Polyurethane Finish vs Oil
 

Due to 'rippling' ( shrinkage ? ) of the original poly finish on one of my 12 Ga. Repros, I have contracted a local 'smith to strip and apply a 'London' oil finish.

I have received some alerts / updates, that the job is approaching a conclusion.

Am a little apprehensive, re: the result / what it is that I should expect to receive ....

( In general, I prefer a poly finish to cope with the litres of sunscreen that I apply to my face; sunscreen has had a detrimental affect to some of my oil finished guns. )

Any other folk with experience in such matters, who perhaps could assuage my concerns ?

Should, a replacement of the original poly finish with a quality oil finish .... ALWAYS be expected to enhance the figure / grain in the wood ?

P.S. The subject gun has gorgeous figure.

It was not the finish that shrunk on your stock. It Was the wood itself. This happens with highly figured wood. Especially wood with a lot of heavy feather crotch figure in it.

You MAY find that over time, the same thing will happen with the new finish.

Brian is absolutely right. I have a Repro with lots of tight feather crotch figure where it has shrunk over time and caused the described rippling. However, it doesn't concern me and I simply look at it as a characteristic of such nice wood that probably wasn't allowed to age and cure long enough before being made into a gun stock.

Tony, I think you will be happy with the oil finish. I've replaced the poly finish on a Parker Reproduction and a Beretta 687 EELL Diamond Pigeon. In both cases the oil finish brought out the figure in the wood much better than the poly finish did. An occasional rub with artists linseed oil keeps the oil finish looking perfect!

What do you repro people and other Parker people
Think of TruOil finish, I know it is easy to work with.
I have a double trigger 28 ga repro that looks way darker than when I got it 8 yrs ago, and I am thinking about taking the original off and put TruOil on it. I have taken the poly off a Winchester Pigeon 101, and must have taken 4
Or 5 coats of the remover . Is there an easy product to get the poly off.

Thanks in advance

Yep. The product is called elbow grease

TruOil is great, just be sure you don't end up with too shiny of a finish.

Chemical paint stripper plus elbow grease does the job removing the old finish.

Tru-oil is a great finish and many high end doubles being built today use it, including the Krieghoff Essencia. If the finish dries with a finish that is shiny all you need to do is rub it down with pumice or rhottenstone on a rag with a little light weight oil. This will give you a very nice "soft" looking finish. A couple drops on a rag every year or two and you can keep the finish looking great.

Whatever bug dope you're using, throw it away and get some Repel Lemon Eucalyptus that has no DEET but works just as well and smells a hell of a lot better. It's all I use. I tossed about 60 containers of every other DEET dope I had when I discovered it.

Sounds good to me!!!!