A closer look..

The top stock is the Timberluxe. The dark part at the butt is grain in wood..and a little shadow..The second picture shows it better..You can adjust for how much gloss you want..and how dark..or light..you like the finished stock..hard to beat.. jv...

Timberlux is very good. I have done three stocks with it and I think I like it a bit better than Tru Oil, but I don't know if I'm being totally objective. I'm trying to be but its hard when looking at your own work. My point is that the difference between the two products, in my opinion, is so small that it is hard for me to objectively tell the difference. You can get any type of finish with either. But I always strive to have the same amount of gloss that original Parker finish guns have. I have a benchmark gun that I always use for comparison. Parker stocks are not satin finish by any means, at least not those done by the shellac and oil method. I have never seen an original optional oil finish stock, so I can't comment about them.


In my opinion, the only criteria for determining the quality of a finished stock is to view it side by side with a lightly used original finish gun. If it is a close match, then you've done a good job no matter what product you used. Matching Parker finishes as closely as possible should always be the goal.

The best way to produce a Parker finish is to use Shellac. That's what they used the majority of the time.

Or French Polish as Austin often recommended, which is shellac based.





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French polish is just shellac with linspeed oil used as a lubricant so the shellac won't stick when being applied with the pad. Google Luthiers and see how it's done. Dries almost immediately and you can apply booco layers in a day. Also easy to fix if you screw up.

I've considered the shellac and oil method. Thats how Parker did stocks and so it seems the logical choice of method. But shellac and oil is a harder finish and can chip with a lot of use and sometimes not so much use. I've had to repair original Parker stocks that had chipped. I just finished fixing the stock on a PH 80% original gun. So I long ago chose to go with Tru Oil or Linspeed and now Timberlux. I can mimic original Parker finish very closely with any of those products.