Cleaning up (oiling) Rem 870 wood furniture

bluemike807

bluemike807

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
141   0   0
Location
Eastern Ontario
Hey guys - I just purchased this:

870001.jpg


and want to clean up the wooden furniture. Its not dinged or scratched, but the veneer is worn in places, giving it a patchy look. My idea was to do for it the same I did for my Lee-Enfield - strip it down with Circa 1850 and give it a few coats of boiled linseed oil.

Is that a good idea? I just want to make it look 'smoother' and give it a decent, non glossy finish. Would I wind up with something that just looked worse?
 
I did something similar to my modified Cooey 64.

I used Circa 1850 to remove the factory finish and to clean it up, some light sanding and about 6 applications of tung oil. I buffed every application after it was dry and applied the next coat.

Didn't pay as much attention to sanding as I should have, but it turned out rather nice and smooth. Having used various grades of sandpaper would have produced a glossier and smoother finish in the end.

dsc00888x.jpg


The table is also tung oiled. :)

While the stock was striped, I took advantage of steaming out some of the dents before sanding.

Don't remove too much meat sanding, especially at the back, or the pad may end up fitting a bit too big where it contacts the buttstock.
In your case, you can take advantage fitting the stock to the receiver with a smoother transition line. Many stocks protrude the receiver where they connect.

For sanding, use a few different grades of the foam sanding blocks. (Drywallers use these for touch up sanding in corners and such). They conform nicely to curves as opposed to a piece of sandpaper in your hand. Definitely, do not use any form of hard, flat surface backing your sandpaper. This is definitely a hand job, so no power tools either.

Tung oil worked well for me. I don't have any experience with linseed oil to comment, but it sounds like a messier proposition.
 
hmm, thanks for the advice. I dont know if it needs any sanding exactly - it fits to the receiver perfectly, and I like the feel of it already (grip size is perfect for me) so I dont really want to risk messing that up. Likewise I dont want to risk dulling the checkering (which is excellent, surprisingly).

I read that Tung oil tends to be lighter in color - Im looking for something to darken the wood, which I understand that Linseed Oil will over time. Maybe I should try a stain? any recommendations?
 
I think when you remove the finish with the Circa stuff, you'll need a very light sanding to smoothen out the open pores and buff away the residual varnish on the surface. Use a toothbrush to clean the checkering with the Circa 1850 and don't sand them at all. Use natural spirits to clean it all in the end.

Stain, yeah, go for it. The factory stains the stocks. But that's under varnish. I don't know how tung oil will react to the stain. I thought the oil was to bring out the natural look of the wood.
 
I use watco Danish oil in dark walnut. It stains and seals, and I have been very happy with it. it's the one in the middle (obviously). Home depot has it.
tacticalshotguns001.jpg
[/IMG]
 
manbearpig said:
IMHO tung oil is a superior finish to linseed oil.
Click to expand...

True;

Boiled linseed oil has chemical driers in it and those are probably toxic. It does an OK job but my experience making canoe paddles is that Tung is a bit better. Unless you want to heat the boiled linseed oil before applying it Tung will give you a bit better penetration too.

The best you can expect to get is maybe a millimeter though. You can increase the penetration of the oil by mixing the first coat with a bit of turpentine. After that straight oil. Also you could just soak the furniture in a tub of oil for a few days.

The main thing to remember that when you coat the wood with oil it will continue to soak in as long as it is wet so you need to add more coats every few minutes. Once a spot drys there will be no more penetration. The end grain will soak up a the most and fast too.

If you do it right you will have a perfectly waterproof finish that you can touch up at any time with more oil.

Danish oil also has good results. As far as I know it is a mix of linseed and tung. I have also had great results with grapeseed cooking oil on canoe paddles. The reason we use oil on paddles is for ease of maintenance and it does not give you blisters like varnish.

Oiled furniture on a firearm will give it the look and feel of real wood and like fine antique wood work, it will have a warmth that varnish will not have. It will not crack from UV light like a lot of varnishes either.

All in all whatever oil you pick it is the way to go.
 
Another option that is durable and looks similar: wet sand 50/50 Spar varnish (satin) and mineral spirits. After taking care of any noticeably bad spots with a wet towel and soldering iron and coarser grit paper, I start wet sanding with 320 and work up through 600 (allowing to dry in between). It gives a hand-rubbed, oil look without the maintenance aspects. I have guns that I have refinished with tung, linseed, and Spar and they all look great.
 
I ordered a replacement butt stock for my Savage 99 and it came with instructions for finishing that went something like this:

Mix Tung Oil Finish (Very important to use the finish, not straight Tung Oil) half and half with mineral spirits and apply repeatedly until the wood will not soak in anymore and it just runs. (This process will take a few days as you let it dry each time) Allow the last coat to dry, then buff off the stock with extra fine steel wool. Then apply straight Tung Oil Finish repeatedly until the wood will not take anymore. Once again buff with steel wool and repeat. You will notice the grain in the wood filling with the mixtue of tung oil finish and dust from buffing.

When the wood has become very smooth, finish it by putting a small amound of Lin-Speed (available to order on line) in the palm of your hand and rub it into the finish of the stock.

I've done this to a few guns now, and if the stock is made of nice walnut, when you are done, it's almost as though you can look right into the wood. Really works well and is super easy to repair. If you don't like the satin look when you are done, you can buff it gently with a piece of burlap.
 
A good way to get a smooth, strong, sealed finished is whiping varnish.

Use 1/3 Linseed oil, 1/3 varathane and 1/3 Mineral spirits.

Apply your first coat with a rag, apply your second coat with 400 grit sandpaper, and your third and final coat with 600 grit sandpaper.

Let dry 24h between coats.

The linseed oil will give you a nice finish and the varathan will give you a good strong sealer.
 
I wound up going with straight linseed oil after I stripped down whatever had been there previously. It came off really quickly and easily with Heirloom furniture stripper. There was a thin layer of Shellac or something over a likewise thin layer of darker surface stain. I was actually surprised at how pale the wood underneath was. I've put about three layers of BLO on it so far and its come up beautifully. Im hoping it will darken some with age, but right now its a pale, handsome colour, somewhere between blonde and gold. Pics to come
 
in my very limited experience with it, plain linseed does not give a very protective finish and can become tacky in some conditions.

i did a coffee table with it ages ago. in a humid summer, it had this slight unpleasant tacky feel. i left a coke can on it for one night, and there was a 1cm thick black ring on the table forever from it. ive never had either of these issues with a good tung oil finish, so since then i never used linseed again.

YMMV. maybe i did something wrong.


dogzilla: how did you strip the corncob forend?
i have one i need to refinish. what stripper did you use, and did the factory finish come out of the little grooves easily? i was planning on using a water-based furniture stripper and a stiff toothbrush.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom