OK, folks, it looks like it is once again time for a post on modern and period wood finishes.
Besides the great info to the Muzzle Blasts column, here is a bit more on period finishes.
18th and 19th century BLO was not, I repeat NOT what you find in hardware stores today. They took Linseed Oil and warmed it and added japan dryers or other chemical dryers to it. That was period BLO. They also added varnish to different Oil Finish compounds as mentioned in that article, but that wasn’t period BLO.
Modern BLO has petroleum distillates in it that are not good for OIL finishes on gun stock wood, but OK for adding to paint, though not as good as period BLO was.
Since the 18th century way of making BLO was time consuming and expensive, in the 19th century they went to making “Kettle Boiled” and “Stand Oil” linseed oil to put in outdoor paint. In the 20th century, they began adding petroleum distillates to it.
You can build up many coats of modern BLO and by tests done by the U.S. Forestry Service, it will only barely slow down water getting into gun stocks outdoors in the rain. Their articles mention Raw/Plain Linseed Oil finish just waves as water and water vapor runs right through it. Matter of fact, the reason Springfield Armory (the REAL one) in Massachusetts used Raw Linseed oil up through 1903 stocks and even early M1 Garand stocks was so the wood would not DRY OUT too much and thus not "check" and "crack" as easily.
Actually, the closest thing to a period finish mentioned in the Muzzle Blasts article and is fairly easy to obtain ready-made is Modern Birchwood Casey’s Tru-Oil as it has varnish mixed in it. I can attest from having seen the effects on Okinawa, Hawaii, California and North Carolina; how good this stuff is at slowing down water vapor in wood gun stocks.
Now if you want to pretty much STOP water and water vapor from getting into the wood of your stock the longest amount of time for most finishes that would look good on ML guns, then you rub in Beeswax or other waxes over the Tru-Oil.
Dave Person and others have also mentioned another modern oil finish they like a little better than Tru-Oil and I hope Dave will chime in on that stuff. I haven’t used it, so I can’t comment on it.
Gus
