Thanks very much Juglans, I think I have plenty of walnut surfaces to work on. The basic finish I applied to the sides of my other blanks years ago has faded a lot on the side facing into the room. I think it was Liberon teak oil. So I can always sand some of them down and rub something else on. I also have enough forend blocks, for my 2 piece blanks, that I can use. But i'll certainly be in touch if I need some.

I would like some of the local high quality oil sometime. Do you mean oil from Tassie grown flax? I was wondering how it might compare to the Swedish oil. I'll email sometime about it. There are no shipping restrictions on pure wood oils. All my Swedish oils were shipped by mail and regular courier. The various pure oils I have bought in Australia also ship normally.

Livos Australia can ship their products by mail, even their thinners. So I would expect no prob's from Tassie but of course don't give the post office any more details than they need to know.

I don't think I want to do any oil washing but I'm happy to filter it with the husk if it needs more cleaning.

Re the Slacum and Alkanet postings elsewhere, that was great info, that helped start my own research. It was great of the old British gun finisher to post all that info. I was going to mention it when I post a bit about filling the pores in my main post. I have to be careful about posting direct links to another forum, the boss here might hit me with a big stick.

Yes Trade Secret finish, aware of it, thank you. Have not tried it yet. Uttings won't ship to Australia. But didn't know how good it might be. There are too many things To try!

Regards,
Gabe