Tru oil versus Timberlux
 

For those who have used both Tru oil and Timberlux, which do you think is best for gunstock finish? Thanks for your input.

I hate Tru oil and never used Timberlux But I think others have and like it they will chime in .

Tru oil needs to be thinned ,it makes a good tough finish - but the thickness IMO can make it troublesome to apply .

I have no experience with Timberlux ,but I've heard good things .
Permalyn is another great product .

There are as many opinions over finish as we have Arse****s,but I have always personally felt the method of application is most important

I too have heard great things about Timberlux, (I don't like Tru Oil) and I was going to order some but he charges $15 for shipping one jar ! That's a little excessive.

Tru-oil is a very good versitle finish that can be used to acheive a varitey of types of finishes.
For someone with not much experience and working on general projects, they cant go wrong with it.

Timberluxe is good as well, and is a lot better at getting some color into the wood since it has some color to it itself. It is a better finish for getting the right look on older guns. Not that it is hard to work with or anything, but it is different than tru-oil for sure. It definately has a longer dry time or ahoukd i say cure time.

I don't like True Oil and haven't tried Timberlux. I like Pro Custom Oil and I know many stockmakers that like it too.

Brian Board maker of Timberluxe is usually at the Southern. Might check to see and buy the product there or have someone to pick it up. A great product.

If he's at the Southern I'll pick up a jar as I want to try the product.

I've used Tru Oil for 50 years and am able to get an excellent smooth finish with it every time. I thin it, mix stain with it when I need too and do a sanded in finish that takes about a week to complete. It ain't for a man in a hurry. I've never used Timberlux but I have copied the shape of their duck calls which I think are very attractive especially with some hand checkering added to the barrel.

Like anyone that repairs or restores stocks I was always looking for something better and I tried a pile of finishes over the years. I am a big fan of TL. I use it for complete refinish jobs, It blends well with most existing finishes for repairs and brightens up dry finishes. It works best in low humidity and applied sparingly.

Like my mentor has said many times "this may not be the only way to do this or the best but is the way I do it.

Never had any problem with TruOil. May try something else sometime, but don't have any real compelling reason to do so.

I have used Tru Oil since the late 70’s. I am always pleased with the end result. The first one I did was my Dad’s VH. I used it a lot in the field and the finish remains in very good condition to this day. Cheers Jack

The gentleman who makes Timberlux was kind enough to bless me with some samples at the Southern yesterday. Looking forward to trying it out for the first time. That, and finding a #1 frame hammergun I could afford helped make it a great day!

I've used True Oil for 20 years on personal projects, it's been OK. My last project was a C grade Fox. I decided to try Timberlux stain and finish. Any future project will be done with Timberlux. Not only is it easy to use, but it looks great and is very durable. The Fox has been out in rain and snow and has been pushed though grouse cover time and time again. The finish looks like it was done yesterday.
Dave

I missed Brian from Timberlux as I wanted to pickup a jar from him (I know I can order a jar but $15 for shipping is a little steep.) but missed him, tried to find him on Sat and Sunday (no cell service....) and when I did reach him he had already left. Really wanted to try the product.

A winchester 94 deluxe refinished with Timberluxe. Also used their stain with the finish. You can't quite get that look with tru-oil.

Attachment 62639

I just received a bottle of TimberLux. This will be my first time using it. I bought it because of all the good things that were said about it. One of the reasons I liked TruOil is that, after filling the pores and coloring the stock if necessary, I can rub it into the stock and then wipe most of it off with a rag. This builds up the finish a tiny bit at a time. No worries about dust or other contaminents getting into the finish or uneveness that must be taken down. Some finishes are too tacky to do my process. I hope TimberLux isn't.

Laurel mountain forge permalyn is great. The sealer is even better. Waterlox also guves nice finish

No doubt that you got good results with Permalyn products. I stayed away from Permalyn because I believed that they used synthetic polymers. I could be wrong. I use thinned tung oil for the filler. I soak, let dry, soak again till the stock will take no more tung oil. Then I wet sand it with the grain using tung oil and spread the sawdust mud cross grain with my fingers. I keep repeating the process till all pores are filled level. Then I hand rub in Tru-Oil and wipe it off with a cotton cloth. I keep doing this till I get the depth of finish I require. It takes a while to finish or refresh a stock but it’s worth the effort.

I’ve heard negative comments on this site about George Brothers Lin-Speed. I’ve used that also and the results are similar to Tru-Oil. It does tend to produce a shiner finish, but this can be easily adjusted. I am going to try Timber-lux for the heck of it. I’ll start a stock with it this week.

There are many methods and products which provide an appropriate finish for Parkers.

Thats a gorgeous finish Brian! Did you use permalyn to seal it or Timberlux? I recall we had a discussion on here at one point where you said you were a big fan of permalyn's sealer. Just curious what you used. Might give timberlux a try on that Trojan I have coming my way.

I think that was strictly timberluxe. But i cannot remember. I have been using teak oil mixed with alkenet root a lot lately as a sealer.

That's a good question. I'll be interested in what Brian has to say. I've always used off the shelf tung oil to seal the stock using the mud method until all the pores are filled. Then I finish up with Timberlux now. In the past I used TruOil.

That’s interesting. I’ve always used the alkenet stain after all the pores are filled and let it sit for at least 24 hours. But I am going to try Brian’s method with my next stock. Great tip. I made up a batch of alkenet root stain years ago and I still have a lot left. I boil the alkenet roots in linseed oil and then leave the roots in the jar for storage.

I now use Timberluxe but I don’t seal the stock with it. It’s too expensive and I like off the shelf tung oil for sealing since it works well and is inexpensive. I go through a lot of tung oil filling the stock using the mud method.

alkenet root
 

where can you find alkenet root, I would like to mix my own stain.

Ron Moore

I bought some on EBay.

I haven't bought it in years but I think I got it from somwhere in England. But you should be able to find it on the internet. I used the actual roots and not the powder that is sometimes sold. I filled a coffee can half full of the root and then filled the can level with linseed oil. If I was to do it again, I would use tung oil for the faster drying time. I boiled the root in oil but you have to be very careful to take it off the stove at the first sign of a boil. If left, it will flow over and make a hell of a mess.

Ordered some last night to try on the Trojan I have coming my way. Got a call from Brian Board this morning just to verify the humidity levels I would be dealing with and to give me some advice on the application of the finish and the stain. Had a pleasant talk with him afterwards regarding when he worked on Parkers for Herschell Chaddick and he told me about an AH grade he refinished about 16 months ago. Seems like a pleasant fellow.

Brian is a very pleasant fellow and he knows his stuff! What an artist he is in his craft!

You should see his duck calls with AA Parker checkering.





.

He's got some nice ones on his website, but I don't think my extremely limited duck shooting warrants that quality of a duck call :)

I have some Winchester Red Oil on order. How much different is it to work with than the others? Can I build up the top coat with Tu-oil?

I have not used it, but all I can say is that the shade of winchester red is such that it really does not look right on anything but a winchester.

Thanks.

I'm one of those guys who loves warm walnut. The "green" steamed look is not to my liking. However, I'm going to experiment so that it just has that "kiss of red" that doesn't look wrong. My 1973 rifle will be my guide.

I'm hoping the compatibility with Tru-oil will be fine.

TruOil finishes can cloud if the gun is in the rain and the stock gets wet. Timberluxe doesn’t .

That's an interesting point Bruce. I don't have enough experience with Timberluxe to form an opinion. But I'll tuck that thought into the back of my mind and will observe. Thanks for mentioning that. I hadn't heard that before.

Tru-oil does not cloud in the rain.

Good to know, but I don't hunt anymore. My guns rarely see daylight, let alone rain.

I looked at Timberlux a few years ago, after reading the MSDS, I realized that it was a mixture of linseed oil, sunflower oil, naphtha (thinner) and some metallic driers.

I don't know about sunflower oil for protecting wood, but linseed oil is not great.

I've tried a lot of finishes in my shop, the one that I always go back to is Tru-Oil. depending on how I apply it, and rub it out, I can replicate just about any finish from a high gloss "piano finish" to a hand rubbed oil finish.

And no it doesn't cloud.

I've come to the same conclusion. But it had nothing to do with durability. I just could not tell much or any difference in the finish of guns using Timberluxe vs. Tru-Oil. Timberluxe is a lot more expensive and I would use it if I could see a meaningful difference. But I've gone back to Tru-Oil

I have had quite a few instances of TruOil stocks clouding up when wet. Particularly those that were finished to an extremely high gloss. I have noticed that the cloudy areas usually coincide with the wet stock being in contact with something warm, a hand, shoulder car seat etc. Almost without exception, after drying thoroughly, and with a little buffing, the clouding disappeared. It may have somthing to do with the generally high temps down here in South Texas.

Timberluxe gives much more depth and color to a stock finish than tru-oil. Therein lies the major difference.