Stock Conditioning Without Danish Oil?

[Moss74]

It's certainly not rocket science and anyone can do it using traditional means. Buy, beg, steal or acquire some Alkanet/Red oil if you want to deepen the wood colour otherwise buy some refined artist-grade linseed oil. I won't recommend boiled linseed as it can give problems if applied too thickly and turns into a sticky mess. Pour out a capful and dab the pad of your forefinger just into the surface of it, flick off the excess and there you have enough to do half of one side of a stock. Spread this over the butt and massage into the surface, repeat for the forend and for the cut outs where the action sits. Repeat for the other side.
If your stock is dry and hungry the oil will soak in quite quickly, when it has disappeared give it another coat. If you wish to achieve a traditional oil finish rather than applying a oil dressing, carry on reapplying oil until it will not soak up anymore and once the oil has oxidised within the wood it can be polished to a lustrous finish with the palm of your hand.
Now tell me what is difficult about that?

If you were oiling a stock like a factory HW tyrolean with a lot of fine chequering would this method still work?
I tried this and the oil was clogging up in the panels,
It looked a mess.

I stripped it, oiled it again with BLO and wiped it down with an oily cloth as advised by Craig p.
after three coats it looked like a conker straight out of it's shell and still does, after five years.

Martin

[chris u'5]

If you were oiling a stock like a factory HW tyrolean with a lot of fine chequering would this method still work?
I tried this and the oil was clogging up in the panels,
It looked a mess.

I stripped it, oiled it again with BLO and wiped it down with an oily cloth as advised by Craig p.
after three coats it looked like a conker straight out of it's shell and still does, after five years.

Martin

I've read about people having problems with the chequering as well which is another thing that worries me about the process.

[Tricky-Ricky]

I always use Danish oil on my stocks, however for penetration and conditioning it's not ideal as it contains a hardener which make it go off in about 6-12 hours, and you can vary the finish by how and the number of coats you use, for conditioning I would use a straight oil of whatever make you choose and then add Danish oil as a sealer after a week or so.