Gunstock finishes and stains.

[MilitaryCollectorMark]

So I'm refinishing a bunch of my guns.

On My 788, it has the white wood, birch? A idea I had is to use a stain/antique used in leatherworking.

Turned out ok in my opinion..

Applied a coat of spar varnish on top to seal the wood, probably going to lightly sand over it then apply another coat. Maybe 3 coats total? Not sure though.


If you want a really concentrated stain, use leather dye thinned with alocohol, works nice!


This is the stuff I used to stain the stock. It's really easy to work with, just put some on a rag and wipe on.

 

[MilitaryCollectorMark]

Any advice? Your favorite finish?

 

[Mike Webb]

Stain worked well. I think the old 788's were maple but very light in colour. Careful no tto stain too dark as a good finish will usually add more darkness. I love tung oil for gun stocks. Easy to use, dries fater than linseed oil base finishes. I usually put ten or twelve coats on a stock more if the wood is open grained, just apply coats until you can no longer see pores in the wood.
I usually apply it using a couple cotton balls inside a ladies nylon stocking( WARNIN DO NOT USE YOUR WIFE'S NEW STOCKINGS) , just invert the jug of oil over the cotton ball/stocking to load with oil. Then apply wiping with the grain, leaves no lines, lint or fingerprints and thin , fast drying coats are possible.
My 2 cents