refinishing a milsurp stock - info / questions

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ghostntheshell

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Hey folks. I just bought a 91/30 with PU scope (repro) from westrifle. The barrel looks great, which is all I asked for, but the stock has seen better days. It appears as if prior to storage it was covered in a some sort of shelak (I even found remenants of this shelak on the bolt too!) And they didn't pay any sort of attention to not covering things like the sling metal loops. The "shelak" (spelling?) Coating is chipping away BADLY now and getting on everything, especially my hands. When I took off the barrel bands the shelak was coming with it.

ALSO - the metal half rings on the stock were painted with a black paint, and it comes off with any light pressure. Flakes right off.


SO - now to my question. I am thinking of using the tru-oil refinishing kit available. It contains the sand paper, tru oil, and a walnut stain.

1.) Has anyone used this product before? Post results?

2.) If not, what product would anyone recommend to get a close to original colour? I am partial to the darker colours I've seen.

3.) My stock seems to fit very well. The dollar bill under the barrel move freely as is desired, and there are no rattles. I am hoping not to change the shape of the inside of the stock - does anyone know if applying the tru-oil / walnut stain to the exterior can effect the shape of the wood enough to alter the fit?

4.) The metal half rings on stock appear to be silver underneath the black paint. Is that the original finish?

These may be newb questions - but that's because I am a newb to wood work / refinishing.

YES pictures are worth a 1000 words - but my camera has been misplaced in the move. I will try to get some pics up today if I can find my camera.


Looking forward to sighting this baby in and posting range results.
 
My Shellac has the same poor finish as yours. I will follow this for interest.

Im sure someone will chime in but Ive heard of a method using some sort of alcohol to remove the shellac but not the stain underneath.
 
I refinished a 91/30 this past winter, which had the peeling shellac problem.
I first stripped the old finish with furniture stripper and fine steel wool. No need to sand. I still wanted the dark/light stains and age marks of the wood to show through. I then used a dark red mahogany minwax stain, and used 2 coats of shellac to finish it off. Looks very close to the original colour, sorry not pic.
 
Alright. Well, I'll post some pictures of my progress.

I have seen some youtube videos where they use boiling water with some steel wool - but I don't really think I want to use water - as I fear it may alter the fit of the stock.. which is awesome at the moment.


I am reading up on it currently:

IF it is shellac it will easily be removed by denatured alcohol. It is a lacquer it will require a lacquer thinner.

ANYONE know what the russians were using? (cripes, or whoever was using these things :)
 
ghostntheshell said:
Alright. Well, I'll post some pictures of my progress.

I have seen some youtube videos where they use boiling water with some steel wool - but I don't really think I want to use water - as I fear it may alter the fit of the stock.. which is awesome at the moment.


I am reading up on it currently:

IF it is shellac it will easily be removed by denatured alcohol. It is a lacquer it will require a lacquer thinner.

ANYONE know what the russians were using? (cripes, or whoever was using these things :)
Click to expand...

It is shellac. I've read that you should just apply a new coat of shellac over the old. Stripping and removing and refinishing with something else= Bubbaing a milsurp.

Lots of people have done it but it's not strictly correct. Shellac is correct for a Mosin.
 
I'd like to know that applying new shellac over the old would work...

anyone tried this?

I would hate to shellac it - then just have the old shellac continue peeling right under it causing problems.


QUESTION EDIT:

Why are people buying and mixing their own shellac with flakes and denatured alcohol when they can just buy cans of premix?
 
Last edited:
The shellac cracking and peeling is caused because the wood gets wet and swells. A small cotton cleaning patch and alcohol will soften the surface shellac and let you "wet buff" the surface and refresh the finish. Or read the link below and learn more.

The Americans, British and Commonwealth nations used raw linseed oil which kept the wood hydrated with oil, BUT the linseed oil also allowed the stock to breathe. ;)

http://parallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums.yuku.com/topic/16581/t/The-Secret-life-of-Shellac-0r-Bugs-are-our-Friends.html

"1) As the original finish. As I mentioned earlier, shellac is original to many rifle stocks. That means that you can refinish an old stock properly in an authentic finish using shellac and also repair an existing shellac finish by simply respraying over the old shellac. No matter how old the shellac is, applying a new coat over the old will blend right in. And no matter how many coats you put on, you’ll always end up with one coat as each subsequent coat blends in with the other perfectly. If you’ve got a rifle that has a deep red shellac finish, you simply dye the new shellac to match or purchase the proper flake color and respray."
 
ghostntheshell said:
I'd like to know that applying new shellac over the old would work...

anyone tried this?

I would hate to shellac it - then just have the old shellac continue peeling right under it causing problems.


QUESTION EDIT:

Why are people buying and mixing their own shellac with flakes and denatured alcohol when they can just buy cans of premix?
Click to expand...

Why do you thin paint with thiner, because you can control the "thickness" of the shellac. Thin coat to start, sand smooth, apply thicker finish for last coats. Reapplying a refinishing top coat the shellac is made thin to flow and prevent unnecessary thickness.
(Light cloths in summer, heavy cloths in winter)

Below, thick shellac "coat" for protection..........................:D

more-snow-bench.jpg
 
Probably the best way.

Newmer said:
I refinished a 91/30 this past winter, which had the peeling shellac problem.
I first stripped the old finish with furniture stripper and fine steel wool. No need to sand. I still wanted the dark/light stains and age marks of the wood to show through. I then used a dark red mahogany minwax stain, and used 2 coats of shellac to finish it off. Looks very close to the original colour, sorry not pic.
Click to expand...
 
refinish stocks

i do some refinishing if anyone would be interested, i do oil finishes and other older finishing methods, message if interested, you can sedn pics of a stock you would like refinished to coltkid_93@hotmail.com

or message my cell, 1 902 623 2279, text the phone only please, leave your name and message and contact #

my prices vary upon work and time required
 
If your wish is to replicate the original "soviet red" shellac finish try this site:

h ttp://www.woodessence.com/Dry-Shellac-P54C13.aspx

You can buy can's of premixed shellac in amber from home depot, but speaking from experience your better off mixing you own as drying times as well as thickness of the shellac can be adjusted to suit your liking. I'm pretty sure that kind is not "dewaxed" which causes it to take much longer to dry fully. Overall, working with shellac is actually fairly forgiving as long as you take the slow and steady approach! The nice part is if you totally screw it up, just wipe it off with denatured alcohol and start over. You can also get rid of brush marks, finger marks, or dust particles in the finish etc. buy buffing down the dried shellac with 0000 extra fine steel wool.
 
Awesome! I actually just bought some homedepot amber shellac - but I haven't opened it up yet. I will do a little more reading / experimenting before jumping in! Thanks for all the great responses!
 
if you go with linseed oil... apply several coats till wood is wet and doesn't suck any more in.... then wait 10 min and wipe it all off...
- wait an hour then reapply ... and wait 10 min and it wipe off.. do this several times during the day... the idea is not to let any dry on the surface, cause it'll get gummy or tacky ( then you'll have to start over with a lite sanding )

then you apply it once a day for a week...
then once a week for abit

if you want to do the full deal... you'd wet sand it with 600grit after the second application ... to sand off any of the grain that raised up.. for a more smoothe look

or stick to the original... lee valley sells the shellac chips.. ..
personally, i don't like the shellac for guns ... maybe for furniture but that is life

please post pic's as you go
 
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