Got new walnut stock that needs to be finished.  I am wondering what you all think will be the best.
1. Linseed oil hand rubbed finish say 50 coats
2. Tung oil hand rubbed finish say 50 coats
3. Polyurethane finish
4. Seal with 50% white gas and 50% spar varnish and hand rubbed oil
5. Seal with 50% white gas and 50% spar varnish and 50/50 tung oil/urethane
6. Something else ?
Thanks,
Sparky1

Go to Wal-Mart or your local gun shop and pick up some of Birchwood Casey's TruOil gunstock finish. It's easy to apply , and if you take your time it will look absolutely gorgeous. I would buy the three bottle kit if you can find it.

i would sand to 220
then stain it
then sand it down to 400 grit
the stain will get sanded off everywhere but the grain of the wood
that will make the grain really popout

get the wood wet and let it dry
sand it with 400 again to remove the fuzzys

use tack cloth or air to clean wood
apply tung oil (formbys high glass works well)
let dry a full 6 hours (will be dry to the touch after 3-4)
LIGHTLY buff with OOOO wool

repeat 10-12 times  

Candyman,
If I do use tung oil, I will get the pure oil.  I want it to go deep into the stock.  I am wondering what do I thin it with?
Thanks,
Sparky1

Quoted: Candyman, If I do use tung oil, I will get the pure oil.  I want it to go deep into the stock.  I am wondering what do I thin it with? Thanks, Sparky1

Mineral spirits.

Pure tung oil will never cure -- or at least take a very, very long time to. It is a lousy stock finish. The reason Formsby's works well is because it's mostly varnish, not oil.   If you want a true oil (not Tru-Oil) finish, use Boiled Linseed Oil. However, that will darken the wood considerably (especially walnut). It also will leave a dull sheen, which isn't the traditional "AK" look. But then again, neither is walnut so maybe that's okay. Behr's Scandinavian Tung Oil Finish #600 is a blend of BLO and Tung Oil and varnish and it is, IMO, a great compromise between durability/hardness and the oil "look." I finished a walnut M870 stock in it this fall without any stain under it and it looks great.  It will take from 10-15 coats to get a good shine; you can use as many as you want. With BLO it is a lot harder to acheive much gloss; it will take many more coats.

Walnut is a pretty tight-grained wood. If you sand it down to 440, it won't take oil very well. You will have almost polished the grain shut. I'd recommend going to 180 or 220 at the most with a walnut stock. (I understand that the 440 was more of a color thing.)

How dark is the stock now? It may not need stain at all. Take your thumb, lick it (nice and wet) and wipe it on the bare wood. That color is what you will get under an oil finish.

If you do stain it, be aware that MOST "stains" at the hardware store also have some kind of finish in them, like polyurethane. If you use one of these, your oil won't take well since the wood is already sealed.  Try and get stain that has no finish in it whatsoever.

(True stains/dyes are made of tiny particles of color suspended in a solvent. The finer the particles, the deeper into the wood they will penetrate and the more natural the color and wood will look. The coarser particles will tend to sit on top of the wood and obscure the wood's grain patterns and any flaws (dings, dents) that you want to hide. Alcohol-based stains are the most fine (most penetration), followed by oil-based stains, and lastly water-based stains barely penetrate the wood at all.  Walnut, being tight-grained, will absorb less color than beech laminate, the standard AK stock wood.)

Poly is an awful gunstock finish because, while it's hard, if you scratch it or ding it, you cannot repair it in any way. Varnish, shellac, and oil finishes can be repaired easily by comparison.

My opinion: walnut deserves a nice oil finish, either Behr's TOF or BLO. Anything that is a hard, plasticky finish that sits on top of the wood, like Tru-oil or Polyurethane, just won't do it justice.

Just my .02... I have a thing for nice woodwork on rifles.

Sky,
From what I have been reading on true Tung oil, it dries quicker than BLO and it has interlocking grains which form a hard finish. The finish can be repaired with more Tung oil.  If I thin Tung, it will go deep into the wood prior to forming interlocking grains.  Is this info not correct?
Thanks,
Sparky1

Just to clarify Tru-Oil is just Linseed oil with fast drying additives and it penetrates very deeply into the wood. My sks looks like a fine piece of work , although it does have a bit too much shine on it after I waxed it for my taste. Almost hate shooting something that looks that good.

Quoted: Just to clarify Tru-Oil is just Linseed oil with fast drying additives and it penetrates very deeply into the wood. My sks looks like a fine piece of work , although it does have a bit too much shine on it after I waxed it for my taste. Almost hate shooting something that looks that good.

You're right. From what I have read, Tru-Oil is a "polymerized" oil finish. This means it is an oil that was heated to 500 degrees in an oxygen-free environment, which allows it to cure very fast.  It makes a hard, thick finish not unlike what you'd find with polyurethane. It does make a great stock finish, but it won't look "military" and is not really what I'd consider a true "oil" finish.  

If you want to knock down the shine on your SKS, try rubbing it down with some steel wool (0000) wet with boiled linseed oil (for lubrication only -- never use steel wool dry). Wipe off the BLO right away. You can keep doing this until you get the sheen you like.

Quoted: Sky, From what I have been reading on true Tung oil, it dries quicker than BLO and it has interlocking grains which form a hard finish. The finish can be repaired with more Tung oil.  If I thin Tung, it will go deep into the wood prior to forming interlocking grains.  Is this info not correct? Thanks, Sparky1

That's now how I understood it; but I've never used the stuff. I'll check with my woodworking "mentor" and get back.

I am wondering why everone seems fixed on BLO.  From what I read pure tung oil seems to be an a better/new idea that has benifits greater than BLO.  Tung will do things BLO will not.  What are your thoughts.
Thanks,
Sparky1

Okay, here's how it works. Oils like tung and BLO don't dry, they "cure." This is because oxygen creates the "crosslinks" between the molecules (the "grains") and makes them hard.

Tung oil is thick stuff and, when pure, will take several days to fully "cure." Tung oil finishes have metallic driers added, which speed up the curing process.  (Some have varnish added, too, for extra hardness.) If you thin pure tung oil, like with mineral spirits, it will cure faster just because it's thinner, but you'll need more applications to get the final finish you want.

BLO is simply linseed oil that has metallic driers added. (It's not really boiled.)  Without driers added, linseed oil ("raw" linseed oil) will never cure. (This is probably what I was thinking of ion my previous post.)

If you don't let the first application of oil fully cure before you add more, the bottom layers will have a very tough time curing and you'll have a stock that's sticky for a long, long time.

Either oil will penetrate the wood about the same, I think. It might go a little deeper if you thin it, but any penetration will only be a fraction of an inch. You're really only treating the few surface millimeters of wood.

All in all I think the main difference between pure tung oil and BLO as wood finishes is that BLO "cures" faster and darkens the wood more. There may be a difference in water resistance (neither is waterproof), but I don't know. Either finish can be easily repaired with more oil and needs periodic refreshing with more oil.  Like I said, I've never used pure tung oil but to me it sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

This is why I like the Behr's Tung Oil Finish. It is a good compromise of BLO, tung oil, and metallic driers, and it makes a very nice and durable finish that is still a true "oil" finish.

For some more info on wood finishes, check out this link:
http://www.woodzone.com/articles/wood_finishes.htm#Tung%20Oil

989,
Great Post!  That is what I was looking for.  I have ordered some pure tung oil.  Time is something I have lots of as I am retired.  I don't mind the extra time it will take.  I will thin the first 2 or 3 coats with mineral spirits so that it will go deep into the wood.  I put 100 coats of BOL on a friends gun stock.  It looked great but it took a year.  Thanks again for the great post.
Good Shooting,
Sparky1  

Make sure to let us know how it turns out, sparky! As a woodworking friend of mine once said, the one ingredient all wood finishng products need but don't include is "patience." Sounds like you're on the right track.

Just make sure that each coat is fully cured before you apply the next one. Otherwise the new coat will seal in the uncured oil and it will take a very, very long time for it to all harden up together.

Tom

Tom,
No problem man!  Will do!
Sparky1