Care of stocks....

[Skychief]

What do you all recommend wiping stocks with for general mainenance?

Specifically stocks finished with linseed oil and those finished with tru-oil.

Many thanks, Skychief.

[greybeard]

according to "The Modern Gunsmith" by Mr. Dunlap published in 1929? or so,. on a linseed finished stock, after cleaning a small dab of cup grease rubbed over the entire gun before putting it away then wiped down with a soft cloth before your next shooting will maintain the finish in good form.
Probabley will not be of much of an advantage on a stock that has a polly finish but would be great on the metal finishes.Cheers   Bob

[Frank]

What is cup grease?

[roundball]

What do you all recommend wiping stocks with for general mainenance?

Specifically stocks finished with linseed oil and those finished with tru-oil.

Many thanks, Skychief.

Skychief, this is not a recommendation, its simply one example in case its of any worth...just an explanation of what I've done for a few decades, and for about the past 15 of those years it has included a few muzzleloaders with Tru-Oil finishes.

I always keep a section of towel in a big ziploc bag at the end of the workbench damp with GI medium weapons oil...a suspension mixture of lithium grease and medium weight gun oil...( sorry, it doesn't include any "eye of newt", etc   ) ...and the last thing I ever do when finished cleaning or working on a firearm, is to completely wipe down every square inch with that oil...guns are always in showroom ready condition including those with Tru-Oil finishes...

[wvmtnman]

I have been using Ballistol for years.  I put a few drops on a soft cloth, wipe the entire gun down.  Lastly, I wipe the oil off the wood with clean cloth.  I've been doing this for 15 years or so.  I've seen no negative effect. 
   If your rifles see a lot of hard use (rain, snow, ect.) you may want to give it a coat of oil finish every few years. 
   Some guys out there use a wood wax. 
                                                                                 Brian   
   

[Jerry V Lape]

Ballistol has been working for me as well on a varnish finish rifle. 

[billd]

I like a product called Final Finish. It's made by Ron Roade. (Probably spelled his name wrong, Roger will correct me).  Troy at Stonewall Creek carries it too. I over heard Ron telling someone at Dixon's this past year it's made from beeswax, lanolin and a third ingredient I didn't catch.  A little goes a long way and it's very reasonably priced.

Bill

[Dphariss]

What do you all recommend wiping stocks with for general mainenance?

Specifically stocks finished with linseed oil and those finished with tru-oil.

Many thanks, Skychief.

I would get some Chambers oil and use that if I didn't  make my own.
You can mix tru oil 50-50 with hardware store boiled linseed too. It will soften the Truoil and slow it drying. Very thin coats are all that is needed. "Dot"  some on with a finger tip  then rub till it won't spread any farther then add a touch more and continue.
Cup grease is just petroleum grease.
The recommendation of this stuff just shows you can find poor advice in old books as well as new.

Dan

[Pete G.]

Kramer's antique improver.

[Roger Fisher]

I like a product called Final Finish. It's made by Ron Roade. (Probably spelled his name wrong, Roger will correct me).  Troy at Stonewall Creek carries it too. I over heard Ron telling someone at Dixon's this past year it's made from beeswax, lanolin and a third ingredient I didn't catch.  A little goes a long way and it's very reasonably priced.

Bill

Rhode

[Dphariss]

Petroleum oils and greases are a very poor choice for additions to stock finishes.
I suppose one could do an entire finish with nothing but wheel bearing grease if they wanted.
But some sort of drying oil is much better choice.
Tru-oil and Boiled Linseed mixed is hard to beat for the average person.
It converts the relatively hard to use  Tru-oil, a thickened varnish, into a softer varnish that is much easier to apply and perhaps has even better properties than tru-oil of the BLO the stores sell.

Dan

[Nate McKenzie]

I use either Ballistol or Johnson's Paste Wax. Both have worked well for me.

[jimc2]

you can contact ron rohde at 570 427 4749

[Rasch Chronicles]

On my woodworking projects, I only have used Linseed oil and pastewax. I have also used a tiny amount of linseed on some of my factory stocks, rubbed in entirely by hand, and buffed with a cloth. And might as well mention I store all my firearms muzzle down after wipeing the bores down with a wool soaked in Hoppes.

Best Regards,
Albert “Afghanus” Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles: George Washington, President and Fisherman

[Darrin McDonal]

I have been using for years now a good paste wax. It is also what I use and recommend for all exterior metal surfaces. Much more durable than any oil but if I do as oil for a coating I use Chambers Accragaurd.
Darrin

[roundball]

A declaration was made that:
"Petroleum oils and greases are a very poor choice for additions to stock finishes".....unfortunately without the benefit of any details substantiating such a claim.


So the question is, does anyone have a credible detailed explanation showing irrefutable industry data that oils rubbed on stock finishes are "a poor choice" and why they are a poor choice...what is the failure mechanism implied if oils are used, etc, etc.?

The reason I ask is that having used that approach successfully since the '60s...as did all my ancestors for scores and scores of years prior to that...on every type of gun stock I've ever owned...cheap hardwoods, expensive laminated stocks, cheap and expensive walnut, super premium curly maple, etc...yet I've never seen / heard of such a problem discussed.
So the puzzler is it seems if there was such a problem, I surely would have heard of it by now, even if I've never personally experienced it in 50+ years of routinely wiping down firearm with a well oiled cloth after handling them.

Can anyone can shed any credible, detailed explanation to substantiate the claim?

[Roger Fisher]

My 'active' ML firearms get spritzed every month or so with Ballistol and rubbed down with a paper towel (the towel gets canned outside the house).  When the spirit moves me I schmutz them with olde tyme leaded boiled linseed oil (thinnly) rub em down good, again with a paper towel and said paper towel gets canned outside the house   Did I say I am @!*% careful about fire....

If nothing else, its a feel good project

[Dave Faletti]

What does oiling the stock gain you?   I don't like oil on the stock anywhere if I can avoid it.  If the finish isn't sealing the wood well enough oil soaks in.  I just wipe off the stock and do a real light refinish if its worn or nicked.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I make a conscious effort NOT to get any petroleum based oil on the wood.  And when I oil the inside of a lock or action, I blow out the excess with a compressor.  
When I store my guns, I stand them on their muzzle, so that oil in the barrel,however light, runs out of the muzzle rather than out of the vent and thus into the wood.
So how do I treat the wood?  After cleaning the metal, I wipe off fouling from the stock with a damp cloth, the rub it down hard with a soft dry one.  I rely on the gun's finish to seal and protect the wood, not something I add later.
Everyone has their own way of caring for their guns, and likely, none of us who have a system, are going to change now.  The system is based on experience, just as Dan and Roundball have stated.  People who have guns with heavy varnish/plastic/epoxy finishes can get away with applications of liquids that those with more traditional linseed based oil finishes, can not.  

[Jerry V Lape]

Roundball,  this isn't any industry studied response.  However double shotguns, either SxS or O/U butt stock heads are damaged by softening and darkening of the wood caused by excess oil from the action and barrel seeping into the head of the stock.  This is particularly troublesome on the thin ears of the stock head on sidelock shotguns.  I don't know whether proper sealing of these areas by a varnish or poly product would protect against it - probably will.  But many of these type guns lack any finish on the interior surfaces of the stock head as it would complicate the issues of getting the invisible joint lines between wood and metal.  If your guns are well sealed I can see why it has caused you no problem. 

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Ballistol, Renaissance Wax, Chambers Antique Oil Varnish and Kremer's Antique Improver all work wellon the wood. The Ballistol is a good rust inhibitor as is the wax.

[Jim Kibler]

I'm with others who have questioned the benefits of petroleum based non drying oils on the stock.  What good is it doing?  If you have a well finished and sealed stock, it's just laying there making the wood look shiny and causing you to believe something good is coming of it. 

[Dphariss]

Roundball,  this isn't any industry studied response.  However double shotguns, either SxS or O/U butt stock heads are damaged by softening and darkening of the wood caused by excess oil from the action and barrel seeping into the head of the stock.  This is particularly troublesome on the thin ears of the stock head on sidelock shotguns.  I don't know whether proper sealing of these areas by a varnish or poly product would protect against it - probably will.  But many of these type guns lack any finish on the interior surfaces of the stock head as it would complicate the issues of getting the invisible joint lines between wood and metal.  If your guns are well sealed I can see why it has caused you no problem. 

Few factory guns have a sealer on the interior.
Petroleum oil can soften the finish, if its not plastic anyway, causes black streaks in the wood and of course damages the wood, some call it "Oil Rot".
Dads model 63 Winchester is a poster child for black streaks. Probably as a result of his use of 3 in 1 oil inside and out.
I probably should pull the stock and see if I can get the oil out of it I guess but its been like that for a long time.

Dan

[slumlord44]

I personaly like Howards Feed and Wax. Johnsons Paste wax is allso good for wood and metal but the Howards is sort of a jell that is easier to apply  and wipe off. Good on wood and metal.

[roundball]

A question was:  What good comes from it ?

I'm pretty sure I didn't say a single thing about anything good coming from it...or that it was beneficial and should be done, etc.
I simply took exception to the arbitrary claim that was made, and introduced actual facts into the discussion, commenting that I keep an oily rage in a big ziploc bag on the workbrench at all times, and whenever I'm done working on / handling a gun, I use the rag to wipe down the enire firearm.

It would be a needless waste of my time to slow down and painstakingly very selectively wipe down only the metal parts scattered here and there, when no harm comes from the oily rag also contacting the stock in the first place.

So to reiterate, I've used nothing but an oil/WD40 based cloth to wipe down every Ruger, S&W, Remington, Marlin, Thompson Center, and TVM built guns I've owned since the '60s...easily well over 100+ rifles, shotguns, handguns, muzzleloaders...cheap hard wood, cheap walnut, expensive walnut, expensive curly maple...never the first problem in a half century.

If there happened to have been an instance that some sort of damage occurred to one gun stock somewhere in the country, the root cause of that instance needs to be investigated to precisely identify the source of that problem, and not assume / indict an entire industry that oiling gunstocks causes problems.
And I believe transmission fluid is also recommended for wiping down gun stocks.

Anyhow, I have no interest in getting anyone to wipe down anything with anything...I was just correcting a claim using decades of actual hands-on, fact based experience.