As I shelter in place I will post a few photos of the Lefever 47216 as it is now almost finished. Sunshine here so this was an opportunity to get it outside for a couple of photos. From these photos you will see why I will have the barrels refinished. Previous owner(s) must have used a gunny sack full of sand to carry the Lefever. Overall the barrels are solid, just a lot of minute scratching, especially at the breech end.

As for the finish on the wood I am pleased with the use of Velvit Oil Natural. My approach was to use two applications of Pilkington's stain, set, then wiped out with denatured alcohol, then approximately 10 coats of Velvit Oil applied thin and allowed to dry for 48 hours between coats. I used 600/800 wet/dry paper and #0000 steel wool with Wool Lub to rub out between coats starting with application number 3 and working up to 9. Final application 10 has been allowed to cure for the past four weeks.

I learned much from the replies here in this post and on a couple of other posts on this forum. Really good advice and help for working with wood repair and finishing. Thanks to all. From the Flexner book on 'Wood Finishing' I learned about doping-in the deeper scars that I was unable to raise with heat and moisture. I learned that a flat tipped iron with alcohol works wonders along with a small clothes iron and water. (Jeff Jewitt, 'Great Wood Finishes' is also a very useful read). These scars (usually inflicted by right hand carry pushing through the thorn apples on the right side of the stock) remain as witness to 107 years of carry use. All that remains for the wood finish is to apply a good coat of wax. I use MinWax for Walnut.

As for the barrels I will send these off to be refinished. This intricate task I only read about.

So, here is Lefever #47216 today.