How do i refinish a stock?

[Mr. Joe]

How do i refinish a stock that needs no repair work?  I have a cz550, remington 700, and ruger 77 that i would like to have a linseed oil finish on.  I could use some step by step instructions.

Other questions-

-What do i use to strip original finish
-Will i have to sand, even though there are no dents or dings
-Will i have to apply stain before linseed oil

[Keith L]

I am not real crazy about stickies because the more you have the lower on the page posts get, but this comes up enough so it may just pay to have the wisdom of all you smiths here in a sticky to help the rest of us with this project.  Working on the wood part is something most of us can safely do, and it wouild be great to have the hints and tips you guys can offer to help us get professional looking results.

Thanks for thinking about this.

[gunnut69]

There are only 3 actions in a refinish-
    remove the old finish material
    fix any damage to the wood
    apply new finish...
Each has several methods that will work. These are mine.

I use a propane torch to heat the existing finish and scrape it from the stock. I use an OldHickory butcher knife and some homemade scrapers to remove the finish without gouging the wood.. I usually sand initially with a 1/4 sheet vibrating sander using 220 paper. Remember we are removing finish here, NOT wood..

Sanding will hylight the dings and dents which are steamed out. Breaks, splits and missing wood are glued and replaced as needed. I recommend Devcon 5 ton Epoxy. Wood should be matched as closely as possible. A very light resanding will show anything you may have missed. Fix it.. When sanding DO NOT alter the edges or areas where the wood/metal meet. Keep sharp edges sharp and curves even! This means use hand sanding unless your very very good with the power tools. I only use the power sander for the large flats and easy places. The flutes in the nose of the comb and those areas behind and on the rear of the pistol grip are the telling spots. Those we do by hand. Always finish the sanfing task with the grain!

I usually refinish with TrueOil and if a darker more water proof finish is needed I start by apply a material alled 'OKENE' from Pratt&Lambert. It is a danish oil finish and almost totally soaks into the wood. Checkering is covered with masking tape and the masking is cut around the perimeter and the excess removed. Apply the Okene to wood heated with a heat gun until hard to hold. Allow to soak in for about 15 minutes and wipe off the excess. Do 2 coats and allow a few days to completely dry. Lightly steel wool (00) and apply a coat af TruOil full comsistancy. Use just enough oil to allow the hand to slide over the wood easily. Too much will create runs and finger prints. Finish the application by rubbing with the grain. Apply a several coats with at least 12 hours between them and light steel wool scuffing between. The scuffing allows a better bond between coats. After there is a fairly good covering of finish on the wood I lightly sand(dry) with 400 grit or worn 220 by hand, with the grain and using a backer. This is to 'level' the finish and if you sut thru the finish you will have to do it over..beware! To check look at the wood with a bright light at a sharp angle,shiney spots need more work. Apply a light coat of finish, only a few drops, and allow to dry. The shiney finish this leaves allows a better visual check of the surface. It must be flat and smooth.. If all is well start applying the build up coats. About 3 drops on a side will do a butt stock with another drop for the pistol grip/cheek areas. a spoerter stock will usually take 3 drops on the butt stock and 2 or 3 on the forearm. This is of course for each side of the stock. When the finish build up is enough for your taste, allow a longer dry time. I like at least a couple of days. Using steel fur(0000) lightly scuff the surface of the stock then decide if you're after a shiny or matte finish. If shiny is what you want apply the last coat as thinly as possible in a clean environment. I usually put the stock a room by itself to cure and leave. The finish can also be polished with successively finer grades of abrasives and lastly polished but that requires a lot more work.. What ever the method when it's complete apply a good grade of carnuba bearing wax to the finish and buff to the desired sheen. If matte surface  is desired, after the scuffing apply a good grade of carnuba bearing wax. This will seal and protect your new finish..and lave a nice gentle matte look to it.
If there are questions ask and I'll do my best. I've done so many some things I do without really thinking about them. Polish level can be altered fairly easily if needed, another benefit from the days I worked mostly for others,.,

[Ratltrap]

I'll let others cover the prep and repair, but if you really want a tough waterproof finish the best I've done is with slow cure epoxy. An epoxy finish requires a lot more time and sanding to finish than a traditional oil or poly finish, but you can make it look like either by putting a top coat of oil (matte) or wax (gloss) over it.

Here are some good directions from a guy who does a lot of these:

Start with a fully sanded stock, heat it in an oven to the point it is hard to hold with bare hands. I like to do it in front of the oven to keep it hot, my wife would prefer I didn't. Use epoxy with a minimum set time of 24 hrs, I use G-1 or G-2 from Industrial Formulators in Toronto, available from Garrett Wade. The latter is a 48 hr set which I use if there is any oily exotic wood in a grip cap or fore end tip. Ebony is fine with either.

Mix the glue on a flat board, give it about 20-30 minutes to set, remix very well and apply. I built a rack which uses the action holes to support without touching a finished surface. As the epoxy soaks in, keep putting it on. The cooling wood will suck up a lot of finish. Wipe off any excess.

After it sets, block sand with the blue Norzon paper, dry, about 320 usually works to start on any runs or rough spots. Then wet-sand carefully, I use 3m and mineral spirits usually, but don't hesitate to use water. If this goes well there will be no grain raised or bare wood peeking through. It almost never goes well for me, so I repeat the epoxy, but more delicately and I wipe off any which does not soak into the wood.

The heating, I believe dries any water which I put in by wetsanding. Then I put a 66 or Tru-oil finish over the epoxy in a normal fashion, no special precautions or sealers.

The places to be careful are getting "build" from the epoxy, thereby ruining your nice flat faces and straight lines. Yes, it is a lot of work to get the epoxy just right, but the result is a piece of wood which will sit in 100% humidity at 100F for a week and only pick up the water it takes to saturate the oil finish, without affecting the shape of the wood beneath. No varnish or sealant that I have tested has even come close to the humidity resistance of this finish. It looks and repairs just like the oil finish it is.

[koginam]

I tried this method on several stocks and the finish came out better then any I have seen. it uses teak oil but the finish looks like linseed oil finish but is way tougher, doing two stocks only takes a little more time then one. http://thegunsmiths.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=345 but follow the directions it works best that way and what ever type of finish you use do it in a room that is at least 65 degrees.

[Mr. Joe]

Basicly this is what im thinking.  Strip off the original finish, tape checkering, sand lightly, apply linseed oil.  What color will the linseed oil make the wood?

[wallynut]

I've used linseed oil on stocks, and as sold from store, it is not something you want to use as a finish for a rifle.  On a mediam to hot day in the sun, the finish will get tacky.  It also doesn't keep out water.  You could "boil" the oil and add lead oxidizers as a drier agent, but that is very dangerous fire wise.  If this rifle is gonna be a safe queen, do what you want, otherwise avoid linseed oil.

I know that may seem rough, but would hate to see you go to all that work and end up with something you don't like, and is not repairable after you do that.  Gotta ask, when you ask about linseed oil, are you asking about Lin-speed that is sold in little glass jars with red/yellow lids???

[gunnut69]

Most gunstock finishes are based on one oil or another. Unless of course they are sybthetics such as polyurethanes.. Lin-Speed, and truOil are linseed oil based, I prefer TruOil but both work.. there are also tung oil based finishes and teak oil(??). I've not used the teak oil finishes but have used tung oil. Tung oil dries faster and harder than linseed oil based products. It is a bit more waterproof but is more brittle. I've seen the finished product craze with age.. LinSpeed is also faster the truoil and a bit harder but I've not seen it craze. I will crack though with an impact.. Poly finishes and epoxies are the only really water proof finishes. The epoxys are so  hard to work with that I quit using them. They are also more difficult to repair. The poly's are also harder to repair than a goosd oil finish but their application has gotten easier with the advent of the rub on poly available now. It still has the other limitations but applies OK.  Much better than a catalized epoxy.

[Mr. Joe]

I purchased some boiled lin seed oil from home depot.  Its for furniture and on the back has directions for rifle stocks.  Isnt BLO what classic gunstocks have been made with for years?  Should i cut it with terpintine or use it straight, and will i have to stain the wood before i put it on?

[eskimo36]

here is a link to really good directions....
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=240961

[gunnut69]

As I stated before, just boiled linseed oil(check the contents to know) will never really dry. It will oxidize over time and get darker and darger with age. TruOil and the others also use linseed(boiled linseed isn't really boiled, it has dryers added) and they will get hard and won't get sticky in the hot wet Missouri summers.. If you wish to use the 'boiled linseed oil' it may work out fine.. depends on the materials composition..

[clattin]

The technique that Ratltrap describes is what I would call the "Sitka Deer" technique.  Sitka Deer is the handle used by a guy 24hourcampfire.com and this guys knows his sh*t when it comes to gun stocks!  I haven't used his technique yet, but I will be on two stocks that I'm currently working on.  Ratltrap described it to a "T", almost to the point whether Ratltrap is aka Sitka Deer (Art)!

[Ratltrap]

The technique that Ratltrap describes is what I would call the "Sitka Deer" technique.  Sitka Deer is the handle used by a guy 24hourcampfire.com and this guys knows his sh*t when it comes to gun stocks!  I haven't used his technique yet, but I will be on two stocks that I'm currently working on.  Ratltrap described it to a "T", almost to the point whether Ratltrap is aka Sitka Deer (Art)!

Not hardly, but I corresponded with SD on my refinish. Just thought I'd pass along the technique.

[Steve P]

I just read thru this post and some of the posts that are pasted within.  Good information in here on stock finishing for anyone looking for a winter project.

Steve

[Keith L]

For what its worth, I just freshened the sad finish on an old Navy Arms Country Boy muzzle loader (.36 cal with a side slapper lock).  I have been looking at the worn finish for the last couple of years.  I took all the metal off of the wood, lightly sanded it and rubbed in four coats of Tru-Oil.  I buffed in between coats and at the end rubbed it with 0000 steel wool to a satin finish.  Then rubbed on two coats of wax.

It was fun to do while watching TV, didn't take long, and came out great.  I used my hand to rub in the oil and rubbed it in fully.  Works great in my opinion.

[Cornbelt]

Though rather harsh, spray-on oven cleaner will remove a finish, metal or wood. Try a piece of scrap first, and watch out for overspray.

[Huffmanite]

gunnut69 summed it up pretty well.  I too prefer to scrape off the old finish and then lightly sand the wood to make sure I've removed the old finish. 

I don't use BLO (boiled linseed oil) to finish any stock.  Better products available.  I prefer to use Minwax's Antique Oil or perhaps a Danish Oil for a stock finish.  I've also used Minwax's Poly Wipe On finish with good results, but it will leave a typical polyurethane yellowish look.  The Antique Oil is a form of linseed oil with other additives that you just brush on, let soak in for a few minutes, then take some 400 grit wet sandpaper and work the wood with the grain.  Then wipe off excess with clean cloth, again wiping with grain.  Wait a day or so to dry properly and apply another coat of Antique oil, use a finer grit paper (800) to sand with the grain again and then wipe off any excess.  A third coat can be applied if needed or wanted.  You'd use the same technique with Danish Oil (Watco's  brand or Olympic is OK).  Not much of a surface finish using these two products, but wood is sealed better than with any regular BLO.  If I were to use the Minwax wiping Poly I'd wipe it on with grain using a clean cloth, let dry then sand lightly with 400 grit paper.  Wipe off any dust from sanding and then reapply the wiping Poly again, let dry and then sand lightly with 800 grit paper.  (You can repeat this for step one or two more times if you want to build up a thicker coat of Wiping Poly.  But after applying your last coat of the wiping Poly, do not sand it.  With either the Antique or Danish oils you will have a very smooth satin finish on your stock.  The Minwax is available in satin or gloss.  With the Minwax Wiping Poly finish, I sometimes mix up a solution with an old product in it called "rotten stone", which really is rotten stone, and it is a very very fine powder.  With my rotten stone solution on a soft cloth or even a felt eraser (for chalk boards) I then rub down the stocks to deal with any imperfections in the Poly finish. 

[Mckie Hollow]

Ive often wondered why one could not use the Minwax Helsman spar urethane for a sealer, and then come back with a mixture of the Min Wax Helsman and the Minwax Antique oil finish until the grain is filled and then finish up with the Antique oil finish. Ive used the Antique oil finish before, and it seems that it is very similar to True oil but thinner, I've also mixed it with True oil @ 50/50. Next project. I think I'll mix some Watco Danish oil / Helmsman / Antique oil.

[galster69]

I've built a couple pieces of wood furniture from walnut and have found that a tung oil finish works very nicely.  I like a natural finish rather than a plastic looking one.  With that said, I came across this "professional" method of finishing gun stocks which I am currently in the process of putting on my grandfather's single shot Winchester 20 gauge that he passed on to me as a Christmas gift before he died.  I wouldn't do this to just any gun due to the amount of time and labor required but for this gun, only the best will do.  I've been working on it for about a month so far and from what I can gather will be working on it for atleast another month.  Here's the link  http://www.mausercentral.com/stockfinish.htm.  Only 1 thing to add that he left off ( I only know this because I emailed him to ask about it).  In the "Building the Finish" stage allow 24-48 hours between sandings.  I feel this is a good method because you can decide how much detail you want to go into with it.  Good luck and I'll post some pics when I get the shotty finished!