Gun stock wax

[Asbestos]

Greg, sometimes you make your little holler sound like Tombstone...
Then boys don't hunt any harder than anyone else. You're in Virginia... not Afghanistan.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

Well if it was just my guns I was caring for I wouldn't need so much. I treat a right many stocks with Tru Oil for friends and such and I like to wax the stock before it leaves. I allow a extra week turn around time to let the coating to cure and then apply the wax. I am not picky on the brand as long as it is a good product and there is enough to last a while. I don't want to even think about how many of those little 15 dollar bottles I have went through. At some point I usually have those guns brought back for upgrades or touch ups and I will reapply the wax again. These boys up here hunt rain, hail, sleet or snow so the wax is a must to add that layer of protection. Especially after I have spent two weeks on a Tru Oil job.

Sorry Greg, sometimes I forget the vast network of friends you've been gunsmithing for the past several decades.

So with this in mind, the new product you're considering will conservatively save you roughly 50 cents a stock.

If it's a better product that's a win win, especially with your high volume operation.

 

[BIKER13]

Amazon and E-bay have gone crazy with the cost of the now discontinued SC Johnson Paste wax.
Have a can in the shop that I probably paid $6 at the hardware store several years ago.

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Had mine for years and must be $250 worth still in it

 

[BHPSteel]

In a faraway galaxy, many homes ago, I used to refinish furniture, and let's face it, a stock and a table ain't so different.

This was considered the go-to paste wax because it had zero additives, a relatively high concentration of carnauba wax (which it the stuff that remains behind when you buff the wax off) and (at the time) was relatively cheap. And a pound will probably give you enough to wax every gun stock in western VA.

Also, if your buddies have a habit of gnawing on their stocks, it's relatively food safe.

You'll also see it referred to as butchers block wax and bowling alley wax. They're all the same thing, but nowadays, if you do a web search for "butchers block wax" you'll see all kinds of **** with fragrance, 'essential oils', beeswax and god know what other crap in it.

That's what you DON'T want.

 

[Jambo]

But as @LARGO9 points out, a tung oil finish (and to a lesser degree, paste wax) is very different from treating with Ballistol.

Tung oil soaks in and polymerizes to a hard material that stops water from getting into the grain of the wood for a long time. Paste wax hardens too, but it never gets as hard as fully cured tung oil. It works the way that linseed oil does.

Ballistol just soaks in and repels water the same way oil does, but it's better than just oil. On the other hand, it does dry/evaporate out in time.

I would like to point out that you should use Tung Oil, not "Tung oil finish". I know what you meant, and what you meant is correct; however, people market " tung oil finish", which is not true tung oil. You've got to get actual tung oil, which soaks in several millimeters deep.

They finished M1s with Tung oil; apparently it's superior to the boiled linseed oil used on 03-A3s. I've been told that for a time Tung trees were considered so important for national defense it was a federal crime to cut one down.

Whenever I get any outdoor tool with a wooden handle (shovel, hatchet, axe, etc.) I strip off the varnish and coat it with tiny oil instead. Better protection and less chance of causing blisters during use.

People with nut allergies might have a problem with the finish, as it is a nut tree.

 

[GFB]

Sorry Greg, sometimes I forget the vast network of friends you've been gunsmithing for the past several decades.

So with this in mind, the new product you're considering will conservatively save you roughly 50 cents a stock.

If it's a better product that's a win win, especially with your high volume operation.

Good point. When you’re talking pallets of wax, you got to think in terms of an economy of scale.

 

[BHPSteel]

I would like to point out that you should use Tung Oil, not "Tung oil finish". I know what you meant, and what you meant is correct; however, people market " tung oil finish", which is not true tung oil. You've got to get actual tung oil, which soaks in several millimeters deep.

They finished M1s with Tung oil; apparently it's superior to the boiled linseed oil used on 03-A3s. I've been told that for a time Tung trees were considered so important for national defense it was a federal crime to cut one down.

Whenever I get any outdoor tool with a wooden handle (shovel, hatchet, axe, etc.) I strip off the varnish and coat it with tiny oil instead. Better protection and less chance of causing blisters during use.

People with nut allergies might have a problem with the finish, as it is a nut tree.

You're absolutely right - and I'm not sure that the manufacturers of "tung oil finishes" aren't happy to see the confusion.

From what I remember, tung oil itself sets up harder than linseed oil, which I think would result in an overall more durable finish. IIRC when high-quality woods for stocks became harder to source and the manufacturers started to have to look at beech, finding some way to make those stocks tougher will have become far more important.