Does anyone know of references to exactly how military flint muskets were finished? From obvervation, and discussions with other collectors, however they did it, they did not first raise the grain. When you see a musket with a "prickly" walnut stock, you may assume that no one has refinished this stock. Rather, the grain has raised from moisture slowly permeating that oil finish over the last century or two.
We all "know" they were finished with linseed oil. But just what kind of linseed oil? Today gun nuts are into "boiling" their own, which involves heating the presumably "raw" oil and adding some lead compound as a drier. So they'll not have to wait so long for the finish to dry, I suppose. In the art world, professional oil painters use paint made of pigments ground into cold-pressed linseed oil, no driers added, no heat processing. One may choose to add a "medium" to this paint after it comes from the tube, this medium best being some linseed oil, commonly "stand oil", and real honest-to-gosh distilled turpentine. Stand oil has been heat processed about 525 - 575F (~275 - 300C), which makes it about the consistency of thin honey, no dryers being added..
One might speculate, I would like to know if there are any published references to how the 19th century armories finished walnut stocks.
