Best way to darken the stock on my CZ 453 ?

ben777lemay

ben777lemay

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Hi,

I recently grabbed a really nice CZ 453 Lux.

The only thing I don't like on the rifle is a darker spot of wood on the stock.

So I would like to darken the walnut stock a bit so it will blend with the darker spot.
Its not a really big deal but it bother me a bit.
The spot is darker in person than it looks in the pictures.

What is the best way/product to do so ?

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Ohter than that, the stock looks nice. Not crazy wood grain but its lovely shaped.

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Thats the nature of the wood.
Coloration of the grain and the natural colors mother nature placed there.
Prolly have to strip the whole stock and then choose( choice of aftermarket stain ) and go to town on the refinish.
Rob
 
Deuce-deuce said:
Strip and stain.

Honestly though, I think the beauty of wood may escape you.
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FLHTCUI said:
Thats the nature of the wood.
Coloration of the grain and the natural colors mother nature placed there.Prolly have to strip the whole stock and then choose( choice of aftermarket stain ) and go to town on the refinish.
Rob
Click to expand...


Strip is not an option due to the checkering, I'm too affraid to ruin it.

About the beauty of wood, you sir really don't know me, I'm a sucker for beautifull wood stock.
I have many stock with darker portions and I like them as it it.
This one, that's another story, the dark spot really look wrong to me.
Its it worse in person than it looks in the pictures.
I'm a perfectionnist and I don't like that.
While you like it, I don't, its personnal taste.

I was thinking maybe because its an oil finished stock, I could add a couple coats of oil or stain+oil or something like that...
Something like Danish oil...

I really enjoy this rifle, but if I have to leave it like that, that's always be an underlining and I'll probably end by selling it even if I really want to keep it.
 
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ben777lemay said:
Strip is not an option due to the checkering, I'm too affraid to ruin it.

About the beauty of wood, you sir really don't know me, I'm a sucker for beautifull wood stock.
I have many stock with darker portions and I like them as it it.
This one, that's another story, the dark spot really look wrong to me.
Its it worse in person than it looks in the pictures.
I'm a perfectionnist and I don't like that.
While you like it, I don't, its personnal taste.



Like I said, strip isn't an option, I'm too affraid to ruin it.

I was thinking maybe because its an oïl finished stock, I could add a couple coats of oil or stain+oïl or something like that...
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Don't sand, use varnish remover... no risk of damaging the checkering this way. There are stain products designed to make applications more uniform and avoid blotching...this is what I would try.
 
freezer filler said:
Don't sand, use varnish remover... no risk of damaging the checkering this way. There are stain products designed to make applications more uniform and avoid blotching...this is what I would try.
Click to expand...

But I thought it was an oil finish !?!? Varnish remover will work with this type of finish ?
 
Stripper will not damage your checkering... but if you lack that knowledge you probably don't have the skills needed to refinish the stock. A good gunsmith will do the job but it'll cost and there'll be a wait.
Maybe a replacement stock or gun is what's needed.
 
Meroh said:
That is a nice piece of wood; please don't touch it.
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Well, respectfully, i'm not really looking for opinions on what I should do with my rifle.
What I'm looking, is to know what the options are to make it a bit darker.

Deuce-deuce said:
Stripper will not damage your checkering... but if you lack that knowledge you probably don't have the skills needed to refinish the stock. A good gunsmith will do the job but it'll cost and there'll be a wait.
Maybe a replacement stock or gun is what's needed.
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I refinished quite a few wood stocks over the last years.
That been said, to be honest, I'm affraid I haven't the skills to completely refinish this one.

About a replacement, these rifle and stocks are really rare.

If someone have one for trade or sell, I will be glad to exchange/buy it.
Believe me, theses don't come up too often !
 
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ben777lemay said:
Strip is not an option due to the checkering, I'm too affraid to ruin it. ...

I was thinking maybe because its an oil finished stock, I could add a couple coats of oil or stain+oil or something like that...
Something like Danish oil...

I really enjoy this rifle, but if I have to leave it like that, that's always be an underlining and I'll probably end by selling it even if I really want to keep it.
Click to expand...

I believe CZ uses lacquer on the stocks. You'll have to use lacquer thinner to remove lacquer. Perhaps chemical stripper will work, too. I don't know.

In any case, how do you imagine you can get the rest of the wood darker to match the part of the wood that's too dark for your self-described "perfectionist" taste?
The thing is that if you stain the stock, everything gets stained. And the darker tone that you don't like remains dark beneath the stain. Perhaps you anticipate staining only part of the stock. That approach is bound to bring you grief and dissatisfaction because it is not a simple or straightforward task like painting part of a fence a different colour.

In the end, your best choice remaining is as you guessed to sell the rifle -- lock, stock, and barrel, so to speak.
 
For the best answer to your options, sign up at Rimfire Central, and contact member noremf (George). He is a former Sherwin Williams employee (I forget his position, but he has lab experience analyzing wood working chemicals) and a long time furniture restorer (high end stuff, not IKEA lol).

By appearances, it looks like what you're dealing with is a quirk of how the wood grain revealed during the machining process, looking at pictures 2 and 3 of you post, you can see dark grain lines separating the wider lighter coloured sections. The orientation of this dark grain and the machining pattern just happened to stretch out and reveal this dark grain line over an extended section of the stock.

Think of laminate stocks and how the layers reveal through machining, here is the best example I have out of my personal collection. The fore end of the stock has a small, long black top layer from about the receiver area to the end of the stock. At the receiver, it comes out as more gray in tone, then at the end a darker section appears. Presumably, this is because the top layer is thinner at the receiver, and the orientation of the layers + the machining caused it to become slightly thicker at the end of the stock, giving it the darker tone.



I don't imagine any staining process would be a) easy or b) truly give you satisfactory results of blending in the darker section while still keeping the rich character in the wood for the remainder of the stock. You're liable to make it very muted, muddy, and bland for the sake of that single dark area to blend.

My best guess is you'll need to sand that area to knock that dark section down to the lighter wood layer underneath. Doing so, I imagine, will be next to impossible without the need to re-shape the stock to keep even proportions due to the material removal, and of course re-checker.

Good luck.
 
grauhanen said:
I believe CZ uses lacquer on the stocks. You'll have to use lacquer thinner to remove lacquer. Perhaps chemical stripper will work, too. I don't know.

In any case, how do you imagine you can get the rest of the wood darker to match the part of the wood that's too dark for your self-described "perfectionist" taste?
The thing is that if you stain the stock, everything gets stained. And the darker tone that you don't like remains dark beneath the stain. Perhaps you anticipate staining only part of the stock. That approach is bound to bring you grief and dissatisfaction because it is not a simple or straightforward task like painting part of a fence a different colour.

In the end, your best choice remaining is as you guessed to sell the rifle -- lock, stock, and barrel, so to speak.
Click to expand...

I saw many really dark CZ's over the years.
Mine is pretty lightly colored.
I already know its gonna be impossible to match the dark spot with the rest of the stock.
What I want is to lessen the difference in color.

What I would like to acheive :

Goal on top and mine is like the bottom one...

 
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