This might sound crazy, but before I hit the stock with anything to strip it down, I put it in the dishwasher with no soap or anything. I did this wehen I lived in an apartment, but now that I built a PVC pipe steamer, I use that. They both work equally well. This pulls all of the oil, and grease, and anything else out of the surface of the wood (For instance, on M1-Garand’s, they were stored packed in cosmoline grease).

Never, never, never, ever ever ever, never, touch that stock with sandpaper to remove finish (more on this later), unless you aim (no pun intended) to change the ergonomics of the stock. You don’t want to run the risk of deforming the wood. If you must remove finish, use a stripper. I use a no VOC product called Franmar Soy Gel. It literally gets into the grain and buckles the finish off. The only bad thing I have seen with this is the film it leaves on the wood. It is easily cleaned with plain water, but because I run the wood in the dishwasher again to soften the dents and pull them out again, it doesn’t make a difference anyway. If you still have dent’s, use a steam iron to pull them out.

Now the most important thing: Let the stock dry for a few weeks….the longer the better.

Since your piece of wood has seen multiple water treatments, it is likely that the grain will now be raised. With a light (and I do mean very light) sanding of 220 to knock the grain down, all will be well. Don’t press hard on the work, and let the paper and your hand follow the wood. If the surface appears scratched, go progressively smaller until you are happy, but generally, I’ve had no issue with 220 grit. With walnut, the grain standing up is a little bit of an issue, but not as much of one as with other wood stocks.

Now the finish. With military restorations, which is generally what I go with, I use boiled linseed oil in wipe on fashion, in very thin coats, leaving at least 24 hours in between curing time. In the winter here in Texas, I will lengthen that to 72 hours. Generally, I will cut the linseed oil into a 75% oil 25% spirits mix. If I am not getting the absorption I want, I will go 50-50, but it takes time to play it by ear.

If you’re not looking to go that route, and want more or a presentation instead of a utility finish, go with a product like Birchwood-Casey’s Tru Oil.

They have some nice CMT blades.
Anybody have any exeperience with CMT??

About the Festool in Europe I agree!!!!

Nice article – but in one respect it was a bad test, because each product was applied ‘per manufacturers instructions’. Some got 2 or 4 coats – Epifanes got Seven – yes – 7!

It would have been far better to have all prducts applied the same way – or at least one set of samples done all the same way, in addition to Manufacturers instructions.

My guess is almost any decent phenolic/alkyd ‘UV resistant’ Varnish might hold up like Epithanes if 7 coats were used!

For the Epifanes procedure, see:
http://www.jamestowndistributo.....arnish.pdf

In short:

1 coat 50% thinned dry for 24 hours.
1 coat 25% thinned dry for 24 hours – sand w/220.
1 coat 15% thinned dry for 24 hours – sand w/220.
4 coats or more – thinned 0-5% 24hrs, sand wetdry 400

I’ll bet the $15/qt stuff comes pretty close to the $45/qt Epifanes if you bother to go thru all that!

I am from France as well and the best place I have found so far is in England :
http://www.axminster.co.uk/
with the current exchange rate it is quite interesting (even with shipping) and they have a lot of references in store (unprecedented for me so far).

Jimmy, you might find your combination blade.

My regret in Europe, well at least in the Euro zone, Festool is very expensive :(
I envy you oversea. With US prices, I would already have all the power tools I need.

In France, I used to buy all my tools at Leroy Merlin or , they have a online store :

For your particular request, it seems like they carry Bosch and SmartTool (?) for brands. Is Freud a must ?

http://www.leroymerlin.fr/mpng.....l=on#first

But of course you need to understand French a little bit.
I don’t know if they ship across Europe but if you need, I can send an email and ask.

Anyway, if you need more help, fell free to contact me : pagirard@gmail.com