doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Tru Oil Question

Spar Varnish was used by bamboo rod builders before impregnated rods came about. Spar varnish can take up to 6 months to fully cure. What was great about it for bamboo fly rods is that it withstood the contant flexilng and the finish never cracked. I guess the easy term is elasticity.

There are all kinds of concoctions out there. True Oil is basically some of those ingrediants and makes it easy to use.
I have used shellac and French Polished a few. You can do a complete stock in a few hours just keep going over the same small area until it's at the stage you want. You can always dull it by rottenstone.

I apply a slop coat of spar varnish and let it tack up a bit, then wipe most off across the grain. Let it dry well and then sand back down to the wood. This fills the pores nicely. It may take more than 1 coat, depending on how open the grain is. You can also add rottenstone to the varnish for filler. On the final sand make sure you are down to the wood surface. If you don't get all the varnish off, you will more than likely see splotches in the finishing coat.

The pore filling method is easy. Apply the finish thickly and when tacky, smear with your hand. This fills the pores in 1-2 coats and saves a lot of time. Remove the finish down to the Finish In Wood with 0000 steel wool and start your regular finish process.

Yes, Joe.

"Cure" time is that required for the multiple coats to completely polymerize and harden all the way through. Among the more common stock finishes, Tru-oil is notoriously slow to cure and 3-months is not out of the question if it was applied thickly enough. It might be "dry" enough to handle (shoot) gently within a week or so of the last coat, but there's no way it will be fully cured. Try rubbing one out, or wrapping it in cloth and clamping it (to install a recoil pad) or cutting into it with a checkering tool within a month of finishing and you'll see how "un-cured" it is just below the surface. Attempt to rub out too soon and you'll cut through the hard skin and create a gummy mess. Wrap it in cloth and clamp it, or even lay it on its side on a piece of linen for a day and it will acquire the pattern of the weave. Cut into it with a checkering tool and you'll be greeted with the fragrance of fresh Tru-oil. Generally, tung-oil-based finishes cure quicker and harder than linseed-oil-based finishes.

Tru-oil takes forever to get really hard. One of the reasons is that it contains 11% linseed oil according to the MSDS. I feel it was formulated for the hobbyist stock finisher. There are much better products on the market. Pro Custom Oil and Minwax Wipe-On Poly are miles ahead.

OB

The wipe on poly is very good stuff. It took a while to get the results I wanted, but, the finish on an old Tobin 12 is wonderful. Hard to beat a poly finish on any gun that is going to be used.
Best,
Ted

Post some pics Teddy we'd love to see your work.

Tru Oil does seem to cure more slowly if applied heavily or in humid weather. It's a good finish for a beginner, but not very durable. Easy though, to touch up or freshen with light steel wooling and a couple new thin coats. Spar varnish, as noted, does a good job of filling pores, and also as a final finish with multiple thinned coats. There are lots of wood finishes with different qualities. None is perfect. Put six different clear gloss finishes on the same piece of walnut and you will get six different appearances. The oil modified polys like Minwax, Permalyn, and Laurel Mountain Stock Finish are more durable and can be applied in ways that look more original on older guns than straight polyurethane. But I guess I personally feel that a 100 year old field grade Baker or L. C. Smith just doesn't look right with a finish that shines like Liberaces' piano. I once bought a jar of G-B Linspeed that would not cure at all. I think they forgot the dryer in that batch.

When opening a new bottle of Truoil, I have four 35mm film containers; transparent white. I forget which company my wife buys. I fill each container about l/3" from the top and put on the cap. The cap recesses into the container and forms a good seal. You might add a marble or two to bring it right up to the bottom of the cap. I've been working out of one container for over a week now and no scum is trying to form.

From my experince spray is better, than bottle and there is one very important reason. Tru-Oil in spray gets deeper inside wallnut and sets off wallnut colors and layers just fine.
I began to use Tru-Oil since ~2000 and I'd say it's one of the most long lasting finishes for woods.
My personal goose call made from wallnut with TO finish is like new still, but it's heavy duty thing and spends his life in wet conditions mostly and for allmost 10 years now.