I use heat to strip most finishes. Its the best there is for the remington poly finish. A propane torch applied to a small area at a time, maybe 2x3 inches or so, is followed by scraping of the loosened finish. Don't burn the finish or scortch it as that will stain the underlying wood. The RKW finish 'curdles' from the heat. I use an old butcher knife to do the bulk of the removal. Then heat the next area and continue.. The sandpaper is then used to remove any remaining finish which has been modified and sands away easily with little clogging of the paper. A Remington stock can go thru the entire process in less than 1 hour. Dents and scratches are then steamed out and the stock gets a light sanding with 220 grit paper to even the surface. Steel wool is used to polish the stock until it appears to have finish already applied,,then the finishing procedure begins.. The most difficult finish to remove is the later Browning poly.. The window between enough heat and too much is very narrow.. All lacquers are destroyed with very little heat. Keep the knifes edge sharp and no wood is removed. To save checkering cover the checkering panels with masking tape well rubbed down and run around the edge with a sharp knife removing the tape outside the panel. Some damage has usually already occured so after the refinish I clean the old checkering out with a Gunline single edge cutter. The freshened checkering is given a little dab of finish and blotted 2 or 3 times as the final step..
