Som years back I managed to get my Grandfather's 12 ga Hammer Double. He was a Farmer, not a hunter so it was a "Farmer's Gun". Pre 1887 Birmingham black powder proof W Richards, side lever with back action locks. To put it mildly by the time it came to me it had been Rode Hard & Put Up Wet. It was/is purely a wall hanger with no value except sentimental To Me, about like what you see hanging over the mantle in a Cracker Barrel dining room.
Stock was grimy & Bleached to a near white. I took LINSEED OIL & 4/0 STEEL WOOL to it. Results were absolutely Amazing. The grime was cleaned off & the linseed brought the color back. I see a lot of new Expensive guns which have neither the color or figure of this old Hardware Store Farmer's Gun.
Steel Wool & Linseed Oil, Two Great Friends of Mine, like the Old Owl I don't really Give a Hoot what anyone else thinks of them.
As Clyde Barrow said in a letter to Ford Motor Co bragging on their old Flat Head V8, "Its Pulled Me Out of Many a Tight Spot". While I was not in the same kind of Tight Spot, Steel Wool & Linseed Oil has given me a lot of help on numerous occasions.
