First make sure to sand the stock to perfection or as close to possible. If you fail here, your results will not be so great. If you cheat on the sanding, dark areas will result. Don't leave marks for the finish to hide. Make sure its vacuumed or blow air on the stock to remove dust and lint.
Directions,
Use clean white lint free rag. Six inches square is fine. Drop several drops of London Oil on the cloth. Apply to the stock as you would paste wax. Rub into wood lightly till it dries. Wet it again and flip the cloth over and continue to wet and wipe dry. Do not allow the finish to dry on the stock. Keep it wiped dry. If you don't get to it in time, re-wet and polish dry. 3 or 4 coats like this is plenty. Allow a few hours to dry between coats. If its tacky-you didn't wipe it off correctly. Re-wet and wipe dry. More coats add more gloss. However this is a finish thats built into the wood, not on it.
Advanced Finish:
Apply a coat as above ( Basic Novice Finish ) Set and let dry several hours till dry. Next acquire the Scotchbrite metal finishing pad ( Maroon Color) or any 3M or same type Synthetic Steel Wool pad in the "00" or "000" grade. The Scotchbrite metal pad is best. Do not use Steel Wool ! Cut the pad into usable squares. Apply a little London Oil on the stock and lightly use the pad to sand the finish in. Use fast light strokes and not pressure. Break the stock into 4 to 6 sections and rub the oil in till it disappears. Rub only with the grain! Not against the grain! If done correctly- you will fill the pores of the wood and get a spectacular finish. Figure on 2 or 3 well done coats. Usually no rub down of any kind is required. If more gloss is required, follow the basic novice finish for the last coat or coats.
Picky Pro Finish;
Again start with the Basic Novice finish for the first coat. Next follow the advanced finish but start out with 320 grit wet-dry sandpaper followed by 400 grit, 600 grit and then the metal pad. Keep in mind that you should keep a rag handy to wipe off any excess mud. Don't let it dry.
Scratches:
Just wet the metal pad and rub finish in till it dries. Scratch is now gone!
Deep Scratches;
Sand to reform. Fill with DAP 2 ton clear epoxy. If dark wood, tint to color.Sand to perfection. Let dry and rub with a pad till blended.
Myrtle-English Walnut, Maple Etc.
To darken lite woods to look like English Walnut or to de-yellow. Take some London Oil and put it in a small cup or tablespoon. Take the empty dropper and apply a few drops of Oil based Ebony stain to darken the oil to the preferred color. Test on stock for ideal combination.
Upkeep.
From time to time you can renew the surface finish by using the Basic Novice approach. Just make sure stock is decreased and clean and free from wax.
Other Protection;
After finishing and a few days later you can rub down the stock with a quality silicone rag. Eventually it will become much glossier by doing so.
London Oil as a grain filler;
Use the advanced or picky pro finish directions and then lightly sand and apply your own finish over it. Don't used Lacquer, basically safe to put anything else over but test a very small area first.
Clean Up
Paint thinner is required
Remember very little London Oil is required to do the job. Don't throw it on, its not required as you are putting the finish in the wood not on top of it. Do not thin London Oil. It is possible to make such a dense finish that it will retard a cigarette burn. In the liquid state it is flammable-be careful and follow the material warnings!
NOVICE FINISH, This is a post taken from Delphi-Repairing and Making Airguns.
You see a lot of 1000-2000 grit talk and you say its not for me. Why? You never finished a stock before? You want a pro looking stock-meaning like a factory TX style Walnut stock. Thats plenty good for you. But you are afraid to attempt it? Try this, Sand the stock to 220-320 grit. At 220 you can get a great finish on below 4 star wood. On high grades its best to sand it like marble-you see more ( Higher grit paper). Get the scratches out and look it over a few times. NEXT> Try this with RLO. By hand or with a foam brush put RLO on the whole stock-rub it in by hand-Take a paper towel- ( YES- PAPER) and set it aside where you can grab it. Take a piece of 180 grit paper if the stock is porous-Most American Black walnut is. Put a few drops of RLO on the stock-sand it with 180 grit to fill the pores ( YES 180-not 600 grit). Sand with the grain like you did while preparing for finish-Don't press down hard. Speed and lite sanding are best. You are making mud to fill the pores. When you see the mud and you see the pores filling up. Take a 320 grit sanding sponge and now sand with it. Whisking it along to burn in and dry the mud. ( Note-wet and dry paper is not required) Next forget an expensive rag-Grab that paper towel and wipe off the excess mud residue. By now it actually is semi dry and crumbles. Set the stock aside for 5-6 hours or overnight. Next day-rub in a heavy coat or two and rag off excess. Thats it! Today I'm doing a Hunter finish job and the Walnut was super porous. Took a leisurely 13 minutes to oil and sand and fill the grain. Some grain splits were over .050" deep. One swipe and its done. And Yes the paper towel works like magic-Be sure to wet them or dispose of them properly when finished -as any tack rag can com-bust. Those that snicker at a 220 grit finish are fooling themselves. If you sand correctly and use some skill-this finish beats 95% of what I see-Those experts here excluded.
New wide-mouth glass container- 2-07-18 Shipping weight 5 ounces
Please Note- You buy only the amount of finish you need for a project and not extra to store on a shelf. No matter who makes it, if it's good for your stock it will dry out on your shelf in 2-3 months or so. I say this as all oil finishes with driers have a limited life.
