Just recieved a PH Sporter .303 minty bore with knob adjustable peep rear sight.The only downside is the stock was redone at some point.What would be best to get a dark walnut finish as this is stripped beech with checkering?Oh and a #0 bolt head to boot!..........Harold
Parker Hale .303 Sporter
- Thread starter mbogo3
- Start date
Dj_Squelch
Regular
- Location
- Whitecourt Alberta
Use a chemical stripper and remove the old finish. Stain with a good quality walnut stain. Refinish with whatever you choose (polyurethane, oil, etc).
The stock is stamped SILE behind the butt plate.I know they did stocks for PH in Italy.Don't know for sure what wood they used?Working on posting pics just got back from replenishing our bear baits and it's snowing sideways here...........Harold
mbogo3,
Staining is incredibly easy. First, strip the old finish off. I use "Circa 1850" furniture stripper. You can get it from your local Home Depot or Rona or whatever. Slather it all over the stock, let it sit for a while, and then start scraping the old finish off with a plastic mud spatula (the kind you use for drywalling) or paint scraper. Sometimes, depending on the finish, it will just sluff off with a rag. ("Circa" will melt nitrile rubber gloves, so don't get excited if this happens to your own set if you happen to be wearing them.)
Once the old finish is off, take some 200gr sandpaper, and sand the stock down. Don't go crazy, just use it to get the last remnants of the old stock finish off. Follow up with a quick polish with 400gr, and you're good to go.
Next, grab some varsol and a clean rag, and wipe the stock down to get rid of the last bits of wood dust and such. You can also used compressed air to blow the stock off, but the varsol/rag tends to get all the little dusty bits.
Lay out some newspaper, and lay your stock down on it. Grab another clean rag, and dab a corner of it into the stain of your choice. Slap it onto the stock, in a heavy coat. Make sure it's a heavy coat so that the wood takes the stain evenly. Work quickly and evenly for this step. Slather the stuff liberally all over the stock, letting the wood absorb the stain. Let it sit for 10 min, then come back and give the stock a quick rub down to get rid of the excess stain that will be blobbed on the surface. Let sit over night.
The next day, do the same, only this time take it a little easier on the volume of stain. Use a moderate amount of stain, coat the stock again, and let the wood absorb the stain. Wait 10 min, rub off excess, let sit overnight. Repeat for 2-3 more days, and you'll get a consistant colour to the wood.
Sometimes I cheat and use a hair drier to speed up evaporation of the stain, but use at your own discretion. It works for me, so I have no complaints. It allows a guy to get on 3-4 coats in one sitting. Nonetheless, you still need to wait overnight to let the stain cure properly, and I still take 2-3 days to do a full stain job. But if you space it out during times when you have other work to do, or an hour before bed time, it really isn't an issue.
Save the steel wool for the finishing step. If you're interested, I can give a quick description of how to do an oil finish (actually it's much the same as staining). It's much easier than a polyurethane finish, and in my opinion looks a heck of a lot better. On top of that, if the stock ever gets dinged, a quick rub of oil and she looks good as new. But seeing as I've gone on for long enough here, I'll save the oil finish lecture for another time.
Staining is incredibly easy. First, strip the old finish off. I use "Circa 1850" furniture stripper. You can get it from your local Home Depot or Rona or whatever. Slather it all over the stock, let it sit for a while, and then start scraping the old finish off with a plastic mud spatula (the kind you use for drywalling) or paint scraper. Sometimes, depending on the finish, it will just sluff off with a rag. ("Circa" will melt nitrile rubber gloves, so don't get excited if this happens to your own set if you happen to be wearing them.)
Once the old finish is off, take some 200gr sandpaper, and sand the stock down. Don't go crazy, just use it to get the last remnants of the old stock finish off. Follow up with a quick polish with 400gr, and you're good to go.
Next, grab some varsol and a clean rag, and wipe the stock down to get rid of the last bits of wood dust and such. You can also used compressed air to blow the stock off, but the varsol/rag tends to get all the little dusty bits.
Lay out some newspaper, and lay your stock down on it. Grab another clean rag, and dab a corner of it into the stain of your choice. Slap it onto the stock, in a heavy coat. Make sure it's a heavy coat so that the wood takes the stain evenly. Work quickly and evenly for this step. Slather the stuff liberally all over the stock, letting the wood absorb the stain. Let it sit for 10 min, then come back and give the stock a quick rub down to get rid of the excess stain that will be blobbed on the surface. Let sit over night.
The next day, do the same, only this time take it a little easier on the volume of stain. Use a moderate amount of stain, coat the stock again, and let the wood absorb the stain. Wait 10 min, rub off excess, let sit overnight. Repeat for 2-3 more days, and you'll get a consistant colour to the wood.
Sometimes I cheat and use a hair drier to speed up evaporation of the stain, but use at your own discretion. It works for me, so I have no complaints. It allows a guy to get on 3-4 coats in one sitting. Nonetheless, you still need to wait overnight to let the stain cure properly, and I still take 2-3 days to do a full stain job. But if you space it out during times when you have other work to do, or an hour before bed time, it really isn't an issue.
Save the steel wool for the finishing step. If you're interested, I can give a quick description of how to do an oil finish (actually it's much the same as staining). It's much easier than a polyurethane finish, and in my opinion looks a heck of a lot better. On top of that, if the stock ever gets dinged, a quick rub of oil and she looks good as new. But seeing as I've gone on for long enough here, I'll save the oil finish lecture for another time.
Okay oil finish:
There's a few kinds of oil one can use. Linseed oil is one of the first to come to mind, but I prefer tung oil for a finish, due to its waterproofing properties. You can buy pure tung oil and cut it with mineral spirits if you want to go the traditional route. I've been using Behr "Tung oil finish", which is a mixture of solvents and tung oil. Tung oil by itself is a great protector, but takes a long time to cure. Cutting it with different solvents helps to make for a faster curing time.
But enough technical nonsense. Once you've got your rifle stained to the colour you want, give it a quick rub down with some varsol to get rid of any dust or grease residue. Take a rag and dab it in the oil. Just like with the stain, start to slather the wood in oil, quickly and efficiently. Put on a heavy coat. The wood will start to drink the oil right up. Keep adding a bit of oil to your rag, and keep rubbing oil in. The wood will keep absorbing the oil. Eventually, you'll notice that the wood is starting to drip the oil, and it just stays on top of the surface. This means the wood has absorbed as much oil as it can (for the moment). Let the wood sit for ten minutes, then wipe it down to remove the excess oil.
Hit the stock with heat from a heat gun/hair drier. (Wear a mask) You'll see the oil soak into the wood even more, and you'll see little beads of oil on top of the wood. Give the wood another wipe down with a clean rag, and let it sit for an hour.
After an hour, come back, and briskly hit the stock with steel wool. You want to raise up a slight amount of "dust". This dust will be a weird mix of wood dust and finish. Keeping this mix of dust on the wood, give the stock a light slather of oil. The "dust" will serve to fill in any grain depressions and will help seal the wood. After this, hit the stock with another heavy coat of oil, watching again for the wood soaking up oil, and then reaching the point where it can't take any more. Wipe it down, wait ten minutes, hit with the hair drier, wipe down exess, let sit for an hour.
Repeat the oiling one more time, no longer using the steel wool. I do 3 coats and then let the wood sit overnight. I do this for about 3 nights, and then let the stock sit in a corner for a week, giving it a good chance to air out.
After that, I make up a mix of 1 part tung oil, 1 part mineral spirits, and 1 part furniture wax. I put the wax in a shoe polish tin, heat it over an ELECTRIC HEATER (If you use a propane torch, you'll light the mix on fire and have an exciting evening. Trust me.) Once the wax is melted, I add the mineral spirits and the tung oil, then allow the mixture to cool. It will turn into a weird sort of jellied mix that smells really bad. I call it stock "polish".
Using a clean terry cloth rag, I dab a corner in the mixture, and rub a moderate amount on the stock. You will see the stock start to look a bit glossy. Let the polish sit for half an hour, then add another coat or two. Let sit for another 30 min, then buff the stock. The stock will start to take a shine.
Add a coat of this stuff once/day for a week, and at the end of the week you'll have one heck of a nice looking rifle. The wood will take about 14 days after your last coat of polish for all the solvents and funky smells to evaporate. After that, you'll be good to go. Maybe add a light coat of tung oil every 3 months to keep the stock shiney, and that's all you have to do. And if it ever gets scratched, just add a coat or two of "polish", buff, and that's it.
*edit: Oh and I noticed you have checkering on your stock. Don't hit the checkering with sandpaper: it will make a mess of the checkering.*
There's a few kinds of oil one can use. Linseed oil is one of the first to come to mind, but I prefer tung oil for a finish, due to its waterproofing properties. You can buy pure tung oil and cut it with mineral spirits if you want to go the traditional route. I've been using Behr "Tung oil finish", which is a mixture of solvents and tung oil. Tung oil by itself is a great protector, but takes a long time to cure. Cutting it with different solvents helps to make for a faster curing time.
But enough technical nonsense. Once you've got your rifle stained to the colour you want, give it a quick rub down with some varsol to get rid of any dust or grease residue. Take a rag and dab it in the oil. Just like with the stain, start to slather the wood in oil, quickly and efficiently. Put on a heavy coat. The wood will start to drink the oil right up. Keep adding a bit of oil to your rag, and keep rubbing oil in. The wood will keep absorbing the oil. Eventually, you'll notice that the wood is starting to drip the oil, and it just stays on top of the surface. This means the wood has absorbed as much oil as it can (for the moment). Let the wood sit for ten minutes, then wipe it down to remove the excess oil.
Hit the stock with heat from a heat gun/hair drier. (Wear a mask) You'll see the oil soak into the wood even more, and you'll see little beads of oil on top of the wood. Give the wood another wipe down with a clean rag, and let it sit for an hour.
After an hour, come back, and briskly hit the stock with steel wool. You want to raise up a slight amount of "dust". This dust will be a weird mix of wood dust and finish. Keeping this mix of dust on the wood, give the stock a light slather of oil. The "dust" will serve to fill in any grain depressions and will help seal the wood. After this, hit the stock with another heavy coat of oil, watching again for the wood soaking up oil, and then reaching the point where it can't take any more. Wipe it down, wait ten minutes, hit with the hair drier, wipe down exess, let sit for an hour.
Repeat the oiling one more time, no longer using the steel wool. I do 3 coats and then let the wood sit overnight. I do this for about 3 nights, and then let the stock sit in a corner for a week, giving it a good chance to air out.
After that, I make up a mix of 1 part tung oil, 1 part mineral spirits, and 1 part furniture wax. I put the wax in a shoe polish tin, heat it over an ELECTRIC HEATER (If you use a propane torch, you'll light the mix on fire and have an exciting evening. Trust me.) Once the wax is melted, I add the mineral spirits and the tung oil, then allow the mixture to cool. It will turn into a weird sort of jellied mix that smells really bad. I call it stock "polish".
Using a clean terry cloth rag, I dab a corner in the mixture, and rub a moderate amount on the stock. You will see the stock start to look a bit glossy. Let the polish sit for half an hour, then add another coat or two. Let sit for another 30 min, then buff the stock. The stock will start to take a shine.
Add a coat of this stuff once/day for a week, and at the end of the week you'll have one heck of a nice looking rifle. The wood will take about 14 days after your last coat of polish for all the solvents and funky smells to evaporate. After that, you'll be good to go. Maybe add a light coat of tung oil every 3 months to keep the stock shiney, and that's all you have to do. And if it ever gets scratched, just add a coat or two of "polish", buff, and that's it.
*edit: Oh and I noticed you have checkering on your stock. Don't hit the checkering with sandpaper: it will make a mess of the checkering.*
if I'm going to refinish a stock,after stripping the old finish off,I generally look for ''dings'' and steam them out -a wet rag and my wife's iron works well.You'd be surprised how many dings and bumps [compressed wood] will come out.Then I proceed with sanding from course down through finer grits before applying the finish.I've stuck with traditional well rubbed in oil finishes but would be interested if anyone has used an epoxy type finish which should make it impervious to moisture-if you coated the inside action and barrel area as well as the outside.
yah,its funny, with all the latest short mag offerings that the gun writers say we ''must have'', the old much maligned 303 brit still puts meat in the freezer-if you hold it straight,and a Parker Hale is one of the best ''bubba'' military conversions out there....question?-if you add a scope rail to a ''black'' rifle-are you guilty of''bubba''?
The wood's coming along nicely ,must be walnut on the 3rd hand rubbed coat.......................can't find the original maker as PH and England is stamped all over as well as 1944 Oh well 0 bolt head and mint 5 groove barrel.Bluing barrel next as it's rather splotchy.Any recommendations brand creme or what?........Harold
