Recoil pad and tru oil

[B. Dudley]

You can use wax on it or you can just use gun oil on it to help eliminate that light look of a freshly ground pad. Also, the finer the grit used when finishing the pad will give a better finish. I find that the pad is usually not the issue, but more the black plastic base that needs the wax or oil. They can look gray if they do not have something on them.

If I am finishing a stock with a hard buttplate on it, I usually put the buttplate on it for the last several coats so that the finish goes over the plastic and glosses it up.

I know that Linspeed and also lindseed oil with Japan Drier will dry on the recoil pad rubber. I have used Tru-oil a lot, but have not used it on the pads.

The worst pads for being difficult to get a nice ground finish out of is the limbsaver pads or other similar Gel type pads. I know that the limbsaver company says to actually wet-grind the pads with oil. Progressively working up to finer papers as the grinding is done. This prevents the burning and rough finish on the pad, and also forces the oil into the pad for a shiney finish.

I use a 12" radius sander for recoil pads and the high RPM's of that sander always gives good results, I have evern ground pads with 80g. on that machine with the finish peing pretty good. Although, I usually like to use 120g.

I know of some that use vertical belt sanders for pads. They just don't have high enough RPM's.