I will keep this thread up to date with all the developments, but for now, I am trying to find some direction! What kind of finish? How to finish? Etc.
All tips and suggestions welcome!
My first goal, is to try to remove all the darker/blacker spots if possible to give the best end results possible. Thanks!
When it comes to refinishing old wood, you need to work with what you have. Often it won't end up looking like a brand new rifle. Just trying to set expectations. That said....
I'd try a heat gun to heat up those dark areas and see if it's oil. If it is, keep heating up an area and immediately wipe up the oil as it comes to the surface. You'll see that as you remove the heat the oil will soak back in. The more rapidly the oil soaks back in, the less oil there is in there. Do this until you can't stand doing it anymore.
You can steam out some dents with a water dampened rag and an iron. I showed the process in a thread I started in this forum a long time ago. You can search for posts I started in Red Rifles about refinishing my sks. After the steaming process, grab some fine sandpaper and smoothen the wood.
The finishing process from here is really up to you and what direction you'd like to go in. Some people bought garnet shellac to mimic what the arsenal did when storing them. Other people use an oil finish. Some leave the wood light and oils like boiled linseed oil are light, so you end up with a "blonde" looking rifle. Others want a darker colour and may tint the oil or stain the wood first, then oil on top. I tend to do this.
fyi, the darker you want the final wood, the more it will hide those dark areas you are trying to eliminate. If you want a "blonde" look and can't get rid of those dark stained areas, you may be disappointed. So this is where an open mind and working with the wood you have really helps out.
Here's one extreme I did: I took a vanilla sks with a beat up stock and went from this:
To this:
I wanted an aged look to the stock. A look that shows weather and wear and has lots of character. Just playing with stains and tinted polymerized tung oil.
The sky is the limit and it all depends on what you want to do.
