.

**bripro** · July 26th, 2014, 06:17 PM

I got some great advice which I'm going to use on an upcoming rifle stock project. Thanks for all of it. For the revolver grips I wound up just using the Birchwood Casey gun wax I had on hand. I imagine it is a "secret blend" of some of the things you all suggested anyway.