Posted by David Williamson on November 29, 2014, 12:26 pm, in reply to " L C Smith made 1911"
Jim, the higher grades guns were an oil finish. In some early catalogs they described the oil finish as " in as many coats as it takes." The lower grades ones were mostly shellac. An easy way to tell, take some alcohol on a rag and go over an area that needs build-up and see if the alcohol "melts" the old finish. On some stocks that are badly alligatored you can use this alcohol method with some new shellac and "erase" the alligatored finish to look good again.