My wife did a great job several years ago at the Twin Oaks range building an Osage stave bow. It has been "resting" ever since in a controlled environment. It has aged from a light yellow to a beautiful dark honey color.
She needs to "treat" the bow and we wondered what to use for said treatment. I normally use boiled linseed oil mixed with a bit of terpentine on most of my wood stocks etc but was conccerned on what to use on this bow. Its the only plain wood bow we own.
Thanks in advance.
Tung oil would be better. It's a more weather resistant finish. Marine varnish would work also, amongst a slew of other options.
I use Tru-Oil (a gun stock finish) on all my bows and have for 30 years. Because of it's high gloss finish I do a quick spray of satin poly to cut the shine on hunting bow.
I saw your same question on another site and couldn't believe all the trouble some fok go to mix up a concoction to finish their bow. Tru-oil here, easy, stands up well and easy to blend if you get a nick and want to add a little more finish.
Here is a tip; only punch a pin hole in the aluminum seal after you open the bottle and store the bottle upside down when not in use, this will keep the finish in the bottle from drying out for months.
I build flintlock guns and whenever people talk finish some go to ridiculous extremes to replicate some violin varnish from the 18th century.
"I build flintlock guns and whenever people talk finish some go to ridiculous extremes to replicate some violin varnish from the 18th century."
Guilty here. Folks used to pay me a lot of money to make wood look old.