What must be remembered is that the majority of the "tung oils" and "tung oil finishes" out there on the market, are not tung oils at all, in fact they have little tung oil in them. Instead they are along the lines of wipe on varnishes.
When you hear ME say i'm using TUNG OIL, i'm using the real deal.
www.realmilkpaint.com Real Tung Oil is just that, a non toxic oil extracted from the nut of the tung tree. It's similar to BLO in that it produces a low luster shine, it goes on virtually the same way as well. What makes Tung oil different from BLO though, is that when it dries, it dries harder. So compared with BLO, tung oil has superior water repelling abilities. In fact the U.S Military switched to tung oil later in the war, they found that it repelled water much better than regular BLO did.
I am not a fan of those fancy "danish oils" and "teak oils". I would even go as far to call danish oil just BLO with some stains and other additives added to it. Not bashing the stuff, just be sure of what your buying.
When applying oil finishes, you need to let each coat dry properly before applying the next. Otherwise you may end up with a gummy ol mess. I apply both BLO and PTO in thin coats (thicker coats for dry stocks) and let each coat dry anywhere from 24 hours to 48 hours depending on the weather and humidity. Both oils must soak into the wood to properly dry, oil left standing on the woods surface needs to be wiped off after it's been on the wood 30 minutes.
Now when I want to stain a stock, I go with alcohol based stains. Water based is good too, but tends to bead up on an oily stock, or even birch stocks which have very tight grain and don't accept color well. Alcohol based stains have a VERY fine pigment to them, and absorb amazingly well into birch or oily stocks. Depending on the stock, sometimes i'll let the stain "cure" overnight before buffing the wood fibers down the next day, because alcohol does tend to raise wood fibers. A quick and light superfine steel wooling takes care of it. Oil based stains do work well too, but require many applications (depending on the stock and how clean it is) to get the desired color. With oil based stains you HAVE To be sure to get any trace amounts of excess stain off of the stock after 15 minutes, or you'll have a gummy mess on your hands. Oil based stains also take alot longer to dry. Alcohol based stains are easy to find, and in many different colors. Any good quality boot store in your area will carry a product called "Fiebings leather boot dye" and i've found it to work superbly for staining stocks. It's called a dye but it has no difference in what you'd call a "stain".
If I want a nice hard shine on a stock, I rub on a coat of Johnsons paste wax after the stock has had a few days to cure. Let that dry a few hours, then buff it off very well. For a softer shine, I use Toms 1/3 Mix.
www.thegunstockdoctor.com