In my opinion, one of the most important "Themes" of the forum should be Historical Accuracy, essential to the concept of "Restoration". Hopefully the experts here on the various manufacturers will continue to contribute. For example, in a past thread we discussed original finish for Parkers. For non-custom guns from the factory, shellac (French Polished) was determined to have been used, essentially the same shellac sold by Zinssers today.

Various other threads have discussed British finishes, some recreatable and some not, with members providing recipes and insights on their use. It provided other options than always resorting to a bottle of Tru-Oil, as far as for those concerned with original type finishes.

I prefer wood to plastic, leather to nylon, waxed cotton to Gore-Tex, and split bamboo to graphite.