When it came time to finishing the rifle, I tried scraping, but in truth, I am very poor at it likely from lack of experience so I sanded with Norton's sandpaper. Jim's finish is so close to being done, that I started with 180 grit and ended up at 320. I whiskered the wood using a solution of tannic acid, drying the wood between applications gently with a heat gun, and sanding again with 320. I repeated that process four times, and finally, no more grain was rising. Then I applied Ferric Nitrate is a saturated solution, and it immediately turned the wood jet black - everywhere. Now I was in a pickle...the curl was well defined, but the whole stock was black. So I started sanding again, first with 320 - didn't make any difference, and finally back to 180 grit. I removed all of the black to make the stock a uniform colour again, and obviously, the curl didn't change but remained very dark. Now I finish sanded again with 320, applied Ferric Nitrate again, and blushed the stock with my heat gun. Now the wood turned a pleasing reddish brown - mostly brown - and the curl popped! I burnished the wood with a maroon Scotch Brite pad backed with a foam rubber pad.
I used "Circa 1850 Tung Oil" for the finish. The can says "low lustre, hand-rubbed finish, contains pure tung oil, protects against spills". The first two coats I applied with a brush, going over and over the wood to let it take up as much of the oil as it would, then fifteen minutes later, wiped it all off with a cloth. I let it cure for 24 hours, and repeated, again letting it dry well over a full day and night.
Over the course of the next eight days, I applied coats of oil with a doubled cleaning patch, wetting the stock as evenly as I could, letting each coat dry for 24 hours before reapplying. Twice I cut the finish back with 0000steel wool, going right down to the wood. The beauty of Ferric Nitrate is you cannot remove any colour with steel wool; the edges such as lock panels being the exception, so more care is required there. In total I applied 11 coats of oil. Over the last three coats, I could see the oil building and increasing in shine, and exaggerating the curl. I'm delighted with the finish, the colour and the curl. This finish wears like iron, and is virtually water proof. The stain and the oil are IN the wood more than ON it, so the finish lasts and lasts.
I'll have to take Daryl out to the range with me to fire the rifle...my right eye has a nasty cataract destined to go in the garbage in March, so I'll have to wait to enjoy the rifle's inherent accuracy, but I'm confident it will shine.
