Restoring Gun Stocks

I just recently bought an old 12 Ga SXS Spanish shotgun from Daves Sports Shop in Lynden WA. I got it for a killer deal, it was $200! I took that gun out to shoot it the next day, and it shot like a dream. The stock was a little bit dinged up though so I decided to sand out the nicks, and put a new finish on it. I've restored several guns before this one so I have it down to a system. I have done stocks with several different kinds of wood, and I can tell you that if you are thinking about restoring a birch wood stock, don't even bother! The only wood that is worth working on is wood you don't have to stain.
My side by side stock is made out of maple, first I took 80 grit sandpaper and got all the old finish off the stock and all the dings (always sand with the grain). You have to be careful not to over sand on the nicks you could end up with a weird looking stock. After I got all the old finish off I took 140 grit sandpaper to smooth up what the rough paper went over. It's very important to get the stock perfectly smooth and remove any cross grain sanding you may have done. When I think i'm done sanding I use an air compressor and blow off all the wood dust and look carefully over the stock, if you have one use a magnifying glass. What I am looking for is rough places in the wood, or cross grain scratches. Sand it smooth and then blow it off again, and repeat the process. Then I take some 00 Steel Wool to it to sort of polish the wood and make it even smoother. Once again I take the air compressor and spray off the wood dust.
That ends the sanding stage, and now comes the finishing stage. I take the stock into a dust free room (in my case the bathroom) and hang the stock from the ceiling to make it easier to put the finish on. I use Formby's Danish Tung Oil which acts as a sealer and a gloss. On this stock I’m using low gloss oil, you can usually find it at a hardware store. I then take a rag with NO lint on it, I put some on the rag and proceed to apply the oil to the stock using the rag (don't completely soak the rag in oil). Avoid getting any oil in the checkering, otherwise it will look nasty. You can do this process as many times as you want, the more you do it the better it will look (I've put as many as 30 coats on a gun) after you are completely done coating the gun, then take the finest grain steel wool you can get and lightly go over the finish with that. And your Done!

If you have any of your own tips or suggestions for me I'd like to hear them! Please use the comment box.