" One method was to soak the stock with a mixture of raw linseed oil and turpentine (2-oil 1-turpentine)many put this coat on warm or hot."
By soak I would think that meant to immerse the stock in the oil/terp mixture which was possibly heated. Is that your understanding?
Or was it just rubbed on until wood would not take more - i.e. was saturated by the mixture?
Soak was a poor choice of words, they kept putting on oil until it would take no more. I have been surprised by the number of early sporting rifles and high-grade shotguns that have no oil in the inletting, just raw wood.
The only folks who I know immersed the stocks was the Armory, they did that in hot raw linseed oil then hung them up to dry. A certain percentage were then submerged in water and check for swelling, warpage and such.
