Filling gouges in walnut stock -- Model 94 refinishing

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sgrA

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Too long? Skip ahead to my question

I recently bought a 1948 M94 for cheap. Great gun, tons of fun to shoot, bore looks like it hasn't seen many rounds. But it seems like over the years it was ridden hard and put away wet. Bluing on the receiver is mostly gone (you can clearly see where the previous owner gripped it with his right hand while carrying it through the bush, which is cool). And the metal is pretty scratched up. I detail stripped it and cleaned out enough dirt and gunk to start a small garden patch. There was also plenty of rust and pitting under the wood line. The wood itself has good grain and colour and was in decent shape, but was starting to rot from dampness and was soaked with oil through the head of the buttstock. A crack had formed at the recoil shoulder, probably related the the wood swelling where it meets the tang.

I decided I needed to at least get the oil out of the stock to prevent further damage as I intend to shoot this beauty a lot. I knew this would wreck the beautiful original finish and colour but it isn't an heirloom or collector's piece so it's worth it. At this point I just decided to do an entire stock refinish to remove the oil, repair the crack, bed it to the receiver, raise/sand the dents, and fill the gouges. I intend to do tru-oil on top and buff it to a satin finish.

Question

https://imgur.com/a/mJ3idIQ

At this point the wood has been stripped, steamed, and sanded, by turns soaked in lacquer thinner/acetone and pasted with whiting powder to remove oil. I have a kit for the glass bedding job and wood glue for the crack. I just can't decide how to fill the remaining gouges in the walnut. I've been considering:

1. 5-minute epoxy mixed with sanding dust. Problem is epoxy won't take colour once it's set so the repair has to match closely with the surrounding wood's final finished colour.
2. The "shellac in the hole and sand it in" technique. This isn't as durable as epoxy, but maybe it'll be easier to colour match.
3. Leave it as is and apply the finish over top. I'll be sanding in the first coats of tru oil to fill the deep pores in the wood. Maybe this will also fill in the gouges a bit.
4. ?

I'm going to go to a lumber yard and get a piece of black walnut to test and practice on. Just wanted to ask you all here to see if there are any other things I should be considering.

Thanks,
-M
 
If you are doing that much work, you can buy a new roughed out stock here and finish that. some where around C note.
A patch is almost impossible to make look right, maybe some can.
If your walnut is very dark, it is easier, I have added grain with blk, dark brown ink.
Your picture don't open for me.
The old guys would just run a stove bolt through the wrist when they got a crack, and call it a day.
 
The dents don't look all that bad. I would lay a wet linen towel over the wood and use a hot clothes iron to hopefully pop some of the marks up. For finishing once stained lightly wet sand your finish coat of what ever your using -ie Tru-oil with 320 sand paper. Let it dry and maybe have to repeat a couple times, when divots filled to your satisfaction on final light wet sanding wipe it dry.
Depending on how bad the oil impregnated tang area is, Marshall's suggestion of a semi-inletted replacement set might be a better option.
 
When I resurfaced my sks stock I had used tinted wood filler, then finished it with a dark mocha stain. It came out flawless.
Maybe try a final / finish coat with this filler.
A year later during a field strip of the same rifle the dust cover pin turned into the wood and put a good gouge into it. I was peeved and my buddy said that it added character, as each mark has a story. Looking at my beat up 1912 Carl Gustaf I wonder what stories it would tell me if it could.
 
Last edited:
You can attempt to raise the gouges with steam. Or you can attempt to fill them, with a variety of materials (Lee Valley has products like lacquer sticks or wax filler sticks that may be of use). Or, you can leave them be; as they add character.
 
sgrA said:
Too long? Skip ahead to my question
At this point the wood has been stripped, steamed, and sanded, by turns soaked in lacquer thinner/acetone and pasted with whiting powder to remove oil. I have a kit for the glass bedding job and wood glue for the crack. I just can't decide how to fill the remaining gouges in the walnut. I've been considering:

1. 5-minute epoxy mixed with sanding dust. Problem is epoxy won't take colour once it's set so the repair has to match closely with the surrounding wood's final finished colour.
2. The "shellac in the hole and sand it in" technique. This isn't as durable as epoxy, but maybe it'll be easier to colour match.
3. Leave it as is and apply the finish over top. I'll be sanding in the first coats of tru oil to fill the deep pores in the wood. Maybe this will also fill in the gouges a bit.
4. ?

I'm going to go to a lumber yard and get a piece of black walnut to test and practice on. Just wanted to ask you all here to see if there are any other things I should be considering.

Thanks,
-M
Click to expand...

Anywhere that the grain is cut cannot be steamed out - looks like most of what you have left has cut grain.

Looks like you have the steel butt plate - if you sand too much then you are going to wind up with an oversized butt plate. (you probably already do)

Trying to fill and colour match is going to be a pain in the ass and not look good when done - I would stain it as dark as I could, that will somewhat hide the scars.

Shellac will work, but will not hold up to moisture and solvents. Shellac is for safe queens that get touched up from time to time.

Personally, I would stain it real dark, use a sanding sealer to fill the pores and finish it with a polymerized tung. (tru oil is just polymerized linseed ~mostly), for a shooting/working gun it will start getting dinged up pretty quickly so I wouldn't bother with the dings. But if you must same process as above ^ but fill in the dings with CA glue before oil finish.
 
Kind of have to decide what you want in the end. If you are going to have the metal all polished up, all the scroll marks and stampings on the metal re-done, and hot blued, then extensive fussy work on wood might make sense - that is trying to turn it back the way it looked from the factory new. Not certain that is good idea? It is a used 1948 rifle - 72 years old. Decision whether to keep it as museum piece quality was made 71 years ago. Too late now. The more you sand and polish, the worse you will make the fit between wood and metal, because you can only remove material. I think you have helped it a lot by pulling that oil from the wood. Good move. I have a 1955 M94 and an M70 that are both somewhat similar - someone slathered varnish on the M94 in the past, which is now lifting. My thinking is to simply remove that varnish with stripper, then re-stain / re-coat / re-seal that wood and leave it be. No sanding.
 
Depends on what you want really. If finishing with truoil just use tru oil and sanding dust. If using linseed, which is original in this piece, use a shellac stick and after coating the wood let it sit in the sun. Or use dyed epoxy if you want to spend $50 on three drops of material.
 
450yukon said:
The dents don't look all that bad. I would lay a wet linen towel over the wood and use a hot clothes iron to hopefully pop some of the marks up. For finishing once stained lightly wet sand your finish coat of what ever your using -ie Tru-oil with 320 sand paper. Let it dry and maybe have to repeat a couple times, when divots filled to your satisfaction on final light wet sanding wipe it dry.
Depending on how bad the oil impregnated tang area is, Marshall's suggestion of a semi-inletted replacement set might be a better option.
Click to expand...

Thank you, the iron trick is pretty neat. I went through the process on the stock already. The photos show only the gouges that I couldn't sand or iron out. At this point I've spent enough money on solvents, sandpaper, whiting, epoxy, etc. that it would have been cheaper to just buy a replacement stock set haha. Oh well, I'm enjoying the learning experience. As for finishing I think I may try to fill the gougles 80% with epoxy, then rough the surface of the repair, treat the now shallow gouges as any other pores needing to be filled and do a sanded in finish over top as you suggest.
 
marshall said:
If you are doing that much work, you can buy a new roughed out stock here and finish that. some where around C note.
A patch is almost impossible to make look right, maybe some can.
If your walnut is very dark, it is easier, I have added grain with blk, dark brown ink.
Your picture don't open for me.
The old guys would just run a stove bolt through the wrist when they got a crack, and call it a day.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for your reply. Not sure if you had a hyperlink originally but was there a place you had in mind to buy replacement furniture in Canada?
 
Win120 said:
When I resurfaced my sks stock I had used tinted wood filler, then finished it with a dark mocha stain. It came out flawless.
Maybe try a final / finish coat with this filler.
A year later during a field strip of the same rifle the dust cover pin turned into the wood and put a good gouge into it. I was peeved and my buddy said that it added character, as each mark has a story. Looking at my beat up 1912 Carl Gustaf I wonder what stories it would tell me if it could.
Click to expand...

Yeah I get it. I like the handling marks too (and of course the cartouches on surplus guns). They tell a story. I wouldn't have bothered cosmetically refinishing this stock if I didn't have to destroy the finish anyways to get the oil out and save the wood. Now that I'm doing it though my perfectionism is taking over and I find it hard not to go all out lol
 
7ECA said:
You can attempt to raise the gouges with steam. Or you can attempt to fill them, with a variety of materials (Lee Valley has products like lacquer sticks or wax filler sticks that may be of use). Or, you can leave them be; as they add character.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I never considered these filler sticks. This might be a great alternative. I doubt the repaired area would be firm enough to take a direct knock without denting but they seem easy to touch up.
 
sean69 said:
Anywhere that the grain is cut cannot be steamed out - looks like most of what you have left has cut grain.

Looks like you have the steel butt plate - if you sand too much then you are going to wind up with an oversized butt plate. (you probably already do)

Trying to fill and colour match is going to be a pain in the ass and not look good when done - I would stain it as dark as I could, that will somewhat hide the scars.

Shellac will work, but will not hold up to moisture and solvents. Shellac is for safe queens that get touched up from time to time.

Personally, I would stain it real dark, use a sanding sealer to fill the pores and finish it with a polymerized tung. (tru oil is just polymerized linseed ~mostly), for a shooting/working gun it will start getting dinged up pretty quickly so I wouldn't bother with the dings. But if you must same process as above ^ but fill in the dings with CA glue before oil finish.
Click to expand...

Fortunately I mostly avoided oversanding by keeping the buttplate attached at all times (thanks Larry Potterfield). Thanks for the tip about the stain. I'd prefer to see the grain and the scars over a dark stain that obscures both. It's definitely not a showpiece, I may even decide to hunt with it. The more I read here the more I figure the filling and careful colour matching, while a good learning experience, will be a huge headache.
 
Potashminer said:
Kind of have to decide what you want in the end. If you are going to have the metal all polished up, all the scroll marks and stampings on the metal re-done, and hot blued, then extensive fussy work on wood might make sense - that is trying to turn it back the way it looked from the factory new. Not certain that is good idea? It is a used 1948 rifle - 72 years old. Decision whether to keep it as museum piece quality was made 71 years ago. Too late now. The more you sand and polish, the worse you will make the fit between wood and metal, because you can only remove material. I think you have helped it a lot by pulling that oil from the wood. Good move. I have a 1955 M94 and an M70 that are both somewhat similar - someone slathered varnish on the M94 in the past, which is now lifting. My thinking is to simply remove that varnish with stripper, then re-stain / re-coat / re-seal that wood and leave it be. No sanding.
Click to expand...

I would love to fully restore this gun to factory new (if professional hot bluing wasn't so damned expensive), or to own another M94 in amazing condition. Something about them just speaks to me. But then I would be too afraid to shoot it and thats 3/4 of the fun. This one is definitely not a show piece. I just want to be able to shoot it without it cracking and take it out in the rain without it rotting. Looking pretty is just a bonus.

I would definitely agree with refinishing your M94 stock, if not to make it look better then at least to make it more moisture resistant. Which finish stripper do you like? I've got all these supplies now and I'm thinking about refinishing my SKS with peeling finish.
 
sgrA said:
Hey thanks for your reply. Not sure if you had a hyperlink originally but was there a place you had in mind to buy replacement furniture in Canada?
Click to expand...

Yes , am too old to bother typing out links to pictures, I just paid 25.oo for a member ship and post pictures direct here, BTW I am not getting paid for the plug.
The fellow is a stock maker in Sask. can rough out a stock, semi finished, you do the final fitting and finishing, He will also do that if you want to spend the money.
One problem with new walnut is you fore wood will not match and look like crap, So If you went this way, I would suggest a set.
And depending on what you gun looks like , if just wear on the blueing, You will diminish the value of that gun.
Collectors will never look at a refinished gun. But it is yours so what ever you want.
A newer, post 1960's model you can find for 400-500.oo at gun show that look like new .
But back to the ?
RIW Sporting and Survival Supplies.
Robert Wilson
306 656 2159
ri.wilson@sasktel
In Sask, I don't think you will find a web page, I never looked, runs a small shop, with a stock duplicator, he usally has standard stock ready to go, or will make one from a pattern,
or you old stock
 
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