doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Correct wood finish for an 1870’s Charles Daly?

I removed a good 99% of the scratches and dents from my wood furniture and applied a good dozen and half coats of boiled Lind seed oil. I want to pit something over it help waterproof the wood. I knocked over the stick while it was drying the other days and put a few fresh dings in it so I know the BLO is not a hard finish. I would like to keep it original...or original looking. I restored it to be a shooter and want to water proof the wood in case I get rained on turkey hunting this spring. I was planning on putting a coat of Johnson’s paste wax over it. I also have some satin wipe on poly. What were the original stocks finished with. I’ve used paste wax on a few other wood restoration projects and it seems to turn out nice but I never checked them for water proofing. I have never tried wipe on poly yet. I didn’t want to use the poly and have a shiny finish if that was not period correct for my gun. Any suggestions on waterproofing my wood while making it look like the original finish?

Here is the stock set with a fresh coat of BLO I just wiped off.





Not perfect, but a lot better IMO then when I started. It had a lot of war wounds in the wood furniture. I left a few dings and scars in it to keep the wood vintage looking. I also didn’t want to try and raise the dent by the checkering. Figured if I was going to use it I had to bring the old, dry wood back to life.

It's a shame that you had to learn the hard way that Boiled Linseed Oil as a stand alone stock finish has never been a great choice. It is soft, as you have seen, and it offers very little protection or resistance to moisture. The best thing about BLO is that it is cheap and readily available. With care and patience, it can give a nice looking finish, but it will never be a great finish for a gun that will be used. A good coat of wax can protect against moisture while it lasts, but wax is also very soft. The wipe on poly you mention is at the other extreme, and very inappropriate for an 1870"s vintage gun.

I have no idea what finish was used on 1870's Charles Daly guns, and even if we knew exactly, it could be difficult to recreate that finish perfectly today. The varnishes available today, for example, are very different than the copal resin varnishes used by gunmakers over 100 years ago. Many so-called Tung Oils on the market are not Tung Oil at all. The claims very often do not match what is in the MSDS. There have been a lot of Stock Finishing Threads in the Do It Yourself Gunsmithing forum over the past several years. Some of the information found there is helpful, and some is pure 100% crap.

There was some good information in this thread if you can get past the fact that the original subject matter is nothing but linseed and sunflower oil with naptha and metallic dryer... cheap ingredients at an extremely high cost per ounce. Yet some folks remain enamored with it:

https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=561049&page=1

In that thread, I recommended spending a few bucks to buy a copy of "Understanding Wood Finishing" by Bob Flexner. There are many other sources for good information on wood finishes, but I have not found any single source with as much good information, to help you sort fact from fiction. I see a lot of used copies available for under ten bucks.

I probably will end up waxing the stock a day before I plan on taking it out spring turkey hunting. I don’t want to give it a shiny coat of anything as it won’t look vintage and antique to me. My guess is there really isn’t a right or wrong answer and no wood finish that will look period correct will ever be durable or completely waterproof. My gun and wood was pretty ruff. I paid $45 for it at a rummage sale about a 20 years ago. I have $75 invested in a pair of replacement hammers and the rest of the restore I did myself and by a friend who has been a gunsmith for over 20 years. He trades me free work for letting him hunt my land now and then. I don’t want to get to carried away with the wood but was hoping there was an obvious choice of durable, waterproof, finish. Sounds like wax it is!

https://www.timberluxe.com/wood-finish/timberluxe-finish-12-recipe-2
JR

The correct wood finish for an 1870's gun stock? well that question limits your choice right away. To have the correct finish you can only use what was available at the time of the guns manufactured. So you are down to Linseed and Tung oils plus a couple of other drying oils having minimum use at the time, with C opal and shellac resins also Pine tree Rosin of various types plus boiled Larch tree sap known as Venice turpentine. If I where given this problem I would use the tried and tested gun stock finish that has been around for a t least two hundred plus years. Starting from bare wood surface t one brush coat of Garnet Shellac French polish fifty percent cut with Alcohol next one brush coat Garnet polish twenty five percent cut with Alcohol, finally one brush coat of undiluted Garnet polish. Doing this the shellac will soak deeply into the wood and will act as a good moisture barrier. using fine abrasive paper or 000 steel wool smooth the surface then using a lint free rag apply a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil to give that dull shine. Finally when the oil is dry apply a couple of coats of wax polish containing a good proportion of Carnuba wax for that looked after gun stock luster.

I use True oil on stocks that don't see much use (hunting) because it goes on easy and is easy to repair. On guns that see a lot of targets I use floor grade poly cut with mineral spirits so it soakes in and wipes on . I found wiping grade poly is soft and doesn't last with a lot of use.

bill

Possibly irrelevant, but of interest. The Sears catalog No. 107 Fall 1898 lists Daly guns.
Note "Turkish walnut" stocks.



The Featherweight 12 is listed at 5 3/4 lbs.

There is information here, under "Maintenance and Restoration" regarding the original oil finish used by turn-of-the-century U.S. double gun makers
https://lcsca.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=274&club_id=43784

I went with Antique Minwax. I applied two coats while sanding it with 600 grain sandpaper. I then buffed off the excess after 5 minutes as recommended. It turned out great! Has a nice dull satin 3D luster. It looks like the exact same finish that it originally had before I started on it...minus most of the imperfections. I don’t know if I’ll apply any more coats or just call it done.

Here is 3 coats of antique minwax...