Stock refinishing: Waterlox, Tru-Oil, or Watco?

[Bad Dog]

I plan on refinishing a couple old beat up rifle stocks over the winter. I definitely want a hand rubbed oil finish with a satin to semi-gloss sheen.
I'm leaning towards Waterlox but would love to know what others have used or suggest.

[JethroBodine]

I use Tru-Oil or Permalyn. Just finishing up a stock with Tru-Oil on a Kimber Of Oregon 223 that had an accident. After the pores are filled I wet sand with 600 then hand rub the finish until it's not tacky, usually takes 3-4 coats after sanding. Gives it a nice Satin or semi-gloss finish.

[sgtDoc]

i've had good luck with tru-oil but it is pretty shiny if done right. can be toned down a bit but remains pretty glossy unless you sand the bejeebsus out of it. it is a nice protective hard shell.
ren-wax works nice for a matte finish but does not provide much protection.

[Bad Dog]

Thats a beautiful piece of wood and finish

[JethroBodine]

Thats a beautiful piece of wood and finish

Yeah KoO really put some nice wood on their rifles. I have a couple KoO Super Americas that are even nicer. The stock pictured was almost broken in two pieces. After researching how much a replacement would cost ($1000 and would need to be inlet to the action), I decided to try fixing it. I'm pretty happy with the results so far and considering it's for a 223 I think the repair will be strong enough.

[def90]

Just use a straight up oil finish such as tung oil or boiled linseed oil.

[Ah Pook]

I've had good luck with Rocky Mountain Luster but that was on an already finished stock. It really brought out the walnut grain.

[Bubbafudd]

I'm probably late to this party, but when i re-finish gunstocks I generally strip most of the old finish with 60-80 grit (carefully) using an orbital palm sander, then hand sand with like 220, then clean with compressed air and a tack cloth, then a coat of Watco Danish oil finish. Let dry for an hour or two (depends on temperature) then buff with steel wool- 000 I think. then compressed air and tack cloth again, another coat of Watco, light steel wool, air and tack cloth, let dry overnight. Finish with a coat or two of Carnuba wax, looks great!

[mb504]

With all this refinishing, is anyone cleaning up the checkering?

[JethroBodine]

I usually clean up the checkering after getting the finish I want. It depends on how bad the checkering was before I started as to how much I go over it. On the stock in my post I just cleaned up where too much finish got into it, the points were still sharp so I didn't have to do much to it. On others I've re-checkered them to get the points sharp.