Refinishing a stock?

[dbateman]

I know there is the information on here and I have searched but I couldn't find a write up on how to refinish a stock.


From what I can tell you take fine steel wool and rub the stock back and apply oil to the the stock?

I have heard of tung oil or tru oil is one better that the other? I have also heard of some kind of wax?

Could someone point me in the right direction?

I have a few rifle I want to make the stock look a bit nicer but the main one is a Mod71 but I thought I would try it on my 30-30 first I also have a Win 94 BB 375 that I think may be a XTR model it has checkered stock and some kind of engraving on the action so I will have a few to practice on.

I am going to attach a pic I'm not sure what my wood on my Mod71 is do you guys think it would clean up ok? It seems to have some kind of varnish over it.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... 040058.jpg
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... 000725.jpg

And here is a photo of the whole rifle and yes I learned off Ysabel
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... 000722.jpg

Thanks Dave.

..Ok so I can't attach pics..

[Gobblerforge]

Refinish? Your joking, right? That wood is nice looking so my recomendation would be to leave it alone. Barring that, it is your gun and you can do as you please. My recomendation, if you still want a finish, hand rubbed boiled linseed oil. Several caots applied at least a day apart.
Party on.
Gobbler

[dbateman]

Maybe refinish is the wrong word like you say there isn't anything wrong with how it is.

I just would like it to look better.

[COSteve]

Here is an article by Jim Carmichel I found some years ago about refinishing a Winchester Model 70 stock.

Refinish Your Rifle's Stock

Here's how to make that old wood look like new.

Sooner or later, everyone who tinkers with guns is going to try his hand at refinishing a stock. "Hand" is the operative word here, because there's nothing quite like a hand-rubbed oil finish to bring out the natural beauty of wood. Before beginning any such work on a vintage gun, however, you should determine whether its collector's value will be reduced if its "as-original" state is altered.

On the other hand, there are those of us who want only to restore some of the look of newness to a favorite old hunting companion. My Winchester Model 70 of pre-World War II vintage-falls into the collectible category, but to me it is a fine hunting rifle with more decades of service to offer. Moisture seeping under the buttplate had caused the original finish to peel. Also, oils from the action had seeped into the wood around the tang area, causing darkening and weakening of the wood. Here's what I did to restore it.

1. Remove the Old Finish
Make sure the gun is unloaded and remove the barreled action from the stock. Spray the stock with finish remover to get rid of the old finish. Spray-ons are powerful stuff, however, so use rubber gloves and a face mask, and work in a well-ventilated area.

2. Scrub Away Varnish
After the original finish is softened with finish remover, it's easily scrubbed away with a varnish-removing scrub pad. The scrub pads work better than steel wool, which tends to snag and rip the grain and leave embedded particles that can cause problems later in the refinishing process.

3. Brush out Grease
The finish remover also tends to loosen some layers of grease, grime and old finish in the checkering. Scrub this away with a stiff brush-a toothbrush works well for this. Be sure to scrub in the direction of the checkering grooves.

4. Heat-Treat Stains
Gun-oil stains around the tang can be raised with a hair dryer. The heated oil comes to the surface and can be wiped away, resulting in considerable lightening and drying of the previously oil-darkened wood.

5. Pressing Your Stock
After stripping the stock, iron it. No kidding! Take a hand towel or a similar rag and get it damp, then dig out mama's clothes iron and press that stock. Keep the damp cloth between the iron and the wood, move the iron around so you don't overdo it in any one spot, and be careful not to gouge the stock with the pointed end of the iron.

You can iron out just about any dent and most gouges in this way. This means you don't have to try to sand away a bunch of wood around dents and flaws and possibly lose checkering and/or end up with a low spot in your stock - instead, you just raise the dented wood right back up where it belongs.

6. Sand the Raw Stock
With the old finish removed and the stock dry, start lightly sanding the stock and grip using a sanding block. Do not sand the checkering. Cover the checkering with tape to protect it from accidental overruns. Use a large, lightly padded sanding block for smooth, full-length strokes, maintaining straight and flat surfaces.

The buttplate must remain in place during the sanding operation or some rounding of the wood at the butt edges will occur-a sure sign of amateur refinishing. Wrap a bit of tape around it to protect the edge from sanding, however, if you sand some of the bluing off of steel buttplates, that can be repaired later with touch-up blue. Likewise, leave plastic buttplates in position while sanding but tape over them to protect their edges.

7. Burnish and Dust
After sanding, swipe the stock with a fine-mesh scrubbing pad. This removes sanding dust from the grain and also has a burnishing effect on the wood, which will better prepare it for final finishing. It's important to thoroughly wipe down the entire stock with a dry cloth to remove any remaining dust before beginning the next step.

8. Apply the Filler
Apply a thick layer of French Red to the stock. French Red is an old favorite with stock makers because it is a good grain filler that also duplicates the rich, walnut-hued stains typically used by gunmakers. I prefer rubbing it on by hand to force the filler deeper into the grain. Be sure to keep the filler out of the checkering pattern.

9. Rub Off Excess Filler
Wait for the French Red to dry before using a scrub pad to wipe away the excess. It is very important when using the scrub pad to work it across the grain rather than with the grain. Rubbing in the direction of the grain pulls the filler out of the pores in the wood, while scrubbing across the grain will insert the French Red more deeply into the pores. If necessary, continue to repeat the process until the grain is filled and the surface of the wood is completely smooth and even.

10. Add the New Finish
Spray on an even first coat of Tru-Oil and then rub it in with your fingers. By using Tru-Oil, a modern linseed-oil-type finish, I am bending one of the main rules of restoration, which would have me reapply a lacquer-like varnish similar to the one applied at the Winchester factory over a half century ago. With a modern stock finish such as Tru-Oil, however, you can create an appearance quite similar to the original finish. Plus, it's much more durable and waterproof. When refinishing a stock, apply a total of three coats. Let each coat dry and then sand the stock very lightly with extra-fine sandpaper before applying the next layer.

11. Spare the Checkering
Apply Tru-Oil sparingly to the checkering. If the original checkering is in even moderately good condition it's best left in its original state, so brush in only a light coating of protective finish. In my case, the original checkering was so badly worn that moderate restoration was needed. The trick to restoring original checkering is to follow the original lines with a checkering tool. Hand checkering, however, is an acquired skill. If you determine that the checkering is heavily worn, you might be wise to have this particular operation performed by an expert stock maker or gunsmith. Professionally restored checkering will help preserve the beauty of the stock.

11. Just Like New
My M-70 stock is restored to its former glory, ready for another half century of service. My steel buttplate was also restored with touch-up blue and the stock looks like new-even a little bit better, thanks to a stock finish such as Tru-Oil, which keeps the wood weather-resistant and looking good for another six decades.

[C. Cash]

I'm with Gobler in that I like it already. If like the factory color of the stain and want to change only the varnish, you can strip the varnish off without touching the stain, using formby's furniture refinisher and 0000 steel wool. It melts off very easily...maybe 1 minute to strip a stock. Then, you can apply the varnish of your choice. I did this to my Grandfather old Mod. 37 Winchester single shot, and was happy with the results.

[Pete44ru]

IMO, refinishing isn't what's needed in this case - what's needed is a little love, in the form of a fine wood care product.

I've had nice results from using HOWARD'S FEED 'N WAX, following the bottle directions.



It's available from home-improvement centers like Home Cheapo, hardware stores, and many furniture stores.


.

[Charles]

I have refinished many stocks over the years and there are a number of ways to do it. All of them will work well if done correctly.

The finish looks to be in good condition from what I can see in the photo. If it is factory original, there is no way I would refinish it. A good coat of paste floor wax (Johnsons) would add protection and pick up the gloss just a tad.

If it is not factory original and you should desire to refinish it, the remove the old finish with a stripper. There are several around and the one to use depends on whether it is a lacquer/oil/varnish or one of the newer poly finishes.

Keep all abrasives away from the wood after stripping. Steam out the dents and remove any whiskers with 000 or 0000 steel wool. You can stain the wood or go straight to finishing depending on what color you like in the wood. Tung oil (from the tung nut) and linseed oil (from flax seed) are both natural oils and easy to apply. Tung will dry quicker than boiled linseed and boiled linseed will dry much faster than raw linseed oil.

There are any number of ready to go finishes out there that work well. Tru-Oil has been around many years and will produce a mirror finish if done correctly. Tru-Oil can be cut back to the wood after the gain is filled and protected with a coat of paste wax for a good durable low gloss finish. Wax can always be removed with denatured alcohol and the finish upgraded any time you want. There are some other wood finishes that will work well.

There is no one way to do it and none is better than another. It is just a matter of personal preference, what you want the finish to look like and how much time you are willing to invest in the project.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Leave it alone .

[new pig hunter]

hmmmm, I guess I did it right ....... 2 weeks ago I cleaned up the stock & forearm on my 1919 Model 94. I used both that Howards stuff and the Johnson paste wax.

Cheers,

Carl

[cshold]

IMO, refinishing isn't what's needed in this case - what's needed is a little love, in the form of a fine wood care product.

I've had nice results from using HOWARD'S FEED 'N WAX, following the bottle directions.



It's available from home-improvement centers like Home Cheapo, hardware stores, and many furniture stores.


.

This is an awsome product for gun care.
I even put a little on my shotgun bore swab and swab
the barrels after cleaning as well as a thin wipe of all
the metal parts.

[dbateman]

Thanks for the reply's guys it is still in very good condition it's actually like it was from the factory, I would like to make the stock really pop you know when you look at a stock and you just go oh man wow.

I might do one of my other rifles first.

[cshold]

IMO, refinishing isn't what's needed in this case - what's needed is a little love, in the form of a fine wood care product.

I've had nice results from using HOWARD'S FEED 'N WAX, following the bottle directions.



It's available from home-improvement centers like Home Cheapo, hardware stores, and many furniture stores.


.

This is an awsome product for gun care.
I even put a little on my shotgun bore swab and swab
the barrels after cleaning as well as a thin wipe of all
the metal parts.

From this: 1903 Winchester 25-35. Hand rubbed HOWARD’S FEED 'N WAX into the
stocks once a week for 3 months then about once a year from there on.






To this: The 1903 wood just needed fed.




I bought this 99C 308 when I was 14 years old. At 15 years old I refinished the terrible
factory finished stocks using Lin-Speed Oil purchased from my local Kmart. I used
no sandpaper, just some furniture stripper and about 10 light coats of the oil.
Still looks great considering it has spent more hours in the hunting woods & weather
than any other gun I have owned.

[dbateman]

Nice work I will have to give HOWARD’S FEED 'N WAX a try.

[rat patrol]

The last set I refinished was from an SLR (L1A1). It took lots of elbow grease, and iron, upto 500 grit paper, and above all patience.

I also removed numerious dents as well as fixing cracks....I'll post pics if folks want to see an military rifle.

[Charles]

So, you want to the stock on a vintage Winchester with a good factory finish so it will "pop"? May God have mercy on your soul, for there is no hope for you on this earth.

[dbateman]

The last set I refinished was from an SLR (L1A1). It took lots of elbow grease, and iron, upto 500 grit paper, and above all patience.

I also removed numerious dents as well as fixing cracks....I'll post pics if folks want to see an military rifle.

I would love to see your SLR man those things are a sweet stick, is it a Lithgow?

So, you want to the stock on a vintage Winchester with a good factory finish so it will "pop"? May God have mercy on your soul, for there is no hope for you on this earth.

Why not it's my rifle I spent around five years looking for it and it cost me $4500Au if want to make it look better why cant I ?


Think I have a liking for 50Ae

[Charles]

It will not always be your rifle. You will sell it, trade it, or die some day and somebody down the line will curse your memory for what you did to that rifle, that cannot be undone.

But if you are bound and determined to refinish it, do it right and use an electric sander to remove the old finish. If you are going to screw up that rifle, do it in bang up style. Then paint it with some bright color so it will really "pop".

[dbateman]

It will not always be your rifle. You will sell it, trade it, or die some day and somebody down the line will curse your memory for what you did to that rifle, that cannot be undone.

But if you are bound and determined to refinish it, do it right and use an electric sander to remove the old finish. If you are going to screw up that rifle, do it in bang up style. Then paint it with some bright color so it will really "pop".

Good idea I will turn it into a trapper as well, I have a hacksaw and a file. Hey wile I'm at it I'll cut a dovetail into the barrel to install a fire sight and silver solder a quarter rib to the barrel so I can put a scout style scope on it (they're all the rage these days) with those high rings so I can still use the iron sights. Man you are so helpful next time I have something I want to do I will just PM you and save everyone a bit of trouble.


I have bigger things to worry about than people getting bent out of shape because I rubbed a stock back and made my rifle look how I want it to, I did just take a Colt 1918 GI 1911 and build a custom on it she is pretty sweet to 20 lpi checkering front strap and fmsh scallops behind the trigger , hand file'd mag well had the frame tig'ed up to make it a hard fit, NM barrel gold bead front sight oh and almost forgot its chambered in 38Super.

She is such a sweet pistol.

It's my rifle and I want it how I want it.

[COSteve]

Charles, I think you're getting a bit . . . . well, let's just say you're going overboard on your position. It's clear that you like to keep things the way they are, to value their original history and keep them as they were built. That's fine but are you really saying that dbateman doesn't have the right to have another opinion? That he can't decide for himself what he wants to do with his property?

If you do, then your rigid refusal to allow other people's opinion makes me wonder why you would bother to participate in discussions on the net as your position is the only possible answer you'll even consider. Your previous posts indicate that you you're not rigid so I'm thinking that you just got a bit carried away.

[JB]

If you want to refinish it, Tru-Oil is hard to beat. It's mostly a tung oil finish with some dryers added. I've used Tru-Ol as well as other Tung Oil based finishes with good results. Any form of wax is just for temporary looks. There are multiple ways to skin a cat, but the process COSteve posted should work well.

[Hobie]

Well, I don't think Charles is out of line, I think he's funny. But, in the spirit of the US election season, just go ahead and take offense. I for one, think you have a fine looking rifle. I suppose it might be worth $4500 AUS but it won't be when you muck with the finish. That's YOUR problem though just the same as me shooting previously unfired S&Ws and the like. Have a great time with it.

PS I think a pink trapper would be sooooooo cooooooooool.

[dbateman]

Well, I don't think Charles is out of line, I think he's funny. But, in the spirit of the US election season, just go ahead and take offense. I for one, think you have a fine looking rifle. I suppose it might be worth $4500 AUS but it won't be when you muck with the finish. That's YOUR problem though just the same as me shooting previously unfired S&Ws and the like. Have a great time with it.

PS I think a pink trapper would be sooooooo cooooooooool.

Hobie I agree with you I don't care about the price of it I have written of the price I brought the rifle to hunt with and be used how it was supposed to be used so I suppose I have another 30yrs+ of hunting in me if that rifle still looks like it dose then I have done it wrong.

It is a nice looking rifle don't get me wrong and I am pretty happy with it, I just think it could look a little better.

Thanks for all the advise fellas.

[cshold]

I say refinish away Dave and enjoy ‘your’ rifle and make it the way you want it.
It’s one of the few things you don’t need government approval, permit or inspection
to do.

Something how you’re getting grief for doing so from the people that hiss & moan
about the government being to much in our business, lives and what we do and don’t do.

[FatJackDurham]

I wish I had read this thread three weeks ago. That is when I started refinishing my Rossi 92 wood as part of my next step in ruining a rifle project.

What a nightmare. First of all, the previous stock refinishing I have done was on my stevens. I sanding it down and rubbed it with linseed oil. It looks nice, but due to the sanding, it doesn't fit the wood well. I figured live and learn, right?

Well, when I bought my Marlin 1895, I did some research and saw there is a fellow that sells crescent buttstock kits. His website shows the process of filing the wood and metal for a perfect fit.

Since I am going to reblue the whole Rossi, I figured I would take the opportunity to practice trying to fit the wood and metal and refinish the stock. The original stock was marred and clouding due to my carelessness and was a very dark brown stain.

Intent not to repeat the mistake I made on the Stevens, instead of sanding the finish, I used a finish remover. This product removed the gel coat or what ever very easily and a little of the stain. After rinsing and drying, I put the wood back on the rifle and got out the file.

Butt plate was proud a bit, so I filed it flush with the wood. The wood was proud against the receiver, so I filed it away and worked the metal till it was a pretty good match. Then, using a straight edge as a guide, I worked the length of the stock to make a straigher line from front to back, removing the bulge that had emerged as I worked the ends. Finally, I lightly sanded the wood with 180, 220 and 320 until it was smooth.

Then, my nightmare began.

The original stain was very dark, but through my filing and sanding, I had revealed the ugly yellow wood underneath. I would have to stain the wood dark again before applying a finish. I picked the darkest stain I could find at the hardware store, Red Walnut or something, and rubbed it in. At first I thought was okay. Three coats of stain, rubbed in with a rag, and steel wool in between.However, some parts of the stock absolutely refused to take the stain. I would rub it in, let it cure for 24 hours and lightly wipe with steel wool and the stain disappeared. I had used mineral spirits to clean the wood prior to staining, and treated it with a pre-stain liquid by the same manufacturer.

Figuring I had the best color I was going to get, after about four days I tried to apply polyurethene. Again, I rubbed it in with a rag, so it would be a very thin layer. I lightly sanded between coats with 320.

I should explain why I tried Poly instead of linseed oil. I researched some woodworking online about applying a finish, because I feel I am a terrible woodworker. I ran across several articles which insisted you should not try to use linseed oil over an oil based stain. I dont know how true that is, please chime in.

Anyway, the poly looked like utter ka-ka. Dejected, I desided to strip it again and start over. At this point, things started to go wrong. First, I dropped the stock and a previously undetected crack broke a piece off. Second, the stripper seemed poorly suited to removing the poly as it had the previous finish. So, I had to sand again.

Here, I made probably another of many blunders. I sanded with the metal removed. All the work I had done to fit the stock was undone and the edges rounded. I did use a block and tried to avoid the edges, but I should have sanded the stock on the rifle, since I planned to reblue the rifle later.

I epoxied the stock back together, and the one bright spot of my misery is that I filed and sanded the edges to a perfect blend. In fact, the seam of the crack now resembles almost exactly the grain of the wood. However, since the stock had been cracked when I fit the wood to metal, now epoxied tight, the stock was narrower by far at least a full millemeter or more. I decided not to try to fit the metal as the angles would be all wrong.

I still had the ugly yellow wood showing again from sanding, so I tried a one step poly stain. Naturally, I put it on to thickly and it looked like a solid plastic stock. I sanded it some more and was really starting to feel out of control.

I consulted with some colleages at work and got some suggestions. Thus armed, I went home to try again.

I rubbed the polystain in hard on two thin coats and got a decent color. I only lightly rubbed with steel wool, cleaned with acetane, and then tried a spray poly. The spray poly was another nightmare for me. Applied to heavy, it ran and made orange peel. Applied to lightly, and it made splotches. After a few coats with some light sanding, I finally had it done, but it had a sort of course texture with a sort of dimpled look in the light. I realized I had been using a satin sheen and decided to try a gloss.

Bad, bad, bad mistake. The more gloss, the more glaring the orange peel effect. More sanding, more staining.

I KNEW I needed to get to a point of acceptibility and STOP. I am messing this up. So, the best finish I can live with has been after two very thin coats of polystain. No gloss, thats it. Once it cures, I'll wax it with carnuba and leave it. After the whole project is done, maybe I get some unfinished stocks online and try fitting, sanding and linseed oil. Stain, poly, never again.

As usual, my post is full of all the things I have done wrong, my clumsy ness, etc. The best lessons I learned are:

Strip don't sand
Steel wool or a strip pad not sand
Rub oil no poly

Good luck.

[7.62 Precision]

PS I think a pink trapper would be sooooooo cooooooooool.

Somebody please send me a trapper to make pink!


My recommendation on the Model 71 is to pick up a new stock and forearm made from a fancier grade of wood. If you are going to put the work into a really nice finish, it is more rewarding to start with a really nice base. The extra cost is not too much, and the end result will be much nicer.

I like a good oil finish using linseed oil or tung oil - especially a good natural linseed oil without driers and varnishes, which can be harder to find today. Cutting it with turpentine will take it more deeply into the wood, but mineral spirits will work, too.

You can finish with a shellac or a wax (you can mix beeswax with the oil you used to make a soft wax that will look nice and replenish the oil in the surface as you apply it from time to time, or buy an appropriate wax) or you can just keep an oil finish without anything additional on the surface. If it is a rifle I am really using, I like an oil finish, or an oil finish topped with wax, but a shellac is much harder to keep looking nice.

I am not a fan of Tru-Oil. I don't think it is as easy to get the penetration into the wood that I like. I tried it on a stock - put a lot of work into the finish, and it looked pretty good, though not as good as a traditional oil. I later took the rifle on a moose hunt that was two full days and a night of heavy rain mixed with very wet snow. I was wearing wool gloves and the wet wool wore the finish and the moisture soaked into the wood an many places, traveled under the finish, and generally made it look very bad. I stripped the Tru-Oil out of the wood and refinished with tung oil with much better results.

[FatJackDurham]

here is my FrankenStock I have been working.



The jagged black arrowhead grain marks where the stock cracked into two pieces. However, you can't detect the seam by touch, only by looking, and there is no reflective dimple. The epoxy worked great!

[7.62 Precision]

Your repair looks good - did you put any pins in it?

I think the finish looks good - the colouring looks good - kind of like a well-kept antique.

[FatJackDurham]

No, I epoxied it and clamped it. Are pins the more professional way of doing it? I have heard of that for Gundom figurines......

[7.62 Precision]

It depends. If it is an area that I think may get any stress, I usually put pins or pegs - going in from an area that is covered by the metal, of course. Sometimes pins may be overkill, but it ads strength, and sometimes there are fine splits running alongside the main split that are not very noticeable, so pins help prevent parallel splits.

I like epoxy for the stock repairs, it works well.