Raising dents.
1) wait till the Mrs is out.
2) get the clothes iron and a tea towel. Wet the corner of the tea towel and place over the dent, then use the clothes iron to drive steam into the dent. You don’t want to burn the wood, but you do need the heat.
3) then having first acquired the ingredients make a finishing oil according to this recipe
Making oils for gun stock finishing
A small saucepan is ideal.
Remove of use of iron and saucepan before the Mrs returns otherwise all that hard work of not being able to iron will be undone.
Moving on to cleaning up the stock. First take some of the above oil - a few drops and dilute it 3 to 1 with turpentine. Then with fine wet and dry - 600 grit or 0000 wire wool go over the whole stock with lots of the diluted oil. You are wanting to take the surface grime off. Wipe off all the slurry with kitchen towel. And repeat a couple of times. With the checking use a tooth brush the clean the diamonds out.
Then apply a finger tip or two of oil and rub in with you hand. Rub it in hard. And put it away and leave for a few days. Then take a piece of mutton cloth / shoe cleaning duster and buff off, and repeat. It takes time but you will build a beautiful finish in the wood. Not a lot of work but time to let each coat dry. If starts getting a skin, take some 2000 or 2500 grit wet and dry and flat it off again.
You won’t get instant results. Its a matter of a few weeks if not months. And in spare moment just give it a good polish with your hand.
You will end up with a finish that is in the wood and very durable.
~Muir
