By the way, I share the view of many others that it seems the beauty of the wood is being covered up or at least not enhanced by some of the "modern approaches". Just for my education, I bought a modern new replica----A Stevens Favorite Model 30, single shot, 22 magnum, octagon barrel, rolling block-type action, and straight stock cut like they did in 1870's. Before I fired a round through it I had it apart and was stripping the finish. (The finish was horrible by the way. Matte finish, bumpy, no fill of the pits and grains. Not that I expected great from such a cheapy gun. The wood looked boring too). But after playing around with the stock since NOVEMBER, trying different oils, varnishes etc and then stripping them off I finally found something I liked: linseed oil, red mahogony MINWAX, spar varnish. The wood is truly beautiful! This piece of wood does NOT look like the same wood of the gun I bought. Guys who have seen it say it does look darn good and they could not believe it was a new replica; they thought it was an old gun in part because the finish looked like the sort of finish they did when they put time and effort into them. I can't wait to get my new "project gun".

http://www.icm.cc
transforming ideas into reality