Question on stock refinishing

[guzzijohn]

I just inherited a Remington 572 fieldmaster pump. It was a mess with much surface rust and most of the butt stock and some of the forestock has no finish at all left on it. The metal ended up cleaning up pretty good with steel wool and much elbow grease and so did the inside of the barrel after many, many patches and brushing. Tried it out and it shoots great! Anyway, I would like to refinish the stock. My question is how do you deal with the forearm vertical grooves as far as getting the old finish off and new applied evenly?
GuzziJohn

[gunnut69]

Wrap the sand paper around a rattailed file and remember to keep them even. The clasic solution would be sanding cord which is basically round sandpaper but the paper is more easily available and with a backer works just fine. If the grooves are flat bottomed a flat or square file would be used as a backer... For this purpose cloth backed sanding sheets may well work better..

[oneoldsap]

                 Zip-Strip and a wire brush , there is no need to sand down in the grooves . Besides the bottoms are square not round

[gunnut69]

If the grooves are flat bottomed a flat or square file would be used as a backer...

As a ule I avoid the time and trouble of strippers.. and I really hate putting anything on wood that can corrode steel..I still remember the salt wood Browning stocks of years ago..