doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Using Bar Top Varnish to finish gunstocks

I have used a mixture of polyurathane, linseed oil and thinner and often some dryer for my stocks for a number of years. I think some good stock guys will do a mixture of bar top varnish
with the oil, maybe and thinner. I think they might first use the varnish as a filler, then sand back to almost bare wood. It would be interesting to see the advantages of the bar top varnish over poly. I was in the hardware store today and the only thing I saw that was close to bar top varnish was Marine Spar Varnish.
I am happy with the results I am getting (doing 18-25 very thin coats with some wet sanding here and there) but am always willing to try something in hopes it will be even better. Thanks!

I have a recepe for spar varnish, tung oil, pure turpentine and japanese dryer. It was put on a gun stock using 200 grit and letting the excess dust oil up and fill the pores. The same was repeated with 350 grit. Then it was finished using 600 grit. That was 30 years ago. I have heavily used the gun for moose and elk and it has many marks on the stock. But the finish has stood up, not peeled or brushed off and it hasn't turned any noticeable yellow. I also had this finish applied to a trap gun at the same time and I have never had to touch up the finish in all those years.

I like floor grade poly for hard working guns, shellac for Parkers and Smiths, not near as tough but few get much work so the shellac stays nice.
bill

I don�t want to get embroiled in what finish is best for this and that because it has been a thing of mine to collect gun stock and barrel finishes over more years than I want to count. But the one thing I would like to add is that if you asked a thousand stockers or stock finishers you would get a thousand different takes on what finish make up they use.
There seems to be a number of camps like �I only use the traditional oil finish� or �I spray bar top finish on� and every stop in between those statements. As long as the wood is protected from the elements every finish used is just fine to me, I do feel now that it has reached the stage we must search out what the masters used which is rather like chasing what finish the great Antonio Stradivari used.
My self I tend to like the traditional finish of red oil followed by Garnet Shellac as a sealer then followed by a traditional refined linseed/Tung oil finish with the lustre supplied to the whole thing by wax polish. The wax provided by bees with just a little Carnauba wax to add toughness all surrounded by that wonderful smell of real turpentine.

I have heard of the varnish being used before as a filler. And then very thin coats of linseed like for the finish coats once the varnish completely fills the pores.