Refinishing a rifle stock

[HBU]

Hey Schmitty, are you interested in a mod 42?

[wklman]

Hey Schmitty, are you interested in a mod 42?

If he isn't then i sure am!!

[NOFX]

I'll give the tru oil a shot.

 

Ive just seen stocks with super dark grain and didnt know if there was a stain or something to enhance the grain without darkening the natural color of the stock too much..

 

Thanks for the advice.

[ajohunter]

here lately i started collecterizin' the old brand name guns. jc higgins was sears' old line. monkey wards has western field. jc penneys had a line, revelation was the western auto line. got me a monkey wards .22 pump. it was made by savage with with the western field logo. got me a jc higgins .22 auto that looks to be made by hi standard. i think the revelations were mostly savage, stevens and mossbergs. nothing wrong with them at all. andya never want to get rid of a gun that was handed down. they are an heirloom, no matter the book value. i want to get at least one gun from the different lines. seems like sears made ted williams guns too. i know they made ted williams fishing gear. i heard walmart was gonna come out with their own line. dick cheney shotguns. Lark.

 

I have my grandfathers JC Higgins 30-06. Has a Mauser 98 action on it. Rifle shoots great but i wont take it hunting because we all know what coues hunting can do to a rifle!

[NOFX]

I am probably going to finish the stock with Tru oil but I have two more questions:

 

Would a filler help to darken and enhance the grain?

Does any one know if an ammonia fume process would work?

[muledeerarea33?]

If the grain is not dark right now I dont beleive it will get much darker. the guns you probably saw were either laminate or a type of wood that had dark grain to start with.

[NOFX]

Alrighty then, tru oil it is. I really appreciate the info everyone has given. I am really enjoying this project. Depending on how it turns out I might even try the 30-06.

 

Thanks again for all the input.

[IHunt2live]

Good luck NOFX. I hope you enjoy the work when your done. I've thought about refinishing my citori. I've put a few scuffs on it while quail hunting. I think I might wait till I REALLY scuff it up though.

I think the nice thing about just trying the Tru-oil first is that its a lot easier to take it off and try it again if you need to.

Just remember LOTS of THIN COATS is the best. The more coats you put on the better it should look. sand it good and smooth between the coats.

 

Mike

[NOFX]

I am about done with the stock, maybee another coat or two. Its turning out pretty good with the tue oil, thanks for the advice. The barrel was rusted and I decided to reblue it. With some google searches and hard scrubbin it turned out great, looks almost new. I can't wait to put it all back together again.

 

Again, I appreciate all the advice that was given.

[IHunt2live]

Lets see some pics when your done.

[NOFX]

Alright, I have a final question:

After the final coat of Tru Oil was applied I lightly sanded it with a fine steel wool. Am I done, or is there some kinda conditioner that needs to be applied?

 

I will post a pic when I'm done. Ive been a little busy and sore from a "little" run i just did.

 

Wish I had a before pic to compare. Don't expect much though, I am an amateur.

 

Thanks again.

[IHunt2live]

There may be something else you could do but You don't have to. If it looks good to you then just leave it.

[audsley]

Now that you've used Tru-Oil and lightly sanded the final coat with fine steel wood, there's nothing left to do. You're done.

 

Wish I'd seen this thread sooner. I did quite a bit of stock refinishing about 10-12 years ago.

 

Tru-Oil was probably a good choice in this case since it gives a good result, though not the very best, with a minimum of work. Other oils which I believe give a better result seem to dry more slowly and require considerable effort to rub into the wood using your hands. As I recall, Tru-oil is simply wiped on and is therefore much quicker and less work.

 

However, Tru-Oil is a little like a combination of oil and polyurethane. True oil sits on top of the wood and builds up on the surface faster. If I remember correctly, I only used about three coats, and the second and third coats were pretty thin. I believe other materials like Flecto-Verithane and Tung Oil penetrate more deeply into the wood, and give the wood a richer look. Although it's hard to compare results from different finishes on different stocks since the wood is never the same, there's definitely a difference between a "Tru-Oil" finish and a "true oil finish," and I much prefer the latter. I doubt there are any professional custom stockmakers using Tru-Oil. A Tru-Oil finish will give a look more like a factory gun with a high-gloss finish from the 1970s or 80s.

 

If you do another stock and are willing to put in more time and effort, consider using Flecto-Verithane. When I was doing this I did a lot of reading and talked to a couple of the best stockmakers in Tucson. One put me on to Flecto-Verithane, and I liked it best of all. As for filler, you can use a mixture of oil and sanding dust from the stock to make your own filler. Put on a thin coat of oil, then quickly sand with wet sandpaper while the oil is still wet until the stock is coated with a mud consisting of sanding dust and oil. Let it dry. Then sand down to bare wood again and you've filled the openings in the grain with oil and wood dust from the stock. What could be a better filler than that?

[NOFX]

Well I finished refinishing my .410 GA. I really appreciate those that walked me through it. It looks great in my opinion, and I feel that I have given the shotgun a personal touch (which I will eventually hand down to my child). If I decide to refinish my 30.06, I might spend a little bit more time and effort with advice from audsley's post. Here are some pics. Remember that I am an amateur and my 1st effort. I really wish I had before pics to post, huge difference.