All of the shaping is done. All of the sanding is done. Now I have started to apply the finish.
I started with boiled linseed oil (BLO) and it muddled the grain and made it really dark. Fortunately this stuff takes forever to cure so I was able to wash the stock down with some mineral spirits and blow the open pores out with compressed air. Not all of it was taken out but the majority was and it lightened up quite a bit.
After some more internet research, I decided to try Waterlox, a tung oil and resin finish. I sealed the stock and filled the grain some with multiple coats of shellac sanding sealer (dewaxed shellac/2 lb cut). I wiped and sanded the shellac down and then started with handrubbing a coat of the Waterlox.
This is the first time I have used a Waterlox product and I am really impressed. It went on so evenly and easily. It has a glossy sheen to it but the info on the product says that the sheen goes down to a semi-gloss after 3-6 months. One of the nice features of this product is that there in no profiling or sanding necessary between coats. Just apply the next coat over the previous and it chemically bonds to the previous coat. Very nice!
I have one coat on the stock so far and I am really pleased.
We did almost have a major setback in the porject today.
I had the stock hanging in the house off of a light fixture. One of the kids stood up into the stock and knocked it off on to the floor! Fortunately it fell and hit on the edge of the butt end and only dented it with a few marks on the finish on three other spots.
I was able to tape the stock around the butt end and cut about 1/16" off of the butt to remove the damaged area. That was an easy fix. I will have to do a bit of sanding on the recoil pad to get a perfect fit again but it was pretty minor considering what could have been.
Here are some pics of the progress.
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