Good information and interesting thread.

We've got a Stickley warehouse about 30 miles from here and a showroom in my town. Interestingly enough, when they "consolidated', the store closed but all the furniture was still in there. It was weird to see a store closed for many months but still fully stocked. Now, however, it's been reopened and the new employee I spoke to was excited about its prospects. With retail suffering a bit, however, it will be interesting to see if they survive. Their furniture pieces are stout and well finished from what I've seen of them. Of course, I do "compete" with them from time to time when I build custom pieces in the Stickley-style for my customers and mine have to be at least as good.

Regarding that finish, I don't have first hand experience with it. However, ANYTHING that has an artificial sent added to it is something I'd avoid on our rifles. As mentioned by Dennis, the scent is added chemically just to enhance the users feeling for it. Lemon oil has zero use in a polish other than that. And Dennis is correct about the mineral oil. It won't ever cure and is used on things like cutting boards and wood bowl to keep the water from splitting them with daily use (pure, of course, no scent). Second, when I plant my cheek on my rifle, I don't like smelling anything except powerder residue and blo. I dunno....lemons just don't bring out my best side while shooting

The only "polish" I use on my rifles stocks is one called "OZ" and it's not readily available retail although some on-line suppliers do carry it. It's a basic emulsion that cleans and polishes without leaving any telltale greasy or slippery finish on the stock.......or nice furniture, either. Even then I use it rarely, usually only when I'm putting the rifle up back in its position in the closet. I tend to just wipe them down from time to time or when I do a cleaning. And, during a year, I'll usually wipe all my stocks at least once with a bit of tung oil finish on a clean rag just to 'top off' the stock finish that's on the rifle. That also helps clean any excess shooting debris off them while maintaining the original or repaired finish. I guess what I'm saying here is "less is more". Just think of what the soldiers who carried our rifles had to do to maintain them in the field. It was pretty basic.

Rome