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

Essentially I believe we have vegatable oils, animal oils (fats) & mineral oils. Parrafin oil is a mineral oil I think. The British refer to what we of the US call Kerosene as Paraffin, about as mineral as one can get. Oil from Pennsylvania wells has always been referred to as Parrafin Base oil, while Texas & other Western oils are Asphalt Base. What we might buy at a drug store as mineral oil for use as a laxative is I believe a highly refined petroleum based oil. This is rather simplistic & not very technical, but perhaps sheds a little light on the subject.

Bill, yes its a Trans-Continental thing, we are both right if you see what I mean.Perhaps I should have said oil of paraffin.NOT Kerosene.

Yeah I see that now. Truth be told I was looking for a subsitute for that rubbing oil. I think Im going to buy a bottle of mineral oil and give it a go. I suspect it will work just the same as the spendy stuff in the little bottles.

I'm having trouble seeing why a gun stock finish needs to be a secret...unless you plan on bottling and selling it.

I see the competition more in the skill of the applicator than in a secret finish.

Joe;
I have long been of the opinion that most "Secret" formulas, receipes etc, etc, the "Big Secret" is there is nothing at all out of the ordinary involved except technic, the formulators just don't want you to know that.

There is an excellent article and instructions on traditional oil finishing in a Steven Dodd Hughes article in a Shooting Sportsman article from about maybe 18 months ago. SDH interviewed Paul Hodgins on his stock finishing techniques and materials; I would highly recommend the article,

The rubbing oil, and I use raw linseed also, is basically used to rub off the partially hardened oil on the surface of the wood, leaving the rest to fill the pores. Both the Clive Lemmon kits, and Warthog kits sold by Galazan are excellent and contain the linseed oil, hardener and rubbing oils, and an excellent finish may obtained with these.

On the subject of linseed oils, a little experiment should be informative. Using the hardener, try a smear on a piece of glass or steel using both raw linseed and boiled oil, mixed with the hardener and see how long the drying times are. And try the test with the Artist's linseed oil also. It may change some opinions of the artist's oil.

Stock finishing is and has always been mostly technique. You have to develope a technique that gives the results you wish. Even trying the same materials and technique of others seems to give me differing results.

Dennis Potter

Homelss Joe-

Have you tried to get Coke to tell you their formula lately? A lot of businesses have "trade sectrets" that are not divulged to outside parties. yes, many of these "trade secrets" are known or at least assumed with 99% certainty of what they are, but the company will not tell outsiders. Divulging these secrets is often serious enough to be cause for termination. Some gun people have the same philosophy. Almost every business has some bit of information that all employees are forbidden to tell folks outside of the company. "Lower rung" employees may not be aware of them, but the secrets are usually there and known by the upper people on the org chart.

Mineral oil and paraffin oil are byproducts of refining crude oil. It has been too many years since I had organic chemistry to remember the differences, but I do know that both paraffin oil and mineral oil work well for rubbing stocks. Mineral oil is "baby oil." I use parafin oil I bought at Woodcraft for any rubbing that I need in stock finishing.

But the rubbing oil in the Purdey's Worthaog kit smells great! I wish I could get large bottles of thta for a reasonable price.

Thanks Dennis! Paul Hodgins was very forthcoming in relating his method of applying the slacum oil finish which he has been using for decades since he training at H&H. The story is included in my new book Double Guns and Custom Gunsmithing see: SSM-DG&CG
Advanced copies have just arrived from the printer and the book will be available Sept 1st. I will be signing copies during the Vintage Cup at Pintail Point.
Best to all,
Steve

Hmmm...looks like a Bday present for Bill. Gotta have that book.

Dennis Potter,
What do you mean by your reference to Artist's Linseed Oil?
Do you personally think it is better than commercial grades or do you think it is an overpriced luxury item?
I would be interested to know.
Incidentally I believe it may have been Lefever who used to rub their finished stocks with cup grease (motor car bearing grease?) to assist the hardening of the oil coat.
Can anyone enlighten me what Cup Grease is please?