This finish consists of a 50-50 mixture of any quality oil based high gloss marine spar varnish and turpentime or mineral spirits. This is the best, most authentic looking finish of them all. I have a rifle by John Bivins using this finish which he delivered to me in 1980. The finish still looks great after 17 years of regular use and the inevitable scratches all smooth out and disappear with a tiny drop of linseed rubbed in with the heel of my hand.
The reason for the 50% oil in the mix is that it gives a slightly softer final finish. This seems easier to repair.
As with all finishes the method of application, and the finishing steps between coats, is more important than the selection of the coating itself. I have seen some writers shudder and reference "the P word" when someone suggested a polyurethane varnish. What they should know is that the drying action of the polyurethanes and the natural linseed and tung oil products is essentially the same, with the formation of long chains of molecules (polymerization) in the wet film which remain as a hard surface as the solvents dissipate. Visually I find it impossible to tell the difference between a properly applied and finished polyurethane and the same finish in an "authentic" linseed oil.
Both finishes will be shiny and "plastic" looking if slopped on heavily and allowed to harden. That's just not the way to do it.
Proper stock finishing comes in three parts.
The wood surface has to be ready for the finish, whatever this is to be. This means the wood must be smooth, and the grain already raised. Smoothing is done with abrasive paper, worked by hand and backed by a semi rigid sanding block to prevent rounding of sharp edges. No power machinery should be used, EVER, in the smoothing process. The edges around the lock mortise, barrel channel, cheek piece and butt should remain knife sharp, not rounded since they give the stock its architectural beauty. To keep them sharp never use the abrasive paper without a backing. I use a piece of hard wood with the paper tightly wrapped around it. This keeps the abrasive paper flat to the wood surface. For concave areas art gum erasers make good backers and can be easily shaped to fit the surface.
Always, always sand with the grain of the wood. Never cross grain, never in circles, no matter how tempting this may be. Cross sanding puts scratches in the wood that seem never to come out. I like to use the wet/dry auto body papers and start with 180 grit, used wet. Be careful because it cuts very fast. If I have used any kind of coarse rasp during shaping I give the raw stock an initial grain raising. Wet the wood surface thoroughly and use a propane torch or hot plate to steam it dry. You will be amazed to see the rasp strokes and how they pop back out of a seemingly smooth surface. You want to eliminate these with your first sanding.
Use successively finer grades of paper, always backed with something hard, working through to 320 or 400 grit. Eliminate every scratch you can see with one grit before proceeding to the next finer. Be sure to use plenty of water as a lubricant and to carry off the sanded off wood fibers. Wipe the surface frequently to remove this as it gets pasty.
After the 400 grit the surface will look and feel wonderful. Complete the sanding process by carefully cleaning the wood of all residue and then letting it dry naturally.The next step is to raise the grain and get rid of the "whiskers". The wood pores in that beautiful smooth wood surface are filled with splinters. You can't see or feel them, but you will. Wet the surface of the wood with water and heat it rapidly again so that steam comes off the surface. Be careful, especially around the sharp edges, not to let the wood brown or burn. Steaming the surface causes the grain to raise and forces the splinters above the surface. You can feel them now, that smooth stock surface actually will feel fuzzy. Use 400 grit paper dry, and gently stroke the surface to cut these splinters off and smooth the grain. Wet the stock again and continue the grain raising process 1 or 2 more times until the final quick drying leaves a perfectly smooth surface. Some people recommend 0000 steel wool for this step on the theory that it snags the splinters and pulls them free. Maybeso, but I do know it will round edges and leave steel splinters in place of the wood ones. Don't use it. After the final sanding you have a base on which to build your finish that will remain stable no matter what the weather.
The wood surface will almost always look better with the application of a stain designed to give a bit of life to the natural color and bring out the figure in the wood. The use of stain cannot make one wood look like another. Cherry will not look like walnut no matter how much walnut stain you use. Stain should be used to make the natural wood color even more interesting and 'live' looking. Stain can also be used to simulate age by applying it more heavily in protected areas, such as under a cheek piece, and more lightly where wear, as from the hands, might have occurred. This requires knowledge and some artistic judgment but the results can be uncannily accurate.
Books have been written about stain formulas. Virtually every acid and every metallic salt has been tried at one time or another. Today it is really very simple to get an authentic looking color without much trouble. Reliable stains that do not fade are readily available. How you combine them to achieve an affect is entirely within your control and the result will depend on you experience with authentic pieces, personal taste, and artistic judgment.
Water and alcohol based stains are available that give a clear color that can be easily applied, and partially removed again if the color seems too dark. Oil base stains are harder to use and give muddier finishes in my experience. And they are virtually impossible to lighten much if your hand is a bit heavy during application. I like the alcohol based stains since they dry quickly and will not raise the grain, but the water mixes work equally well.
To my eye curly maple and English walnut look best with a brownish hue with just a touch of red. This seems both natural and authentic. Stains can be mixed to get exactly the color you are looking for. For a London gun stock I usually mix walnut and red mahogany stains in the proportion of 3 of walnut to 1 of red mahogany. For a Pennsylvania rifle stock of maple I would start with a ratio of 5 to 1 walnut to red mahogany stain and try a few test pieces before proceeding. Remember we are talking about RED mahogany stain. The brown mahogany stains are too dark and don't add anything to the walnut stain.
If you want to use a totally natural substance as a stain the best is alkanet root. This is hard to find but I have bought it in the past from a large pharmaceutical supply house. It comes a a shredded root, packaged dry. The color, a strong red with purple overtones, can be readily extracted with turpentine or mineral spirits. I prefer to add this directly to the wood as a true stain. Some users add it to the finish mixture but I have found this to give a muddy final finish.
Use one of the super absorbent kitchen paper towels to apply the stain. A cloth will leave lint behind, and from this point on you want to avoid any dust-like particles on the wood surface. Barely wet the paper with the stain and apply it with the grain in long smooth strokes. Remoisten the paper as needed, and replace it if it begins to fray. Build up the color slowly until it suits you. The color will be closest to the final finish while still wet, so judge your progress just after the application. When the color seems correct a pad dampened with the stain solvent, plain alcohol or water, should be used to blur and blend the lines where the application stokes have overlapped.
After staining the wood, pores should be sealed to prevent any bleed out of stain. I know it's common practice to refer to sealing when what is meant is a process to keep moisture from entering the wood. Technically, when you seal the wood, you are adding a barrier to keep the wood from losing color into the overlaying finish causing muddy streaks in the finish. Oil stains are especially prone to bleed out into oil or varnish finishes and should always be sealed.
The simplest coating to seal the wood pores is plain shellac. Be sure it is very fresh. Apply a single thin coat, brushing it on with a very clean lint free brush. Don't waste any time as you do this. Shellac is alcohol based and dries very quickly. Do not brush over an area where you have already applied the shellac, it will leave brush strokes in the already sticky surface that are very hard to remove later. Your goal in sealing is to get a thin coat of shellac down into the pores of the wood as a barrier. This is a natural substance, the product of the Indian Lac beetle, and was widely used in colonial days for this purpose.
At this point your stock will look like hell. All plastic shiny and probably rough looking. Don't despair, it's going to look worse before it gets better.
All wood has pores. Walnut and cherry are medium pored, and maple shows small pores. Until these are filled the final finish will appear rough no matter how well the sanding job was done.
There are fillers advertised that will quickly fill the wood pores. Unfortunately they also tend to leave a semi opaque material in the pores that blocks the natural beauty of the wood. These are the fillers that advertise that they can be applied and then wiped off leaving behind material that fills the pores. It is much better to fill the pores with the same material you use to coat the stock, whether this is varnish, oil or a mixture of the two. This process takes much, much longer but is infinitely better in final appearance and long term durability.
In my experience the best appearing, most authentic and easiest to apply finish is a mixture of 50-50 high-gloss spar varnish and boiled linseed oil, and the finish for the first coat should be thinned a bit with turpentine or mineral spirits. The first coat mixture should have the consistency nearly of water. This is the finish Fred, Charlie and others use, and it is the Bivins formula more or less. Be patient because the next steps are going to take a while and are the most important of all for a great final finish.
As an aside on varnishes, there are high gloss formulas and matte finish concoctions. Use the high gloss version always. Your treatment of it will get rid of the gloss shine. The low luster products actually have a substance in them to reduce the surface shine that actually takes away from the clarity of the finish.
You goal is twofold: first, to fill the pores with finish and second, to build up a thin surface coat to give the stock beauty. You are going to use the finish to accomplish both missions. It will take time but the process is pretty straightforward without much to go wrong. Your biggest hazard will be dust and lint in the surface and anything you can do to minimize these hazards to the surface finish will save you much work in the long run.
Use a brush to apply the mixture. A lot has been written about applying with the hand, stroking the finish into the wood, rubbing until the wood is hot and a whole lot of other folk ideas. It may feel good, maybe even erotic, but it's totally unnecessary at this stage. What you want to do is get finish into the pores the best way you can, so use a brush and forget the magic.
Apply the thinned first coat finish in long even strokes. Do not go back over an area where you have just applied a coat or you will get bubbles. Make it a thin coat as well to prevent runs. Use special care around the sharp edges of the stock since these may scrape extra finish off the brush and accumulate a thick coating. Put the wood away in a dust free area and let the finish harden for 24 hours. Now you have a shiny, plastic looking stock.
Using 400 grit wet or dry paper, moistened with water, sand the finish right down to the surface of the wood. Don't leave a single bit, but be very careful not to cut into the wood itself since this will destroy your nice even stain job. Clean and dry the surface and hold the wood up to the light. What you should see is a dull matte surface finish speckled by thousands of shiny points of light. These are the reflections from the finish still in the pores and untouched by your sanding. Now you will repeat the process of applying the finish and sanding it off maybe 10 to 15 more times until finally when you hold the wood to the light the surface is a uniform, level matte. No shiny specks, anywhere. Now the pores are filled level and this step is the single most important one in obtaining a great finish. It is, unfortunately also the step most often neglected.
Now the job is almost done. You need to build up 2-3 coats very thinly on the surface. Apply each with the brush and sand lightly with 400 or 600 grit paper after each 24 hour drying period. You do not want a thick coat, just enough to enhance the depth and color of the wood.
After the final coat is on let it dry without sanding. You have a very high gloss, shiny finish that is ugly as sin. But it's really just the ugly duckling, and you are about to turn it into the most beautiful of all finishes, a London Oil Finish.
Get some fine powdered pumice, a box of rotten stone and some hard felt pads at a good paint store. Sprinkle some pumice over your wood. I find a salt shaker makes it spread very evenly. Gently stroke the wood always in the direction of the grain with the hard felt pad. You will be cutting the shiny gloss away while removing any minor imperfections in the finished surface. Do not cut too deep, the pumice cuts fast and it's easy to go too far. When you are happy with the smoothness of the surface clean it carefully with mineral spirits or turpentine. Allow it to dry thoroughly and repolish with the rotten stone and a fresh felt pad. This really gives a finish that you feel you look deeply into the wood when you see it. There is great depth and beauty without a trace of a shiny plastic look.
This finish gives the most beautiful possible final look to the stock. It gets the maximum from the wood, is authentic in appearance and yet remains durable and easy to repair. Give the finish a coat of hard furniture wax from time to time for protection from minor scratches and abrasions. Buff it on thoroughly. If you do get a serious scratch that cuts the finish but not the surface of the wood the repair is almost miraculous. Just a drop of linseed, rubbed in, and the scratch is gone. To really repair a scratch that cuts into the wood a refinish is the only way to really cure the blemish. However a few scratches lend character to the wood so use the oil rub and forget them.
The whole finishing process takes 20 to 30 days, depending on the humidity in your area. And the results are worth every second of it. Don't rush, you are building a surface that will last and be admired for hundreds of years.
Good shooting.
©1997 Ward French