A bit about finishes from another board a few years ago...

by John Meeker @, West End of Lake Erie, Monday, January 23, 2012, 22:02 (4684 days ago)

Might be of use to someone here...

Was asked to evaluate a finish kit a fellow intended to market:
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Here's my ree-Port upon your Olde English iteration of a classic high-dollar double-gun rubbed-oil gunstock finish..

Since receiving your nicely labeled bottles, I started with your samples. It was a refinish job, so in many ways, it's not starting from the virgin wood newly shaped gun stock wood and proceeding with your exact directions..

I note that on new wood, your directions start with raw linseed oil. Many Brit recipes for French polishing with shellac or other finishes also start with raw LO. However, it is very slow to polymerize, and actually doesn't crosslink very well at all. Timed and controlled warm water poultices will quickly blow it apart, on objects that have been over-sloshed with the infamous Museum Reviver glop of yore -- RLO, beeswax, & turps.

However, what RLO does very well is turn brown due to chromophoric activity, in response to sunlight. I suspect that puts a 'depth' into the wood over time, but I think it was used so liberally originally because it was plentiful, cheap, and gave wood a quickie saturation that popped out the figure, a minimal amount of protection, and was a base for further elaborations or maintenance coatings -- wax, oils, etc.

At any rate, I also skipped the Van Dyke brown filler, as the pores of this stock had tint already, and tests showed that the pigments would darken this particular piece too much.

So, forward with the red dye, sanded in with rubber eraser blocks and whatever grit seemed to provide gain for the effort, but didn't over do it. Nice color and further slurry fill. Remember that we have a relatively high RH in the Upper Midwest, so I gave it about a week to cure, then started with the oil. Also lightly sanded that in with 500 or so, which didn't hurt the red much.

Now, some fifteen or so rubbed coats later, the depth is developing and the figure is starting to pop out with its inherent chatoyance -- i.e., figure changes in response to shifting light. Some observations are, that at first I went really purist, just minimal dabs necessary for coverage dab and rubbed palm dry. It seemed to be very malleable to use, but pretty thin finish deposition in the pores.

After a few coats, I rubbed oil on more generously, but just didn't have the obsessive quality I needed for rubbing the oil bone dry for each coat. I took to leaving a bit of an oily feel, tho not a 'coat' per se, and hung it in the shade to cure each day. When I took it down I noted that the oily feel had thickened up, and with that traction I would hand rub the film down hard with no additional oil and let it sit another day.

It started to build in the pores at better pace and now I'm within three or four coats of a classic looking finish. I'll probably try the whole 'factory' procedure on the next stock that needs it, and give you my impressions on that, too. As it stands now, it's pretty much a foolproof way for the home finisher to get a nice looking 'pro' finish, with what amounts to relatively little working time, tho a bit of waiting time.

Tricks like UV lamps, or drying cabinets might boot it along, but for home use, keep it simple. Same goes for adding a drop of Japan dryer to each treatment session. The oil might get a bit stiffer on the surface more quickly, but is that a good thing for the home user? Prolly not. Streak free and rub till dry is just fine there.

I appreciate the opportunity to sample your finish and would always be happy to play around with any further developments. The "pairfeckt" wood finish is not yet made, so it's a warranted life time quest! Never boring. ;~`)

Hope that you find this useful, and certainly do think that you can retail this to the home gunstock finisher. I'd be interested to see how the final oil finish worked with a tad more varnish in the oil mix, but it might become too intractable for amateur use.

part two.

by John Meeker @, West End of Lake Erie, Monday, January 23, 2012, 22:05 (4684 days ago) @ John Meeker

With my own 'for the money' refinishes, the schedule of coats generally goes something like this:

1. NGR stain to taste. sand as needed and recoat, till figure is clear.

2. Shellac wash coat to fix it. Mebbe brushed or sometimes French polished on.

3. Some sort of thin homemade rubbing varnish to seal the preceding steps, but not always.

4. Exactly what is used is depending on required field performance

a. I could finish off with a shellac French polish using the color of shellac to suit the figure for a 'fair weather gun'

b. sometimes a Deft rattle-can laquer spray will do for the job, if cost is a concern. Easily renewed and more water resistant than folks will believe. Quick.

c. Varieties of thinned marine varnish, sprayed or carefully brushed. You don't want to sand thru the coats, tho. It'll leaver 'windows' when recoated. Very good for tough usage, inside the stock and out.

d. I don't do 'factory style' catalyzed finishes. They are tough indeed, today and don't know how I could possibly improve upon their performance. One of the most hideous failures of my career involved a modern Browning rifle stock, with factory coats of 'wood' coloring over a thick plastic filler.

e. Mostly, expensive SxS double work is in shellac, building it up in the pores over a soaking, thinned spar varnish base, sometimes not. A few final passes with what are called toppings, which are the very purest top layer of a settled jar of shellac, and it is a HARD finish. It's the classic "French polish". It's finish coated it with tough waxes, like Renaissance Wax. It does well for me, short of duck blinds, boats, and soaking immersions. [I finally switched to a Mossycamo 835 for such use: rocks, grit, dog paws, muddy hands, etc don't bother it a bit]

f. Recently, the advantages of natural resin marine varnishes in new hi-tech mixes have been seized upon the more sophisticated Custom Guild craftsmen and artists. I don't have the names to hand, but for someone who has the experience and knows what mistakes may be made AND how to fix them, such marine varnish is about as good as fossilizing the wood. The off-the-shelf wiping varnishes at "Big Box" home-improvement stores are pretty close to these, for the money.

Someday, I expect that vacuum impregnation of the actual wood cellular structure will become more widely applied to such projects, and the 'art and craft' of laborious hand applied finishes will see a slow fade, except for the dedicated home enthusiast, loyal to his beloved oils to the last.

As to being a finish 'guru', I'm not all that hot compared to the top flite national level folks. At least I can speak their language, tho. I've been fortunate to study under the real thing, and to work with people who have superior knowledge and skills to mine. Mostly what I know and can do is a reflection of those associations. Let me know when y'r next generation batch is ready, and I'll field test it for you on another stock.

Best, John

AFTERWORD: Since that time, I've pretty much settled on a 'working stock' finish that uses some marine varnish -- spar varnish, a small amount of BLO for better 'rub' application qualities, and mineral spirits. For that matter Lin-speed and the other rub-on commercial gels work well. Min-wax's spar varnish -- spray or padded on has a nice amber cast to it, f'r instance. Mostly, it's just patience and the willingness to keep trying until you get the results you need. A great finisher named George Frank {Adventures in Wood Finishing] stated that "you will never be a good finisher until you have the courage to wash off a failed finish and try again until you get it right."

So have courage -- with all the good pre-packaged commercial gunstock finishes out there it's hard to really do a bad job.

Thx, John, good info. Another little known bonus

by brionic @, Monday, January 23, 2012, 22:43 (4684 days ago) @ John Meeker

of BLO is that it attracts mice like a magnet - a small amount on a rag, left in a non-combustible area, surrounded by the traps of your choosing, will produce crazy results.

Not as elegant as your use, but refinishing an axe helve last week, I stumbled onto this.

link to spar varnish article and index of other useful info

by John Meeker @, West End of Lake Erie, Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 08:21 (4683 days ago) @ John Meeker

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