I have a ‘deluxe’ Cimarron 1873 Winchester, checkered forearm and a checkered pistol grip stock. It is an ex CAS gun and has some songs in it. I’m thinking of chemically stripping thenfijish, so I don’t mess up the checkering and steaming out the dents and refinishing it. If it were yours, what kind of finish would you do? This can be a long term, over winter typemof project so I’m not looking for a quickie finish. I like boiled linseed oil. I’m the making a hand rubbed satin finish would look better than the current glossy finish. There’s not a ton of figure tonthe stock, so nothing special there. I know old Winchester’s had a reddish tint to them but I’m not sure if the 73’s were in that era or not.

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Do several layers. LIKE 20. Buffed with burlap bag, as the finnish gets thinner the burlap gets softer. Sit in your chair at night watching TV and rub your stock. Tape off the checkering till your near finished then apply to checkering with tooth brush and your done.

I like Tru Oil.

Started out with Tru Oil 55 years ago, used linseed many times, both are good. Last stock and set of grips I used Teak oil and was very pleased with the results. Used same many, many hand rubbed coats as Linseed. Like most things the finished product is totally depemdent on the amount of effort put into preperation. Good Luck.