A short story, my very first double was a very nice Fox AE 16 ga. with 30" barrels. It was a complete gun but it had an 11" stock(cut for a small person) and stenciled barrels,... phone number on one barrel and address on the other. I bartered with the smith and he sold it to me at a decent price. I had the barrels done by my smith and Wenig replaced the stock about 20 years ago. I asked Wenig to finish the stock but ship it to me after final sanding. I wanted to finish the stock and forend myself. This started my journey in finishing stocks.
I am really interested in the many ways people finish wood. I read a thread not to long ago in this forum where there was a full blown discussion on the varied ways you folks finish stocks. Wow are there a lot.
Along with the finishing aspect, there are so many repair tricks you guys have, filling, steaming, bending, blending and staining/coloring, just to mention a few. That's what I want to hear about. So if you have a trick, a formula, blending. a novel top coat, something to really waterproof wood or anything else, I'd like to hear about it.
I mention the waterproofing of wood, because a very good friend of mine who used to build small speed boats as a hobby, used xylene on the wood before he applied the fiberglass and resin. That made the wood much more waterproof. So with that information, I've been messing with undercoats to help waterproof the stock without affecting the final finish. Any suggestions, comments?
