Teak Oil for Stock Finish

[terryt]

Hi:

Has anyone had experience with using Teak Oil for a stock finish?


Thanks,

Terryt

[reed1911]

I think for the most part teak oil that is made now is just higher grade tung oil. Teak trees are rather rare and I think they are protected as endangered (But don't quote me on that). Either way I cannot see any reason not to use it.

[725]

Seems like in the past I've used it with a little Japan dryer mixed in. Been a while.

[leftiye]

Bought some. It was a varnish. Stopped using it.

[atr]

I have an older J.C. Higgins model 50 with a nice wood stock.....I took the old finish completely off and then just rubbed in Teak oil...seems to work well.....after every use I rub in another application
when I hunt in really rainy conditions (think rainy WA !) or snow, I also spray the stock before hand with a silicon sealer,,,the kind you use to seal garments against the rain....

[gnoahhh]

Teak oil is no better or worse than any other "oil" finish, which is faint praise indeed.

atr: you aren't doing yourself or any future owner of your guns by spraying them with silicone based products. That stuff is insidious, does no good for the wood, and makes future touchup or refinishing nigh impossible. Once that stuff is in the wood there's no getting it out, and fisheyes/blotching is the result. Just sayin'.

[seaboltm]

Teak oil is no better or worse than any other "oil" finish, which is faint praise indeed.

atr: you aren't doing yourself or any future owner of your guns by spraying them with silicone based products. That stuff is insidious, does no good for the wood, and makes future touchup or refinishing nigh impossible. Once that stuff is in the wood there's no getting it out, and fisheyes/blotching is the result. Just sayin'.

agreed on the silicon. If I need extra protection from moisture, a nice coat of stock wax will do the trick.

Like this stuff:

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/stock-work-finishing/stock-waxes/carnauba-gun-wax-prod6705.aspx

[rogerstg]

Teak oil is not made from teak, it is used to protect and condition teak. AFAIK, it's made from linseed and/or tung oil.

[geargnasher]

I have refinished several walnut stocks with Teak oil for an antique satin effect. Three coats with a few days and light, fine steel or bronze wool rub in between is plenty. The first coat or two really penetrate and takes a while to dry.

Gear

[atr]

thanks for the tip about the stock wax
atr

[seaboltm]

thanks for the tip about the stock wax
atr

Just be careful of cheap stock wax, like Birchwood Casey, which contains silicon. FWIW, Johnson's paste wax is cheap and silicon free.

[fouronesix]

Hi:

Has anyone had experience with using Teak Oil for a stock finish?


Thanks,

Terryt

Any of the those similar oils for wood treatment/finish will work. What gear posted is exactly the way most all the super thin oils act. They penetrate and take a lot of time to dry between coats. It will likely take many coats and much time to build any type of sealed surface finish.

Even finishes like Truoil, if thinned with mineral spirits or naphtha, will penetrate and act similarly but they do have driers/polymerizers so will dry, set up or build a surface a little quicker.

Also, most of the penetrating oils and even the oil based varnishes that have been thinned can darken wood a bunch. Wood like walnut will darken quite a bit and may not require any stain. Lighter colored, dense wood will not darken very much. All depends on what "look" you want.

[geargnasher]

Very true, Teak oil is NOT good for building much of a surface. Sometimes you want that, sometimes not, depends on the finish desired. Nothing beats BC Tru-Oil for build and shine IMHO.

The thing to remember is each of the commercial oil finishes have a specific purpose, Teak oil being a marine hardwood deck sealant that is easily recoated periodically without having to sand away a high surface build first. It's made to soak in to waterproof, seal, and harden IN dense hardwoods, not ON them. I have several thousand board-feet of pecan cabinets, trim, doors, bookcases, furniture, etc. in my house and wanted an easily touched-up, hard finish to go on the bare, unstained wood and have it all look the same whether on kitchen cabinets or the master bed. Nothing beats Teak oil for that. The pecan thresholds look just like the crown moulding, even after being recoated twice. It's nice that all the wood still FEELS like wood after being finished, yet is waterproof and durable.

Gear

[gnoahhh]

Yep, nothing beats a decent oil finish on interior woodwork/furniture. Not so much on stuff that sees the outdoors.

Having been in the marine industry for a loooong time, never did I witness anybody putting teak oil on teak decking, or any other kind of finish for that matter. The idea behind teak for decks is that it is like nature's pressure treated wood in terms of rot resistance- no finish is necessary- and it ages to a pleasing gray color. To try to finish it would be an exercise in futility. Also, the natural surface is a great non-skid surface, even when wet. No small consideration on a boat. That would be abrogated by finishing in any way.

The same holds true for typical brightwork on a boat's exterior (exposed wood trim that gets finished). No one I know uses teak oil for that either. It simply doesn't hold up and would require constant re-oiling to keep up appearances. Who wants to do that? Varnish on brightwork remains the best plan. We used teak oil for teak fixtures inside of boats, and it holds up reasonably well there, but does degrade faster than one would think ideal. Once you commit to using teak oil you must plan to re-do it fairly often.

I suspect it's because teak oil is primarily a simple regular old oil finish product (actually a thin wiping varnish) that has been thinned a lot. Thinned because teak is already a pretty oily wood in its natural state and doesn't need much oil added to it.

Thinning any finish- be it oil or varnish- in initial coats, is fooling oneself. Penetration is better, sure, but what is penetrating so deep is the thinner not the oil/varnish, which remains in the surface where it would stay even if un-thinned. Save the thinner for the last coats of varnish when you want to achieve smoothness. Don't bother with thinning the heck out of any oil- you're just making more work for yourself.

[GabbyM]

thread drift:

I have a nice pair of JBL music speakers. Big ones with oil finished Vanier from back in the 1970's. Do not want to make wood any darker but they are drying out some. Have about ten years ago rubbed in a light coat of Lemon oil I found laying around. My local hardware store has teak oil and about any other wood finishing oil you could think of. Amish country here.
IIRC back around 1979 I rubbed a coat of Johnson Paste Wax on them.

I'd like to here the full Monty, make them beautiful routine from an experienced furniture finisher. I can spend some time with these. They cost two weeks wages new back thirty-five years ago. They are 12" woofer three ways hanging on my wall. Light colored wood btw.

[waksupi]

thread drift:

I have a nice pair of JBL music speakers. Big ones with oil finished Vanier from back in the 1970's. Do not want to make wood any darker but they are drying out some. Have about ten years ago rubbed in a light coat of Lemon oil I found laying around. My local hardware store has teak oil and about any other wood finishing oil you could think of. Amish country here.
IIRC back around 1979 I rubbed a coat of Johnson Paste Wax on them.

I'd like to here the full Monty, make them beautiful routine from an experienced furniture finisher. I can spend some time with these. They cost two weeks wages new back thirty-five years ago. They are 12" woofer three ways hanging on my wall. Light colored wood btw.

Try some Murphy's Oil Soap.

[GabbyM]

Try some Murphy's Oil Soap.

No that's not the rout I'll be taking here.

[gnoahhh]

Strip, sand (start with 120x and go down to 400x- always with a stiff backer behind the paper), oil with whatever advice has been batted around here, wax with a good paste wax when thoroughly dried. Remove the speakers and grill cloth first, plan on replacing the grill cloth when done.

Note: if by "Vanier" you mean veneer, then go easy when stripping/scraping the old finish off, and sand gently starting with 220x- you don't want to take a chance on "burning through" the veneer. It can be pretty thin stuff. I would do a test area on the bottom of the speaker where you won't see it before tackling the whole outside surface.

[GabbyM]

That sounds about right gnoahh. Yes it's "veneer". Thank you.

[terryt]

Thanks to all of you for your replies. You have been a great deal of help.

Terryt

[Wayne Smith]

Point of fact - as far as I know there are only two oil wood finishes that completely polmerize in the wood - that means harden. BLO is specifically used in Spar varnishes because it does not completely polmerize and remains soft and moves with the wood.

The two that completely polmerize are Tung Oil and Walnut Oil. Raw Tung Oil is thick and needs driers added to completely polmerize, Walnut oil is thin and doesn't. I made our grandsons some blocks out of American Persimmon - a relatively hard wood. They absorbed 24 coats of Walnut Oil before I saw any buildup of the oil (what most people call a finish). I usually stop at about five to eight coats of Tung Oil.

[Cariboo]

= parts beeswax; tong oil; odorless mineral spirits looks real good and seems to be holding up well

[gnoahhh]

There is no discernible difference between linseed oil and tung oil. Both behave the same and offer the same protection (which isn't much when used alone). In fact, the varnish manufacturers regularly interchange the two in their recipes, depending on availability.

All this talk about favorite "oil finishes" and recipes, etc. is all well and good. I haven't seen one bandied about here that isn't good- as far as it goes. I wonder how many guys here though have actually conducted tests using walnut planks with different finishes and subjected to the same weather and time outside as a means of determining what really works and what doesn't? Try a test like that and get back to me on how the vaunted "oil finishes" work out! :)

I've heard people say that straight linseed/tung oil is a great wood finish, or why else would've the U.S. gov't arsenals used it for many generations? The truth is they used because it was cheap and quick, not because it was the best. What does the gov't care if a stock fails? Just throw another one on the gun and send it back it into battle.

[leftiye]

I've conducted many tests on rifle stocks, as have bazillions of other gun afficionados since time immemorial. If you want indestructible - paint it. If you want beauty, boiled linseed oil over tung oil. Then wax.

[gnoahhh]

Ha ha! Agreed, re: paint. Varnish is a good substitute for paint though, and with sufficient build and careful rubbing out, and then waxing to bring up a luster versus a shine, you get a beautiful finish that actually provides halfway decent protection against water fenestration. Nothing in this man's world offers 100% protection though.

I think the reason "oil finishes" are the darling of the blue steel and walnut crowd at present is that very few people want to take the time to do a "proper" finish. Instant gratification has leeched into our segment of society, too. A few evenings with a bottle of TruOil versus a month with a badger bristle brush. Hmmm, let's see...

Like everything else in life, what you put into it will equal what you get out of it.

[leftiye]

They are the "Darling" because they are the real deal historically authentic "classic" finish that has been in use for several hundred years. That besides being the standard to which all others are held. They define "proper." Varnish is varnish and if perhaps you wet sand it and buff it and otherwise play with it, it still ain't oil. Water penetration in terms of vapor or humidity is non stoppable. Actual water contact (whether from precipitation or from use as a boat paddle) is not going to be indefinitely endureable for any finish continually if the finish is on wood. Oil finishes do well enough for normal use. (Oh, and they are repairable) For more than this it is probly better to carry the gun in a sleeve like the mountain men did.

[gnoahhh]

Agreed. But I will stand by my theory regarding the masses of people who look for the easy way out versus doing it right.

[Clark]

I made some cutting boards and put mineral oil on them and bees wax over that.
It was odorless and non toxic to me, I don't know about deer.
On guns, lately I have been using Brownells Aluma Hyde II. I build a cardboard outhouse with heater at the bottom, baffle above that, then the barrels and stocks hanging, and a thermometer at the top. I wrap blankets around it until it is 100 degrees F. Then I spray with the aerosol cans. It is like a one part thick hard epoxy paint.
http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx220/ClarkM/Sav110223250neckLWCMbarrelBoydsTacticalstockSSSrec oillug9-29-2013.jpg

25 years ago I was buying Sea-Fin in 5 gallon cans. That is Tung oil with some extra polymers added. I am never putting any of that on a gun. Stinks too much.

[terryt]

Hi:

Thanks for the info.

Terryt

[mozeppa]

i watch a video on colonial gunsmithing by a walter gusler....amazing!

he hand finished a stock with linseed oil and iron dust mixed.

he would paint on a thick layer then hold a glowing hot piece of steel over the wet mixture and
you immediately see the wood turn dark red .

it was beautiful!

and wiped it down ...tada ....thats it , ready to shoot. (when dry)

[fouronesix]

That film (video) Gunsmith of Williamsburg is a 1969 production and available through the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Wallace Gusler was the master gunsmith there at that time and the video shows how those firearms were built. Excellent video.

Aqua Fortis (dilute nitric acid) was the commonly used staining agent for maple at that time and is still available from Track of the Wolf. It needs to be used on bare, clean wood that hasn't been previously treated with any finish. It responds to heat after application to the wood. It works very well for the purpose but not as easy as something like the Laurel Mtn. alcohol/water based stains currently available.
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/392/1/AQUAFORT-2

[Clark]

I tracked down 4 minutes of the hot iron over the linseed oil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhiZonwTEqs

[fifty4]

I see a Remington rollingblock, tell me a little about it , I have one that looks a lot like it thanks 54