I think if you try it you folks will find that aged turpentine is a much better thinner *for gunstock use* than mineral spirits.
Aged turp. 2-5 days (too long and it gets pretty thick) in a shallow dish will actually dry oil faster when its cut off from oxygen as when its soaked into the stock. I have been old that the mix will set in the bottle in a couple of days and though I have not seen this myself the source is impeccable.
The home cooked linseed oil described by myself and others does not work like store bought. No fast evaporating solvents (like mineral spirits) but its still a fast finish. When I read of people taking 2 weeks or a month to finish a stock I wonder if they have looked at this from the standpoint of getting a gun delivered and getting paid for it.
Most of the modern finishes are based on the fallacy that linseed takes too long to dry. But its also based on lack of knowledge of what gunstock finish really was before the chemical revolution struck and were were inundated with all sorts of made in the test tube finishes. In all honesty Permalyn is just a cheap plastic varnish that has no place on a longrifle. But it allowed Bivens to do fast stock finishes when he was making the bi-centennial guns.
These are much superior to paint thinner grade linseed but are inferior to good boiled oil.
From the description I suspect that Chambers and some other finishes are pretty good. But I have been left unimpressed so often in the past I have never bothered to order any.
Most people here can make a lifetime supply of good stock finish with a gallon of linseed, an old deep fat fryer, the few extra ingredients in the instructions (there are numerous formulas for BLO and BLO varnish in this sites archives) and a quart of real turpentine.
As victims of the consumer culture we are programed with the idea that store bought is better than something made at home.
I did this finish in two days, including staining. But the BLO was mixed with Grumbachers Oil Painting Medium III, a cheaters way to make the oil spot resistant. Got to look at the ingredients again I think its all pretty HC too. IIRC its got some di-limonene (sic)
in it, other than that its HC. I need to get to work an make some HC BLO varnish I guess I keep putting it off.
My regular boiled oil would do the same thing but is less water resistant than the mix since the Grumbachers is a soft oil varnish with Damar and Balsam gums in it.
BUT I polished the stock BEFORE I put the stain on.
If the stock is polished (final grain raisings with 400-600 grit) and the grain raised until it will not raise anymore. Staining with nitrate of iron and neutralizing will not further raise the grain. The stock gets shiny very easily with no built up finish.
Yeah I know they didn't use 600 grit back in the day. They didn't use plastic varnish or mineral spirits either.
Or di-limonene
Dan
