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Gunstock oil neck finish...


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As above. Did this on my Road Worn P neck using Tru-Oil. Sanded the neck to the wood and applied about four or five coats of Tru-Oil. It's less an oil and more of a varnish actually, if you build it up enough it will form a gloss coat which you can then take back to a silky finish with Scotchbrite or similar. So you get the effect of a smooth unfinished neck, but the wood is protected. I like the smell of Tru-oil, it reminds me of art class. ;)

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[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1473592902' post='3131413']
Strip the finish off the neck & oil the bare wood. Job done.
[/quote]

That is pretty much it. It is a fairly simple procedure, although not piece of cake easy but certainly not a hard one. Getting a nice surface takes time and the oiling takes time.

There's probably a few good threads on this around already.
A few tips would be remove the neck and mask up everything you don't want to get sanded or a build up of crap on.

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Watch out when using Tru-Oil.
If you apply with rags or paper towels, make sure you spread them out flat to dry after you apply the finish.
It's a pre-catalyzed formula which will cure once exposed to oxygen.
If rags or paper towels soaked in it stay crumpled up after use, the heat generated when it cures can cause them to catch fire.

Karl

Edited by Karl Derrick
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Yeah, I've Tru Oiled a couple of necks and got good results. Its a pretty straightforward process. I found that a really fine sanding after the oil had cured on the neck really helped to get a nice, satin finish with no stickiness.

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Thin layers of tru-oil with light buffing using 0000 steelwool before each layer. 3 layers got my neck a lovely hue. Then 3 thin layers of gunstock wax with light buffing in between gave me a silky smooth feel and a near indestructible finish.
Never needed to soak the cloth though, a little goes along way!
Enjoy :)

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[quote name='Bolo' timestamp='1473712152' post='3132536']
...a little goes along way!
[/quote]

It certainly does. I made a small hole in the foil seal with a pen. Otherwise you get too much on the cloth. Little and often when applying, it gets tacky and you have to work quite quickly. Talking of cloths I used a microfibre job, I found it gave more even coverage.

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  • 2 weeks later...

You might want to use Tru-oil or maybe Danish oil.

The suggestion to use 0000 wire wool between coats is a good one. However do not wipe off the dust from each sanding. Instead use it as a wood filler which you will combine in the next coat and sand down.

Works on my shotguns.

You might want to wax, but I prefer the oiled finish directly.

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  • 2 years later...

Folks

Useful thread, thanks. I've some experience of sanding the finish off bass necks and refinishing with oil, with a decent degree of success. However, I have a lovely old MIJ Fender neck that a previous owner has finished with a very thick layer of varnish, and which I want to strip back to an oil finish. Can anyone recommend a product I can use to get at least the worst of the finish off, I suspect that sanding will be a very long and painful process given the thickness of the stuff!

Cheers

Chris

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Depends on what the base of the varnish is. Acetone may work to a certain extent if it’s an oil based varnish or Nitro (not a varnish though) but be careful as it’ll melt any plastics you may have around (including the side position markers!). If it’s polyester or another type of catalyized finish it’s pretty much indestructible to chemicals and scraping will be your best bet.

Edited by Manton Customs
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Go and buy a (metal) wood workers scraper from a local or high street diy store to take off the worst....don’t dig it into the finish, just pass it along and scrape off a little with each pass. Then sand down, then you could use micro mesh ( Ebay ) to polish it to a real smooth finish. Now use your oil, danish oil or Tru oil (from Luthier Supplies aka David Dyke in Sussex) leaving on the first good coat for a minute or three and wipe back any surplus and let it dry off. You can do a couple of coats.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For some reason I prefer the Tru Oil purchased from David Dykes. David first told me about it via an acoustic guitar builder near Petersfield described how he used micro mesh first to polish the wood and then Tru oil. Whether this builder made his own formula or not I am not sure about. One batch or Birchwood Casey I tried really did smell of 'industrial' oil but Dykes doesn't appear to have any real after odour.

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58 minutes ago, mybass said:

For some reason I prefer the Tru Oil purchased from David Dykes. David first told me about it via an acoustic guitar builder near Petersfield described how he used micro mesh first to polish the wood and then Tru oil. Whether this builder made his own formula or not I am not sure about. One batch or Birchwood Casey I tried really did smell of 'industrial' oil but Dykes doesn't appear to have any real after odour.

To clarify, 'Tru-Oil' is the registered trademark held by Birchwood Laboratories so the only true 'Tru-Oil' is, indeed, the Birchwood Casey one.  

But you are quite right - there are a myriad of blended linseed-based out there.  I think the key is how hard it sets and how quickly and it will be the additives and blends that will affect that.  I assume that the reason that the BC oil gives off that quite strong smell is that something is in there is evaporating to make the gloop harden more quickly.  I'm sure that from a wood protection point of view they all do the same job in other respects.  

I haven't tried David's blend.  Might give it a go :)  Thanks for the lead. 

 

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Just to be a bore, be aware that linseed soaked rags can pose a fire hazard.  The wet oil oxidizes in an exothermic reaction.  Dunno if that's the same for Truoil but I used to have be very careful with the cloths I used to treat my gun stocks. 

Edited by lownote12
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1 hour ago, mybass said:

For some reason I prefer the Tru Oil purchased from David Dykes. David first told me about it via an acoustic guitar builder near Petersfield described how he used micro mesh first to polish the wood and then Tru oil. Whether this builder made his own formula or not I am not sure about. One batch or Birchwood Casey I tried really did smell of 'industrial' oil but Dykes doesn't appear to have any real after odour.

Actually - just read the article that David Dyke refers to.  It is Birchwood Casey Tru-oil referred to in the article and I am sure that is what David Dyke sells.

It's actually an excellent article - 'Well Oiled with Adamson'   Google it and the pdf is there

 

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