Thats very nice K. Your absolutely right about the prep work, it's probably 90% of the finished article. I've had a go with a couple of older shotguns which came up ok but recently had james of jager sporting arms build me a semi custom sako which was pretty much sold to me on the quality of his stock finishing, it's a beautiful piece of timber that he bought back to a lovely oiled finish and redone the chequering. He made such a nice job, I've got him to give my old sako 691.270 a makeover too. If I wasn't such a technophobe, I'd post a picture of his work. Give him a try if you don't fancy it yourself, you won't be disappointed. Atb.