Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil Stock Finish 8 ounce

This stuff is awesome. Get whatever type of finish you want from it. From satin all the way up to high gloss. But, its a lot of work. You have to apply lots of really thin coats. I highly recommend this product and this company. Shipped from UK to Canada in 8 days. (Arrived a week and a half early) I will definately be buying this again.

Great product! 8 oz will go a long way. Apply it very sparingly and don’t Russ the dry time and you’ll have a beautiful finished stock!

I was fortunate to purchase a strat style bolt kit from Carvin/Kiesel Guitars in early 2020 right before they were discontinued. These kits were easy to assemble into very playable instruments, at about the same cost as an entry-level Fender Strat. I ordered a mahogany body and a maple neck. Once the kit arrived, the main decision was which finish to use. But this was also a chance to kind of make the guitar my own. The instructions recommended tung oil as a finish becaus it's easy to apply and also brings out the character of the wood. The downside seems to be that it doesn't offer much protection. I also considered a polyurethane finish, which is pretty widely used on electric guitars, but noticed some comments about it reducing ability of the body to resonate. Even though the sound is almost entirely coming from the pickups, I enjoy a very resonant instrument that feels "alive" when you play it. A number of posts on guitar-building forums recommended Tru-Oil because it can bring out the character of the wood, be built up to offer some protection, and not dampen resonance. I went with the Tru-Oil for both the body and the neck and have been extremely happy with the result. Visually, the mahogany and maple each pop in their own way. The body resonates strongly and produces a confident tone unplugged (for an electric). The neck feels smooth and not sticky, like a gloss poly finish might. The finish has been durable enough that I haven't felt the need to retouch it at all yet. Note that I am just a home noodler; a gigging musician might put more wear on a finish. Before applying the finish, I watched hours of YouTube videos to see the kinds of techniques people use, and then came up with a plan. Before I applied finish to the guitar, I tested it on some pieces of scrap maple and mahogany. Both the body and the neck were worked to a semi-gloss over 12-13 coats. The first 3-4 coats on each piece were done with rags to absorb into the wood. Subsequent coats were applied with sandpaper, progressing from 400 grit ("grain filling") to higher grits ("polishing"). Then, after noticing some debris and scratches in the finish, I sanded back down and built up some additional coats. The final coat was applied with a coffee filter and polished up to a semi-gloss. I waited at least 12 hours after each coat before applying the next one. After the final coat, the body and neck were left alone for about a week to let the finish cure. This was all done in an apartment with just a standing fan for ventilation, and fumes didn't seem to be an issue. Some of the finish tended to get stuck to my fingers after each session. I tried using latex gloves at some point, but they would just kind of disintegrate. I found that scrubbing my hands with WD-40 after a session helped to remove the residue. This was my first time applying a finish to anything, guitar or otherwise. It took some patience and some troubleshooting when flaws became apparent. If you plan your approach, take your time, and don't rush through the process, I don't see any reason why you can't get something you are satisfied with. I recently made a DIY coffee table from Home Depot pine boards and a set of hairpin legs. The table top is something like 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. I was curious to see if I could get a good finish with Tru-Oil. It did an excellent job of bringing out the character of the wood, and gave the white-ish pine a much warmer hue. But this time I didn't quite get the same protective layer of semi-gloss on top. The pine seemed to drink up a more of the finish than the hardwoods on the guitar, possibly just because it's a much larger piece, and I got fewer coats in with a (8oz) bottle. I was also much less patient this time with sanding the wood and perfecting the finish. I am happy with the result, but for future projects like this I would consider trying something like tung oil + wipe on poly for beautification and protection at a larger scale. And perhaps investing in an electric sander.

First of all I got it both when promised and expected. Second the price per oz was within a few cents of what I get from a local Lee Valley store. The sizes where different. My order was free shipping, also a good thing. As to the product it self, I am very pleased with the result over stained figured wood. Actual very pleased with the products performance, ease of use, and results. I would use it again and order from these folks. Project was a guitar body black limba.

If you're doing any kind of woodworking/finishing you owe it to yourself to at least give this stuff a try. I'd suspect that most people looking for this already know. I use this for furniture, guitars, of course gun stocks... It never fails once you get the hang of how to use it right. Quite possibly one of my favorite products of all time. It's very rare to find a miracle in a bottle. True-Oil is one of those.