[Eric]

My hunting rifle is a .338 sako with an oil finish stock. The stock finish is wearing off under the receiver and on the cheekpiecewhere it gets lots of wear and exposure to moisture when i carry it. I'm not real concerned with the looks but I am worried about moisture damage to the stock without the oil finish.

Can I just rub in some oil in these places to protect the wood? What type of oil should I use? I was going to try some boiled linseed oil but thought I'd ask first.

 

[Contender]

Eric, I've had very good luck with Tru-Oil from Birchwood Casey. Just dab some on the bare areas and rub it in with a finger and let it dry. I've successfully built up the finish to virtually match the existing finish. You can slightly steel wool the area between coats with 0000 steel wool. Then you can apply a good wax over the entire stock like their stock and sheen conditioner when you are done.

Regards, Ray

 

[Will]

Eric,
I have also used Tru-Oil with really good results.  I have finished 2 stocks with it, the one I did 6 hand rubbed coats and steel wooling in between.  It turned out looking better than some of these custom ones that I see at shows.
Good Luck
God Bless

 

[Leadslinger]

Linseed oil is one of the original oils used in gunstock finishing. Tung oil was the other.

Tru-Oil and Linspeed are two modifications of linseed oil. They both have linseed oil as a base but they add solids to make the product dry to a shiny finish in fewer coats than regular linseed oil. I've used all 3 and based on my experience I would say that Tru-Oil has the most solids, Linspeed has a little less and then linseed oil has none.

Bottom line, Tru-Oil will give you a hard shiny finish (which you can dull to your liking) the fastest. Linspeed takes a little longer but the extra coats you apply can be used to fix imperfections.

I now lay down several coats of real linseed oil for color and protection and then do 3 or 4 final coats with Linspeed. If you're carefull (and patient) you can get unbelievable results with any of these products.

take care

 

[cgdavid]

This is a stock finish that may not be the best for repair work but for a new finsh/refinish its one of the best I've ever used:
PREP WOOD
-Strip the wood bare
-Sand to final smoothness you desire (320-400grit) removing all scratches
-Stain if you want a darker finish.
APPLY FINISH
-Mix 1 part epoxy resin, one part epoxy hardener - the thirty minute type.  About 1 teaspoon each should suffice.
-To the mixed epoxy, add two parts acetone and mix well.
-Apply the epoxy/acetone mixture to the stock letting as much as possible soak into the wood.  when the epoxy starts to get sticky, wipe off the execess. Let dry overnight
-Next day steel wool smooth.  How much work here is determined by how well the previous coat came out.
-Repeat Apply Finish step as many times as you want.
0000 steel wool the final coat. wet sand with 800-1000 grit wet/dry paper. Apply a good wax.

Notes:  
Practice on a simular peice wood of before you dive into that prized rifle stock.  

This finish will darken the wood

This finish is as weather-proof as a synthetic

Even if you don't want to finish the outter surfaces with this, it works great for the inner surfaces.

This is very simular to the finishes that browning and Weatherby puts on their wood stocks

Hope you find this useful or at least interesting....