Wooden Handle Finishing

[MrGuy]

One of my GEM Junior Bar razors was found with all but the very bottoms of the recesses between beads completely worn to bare wood, so every other year or so it gets a fresh coat of tung oil. Well, technically I think I have a “tung oil finish”, so all kinds of stuff with a drop or two of actual tung oil I guess. It’s that time again, where the wood had started absorbing some water in the more worn areas. This time I’m thinking about using Tru-Oil, marketed for gun stocks. I’ve used it before on other projects and think it would make a good finish, but curious what some of the other more knowledgeable members think. Any downsides you can think of, or better options to consider?
As a side note, I got a bunch of morta, also called bog oak, blocks in this week and I think once the weather warms up enough to spin up the lathe again I’m going to give a go to making a new handle with some of that. It’s pretty brittle stuff so I’m not completely confident I’ll be able to figure it all out, but I’ll update on progress if anyone’s interested.

[Jayaruh]

Good luck with that handle, Andy. I will be watching to see how that bog oak works out, too.

[GAW9576]

I've used pure flax seed oil sold at grocery stores for making salad dressing and in cooking for pens but not for hazor handles. Not sure of the long term durability with water exposure. It is a polarizing oil. I should do a test. For wood shave brushes I have used CA glue. It is really durable but can be a pain to work with.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[mlb 549]

I've used linseed oil on mine----I use it on all my regular and gardening tools and keep it on hand.

[MrGuy]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Some great options. I’ve used CA on a couple small turned items before, but not sure I’d handle the “deep” carvings well, still haven’t quite got the hang of it. I might just wait and set up a piece of dowel with the different options and try a little weathering test to see if anything comes out a winner.
I’ll also to make sure to document my progress with the morta in another post when I start.