Refinishing model 94 (post 64)

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Miller97

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I picked up this at a decent price from a local gun store, I'm a little hesitant to enter the world of "Do it yourself" restoration projects... I would like to refinish the wood stock on it also but I'm wondering if the average joe would attempt this or should I shell out the $ and get a gunsmith to do it...I'm just looking to bring it back to life.
http://imgur.com/ybXndjP
 
Oil and go.
If you decide to venture into the wood stock, for heaven's sake,
leaf the sandpaper alone.
A hundred years from now someone may thank you.
 
You could pay a professional and probably get better results than if you were to "DIY" - but if you do it yourself you're learning a skill and that has its own value. If you ever want to be able to redo a stock set than you have to face the learning curve sometime, I'm not sure if this is the appropriate piece for you to learn on, but what do I know, maybe it is. Ask yourself, "What's the worst that could happen?" and if your answer is "if it looks goofy then I'll be heartbroken" then I'd say this project t is not for you. If your answer is "it couldn't be worse" then you have nothing to lose by trying it yourself and you will definitely learn some things.
 
Oh I thought you were talking about the wood, I have zero bluing experience and recently somewhat goofed up my own woodworking project. Don't listen to me :)
 
Post '64 Winchester 94s have an unknown alloy receiver and generally turn eggplant purple when trying to reblue them. Very few gunsmiths will even attempt to reblue them. Coating them with cerakote or the like is a much better option.
 
i dolled up the wood on a 94 by removing the remaining old finish with some stripper. then used light sandpaper to smooth the hunting imperfections out a bit. i was carful not to mess up the wood to metal fit. then i used tru oil on the stock. there was still a lot of use character in the stock but it looked a million times better i don't care what anyone says. if i were to get the metal refinished id take it to a smith or just leave it.
 
Just re-finishing the wood makes a HUGE difference. Use a stripper to remove the old varnish. And some careful use of steam via a wet cloth and an iron to raise any dents. A light sanding for any scuffs and to smooth out any swelling if you raise the dents and then some sort of oil finish.

You Tube is full of videos on steaming out bumps and on various gunstock oil finishing methods.

One thing with oil finishing which you'll see in the pictures is that it's a long slow process. The oil can take a couple of weeks between coatings to kick off. If you rush it you'll never have more than one coat of oil on the wood at a time since each new application will simply thin out and slew away the previous. You want to use your nose as your guide for re-coating with oil finishes. Boiled linseed changes odor quite noticeably once it polymerizes. In cooler and darker days such as we're in now even indoors this can take a good two weeks. During summer if the wood is set out in the bright sun on a warm day you can re-coat once a day. The UV and warmth make a BIG difference in curing the oils.

I do recommend you use plain old boiled linseed or perhaps the polymerized tung from Lee Valley. Stay away from thinned down oils such as Minwax. Those are more for cleaning and top coating established finishes. The solvent they put into the product to make it cheaper to produce means that the build you get is hellishly slow. So a bottle of generic "boiled linseed" in the dull looking almost "no name" bottle is the way to go. If it doesn't sound thick like heavy cream then it's no good.

As for the receiver I don't know what to suggest. Folks say that the common cold blue and even hot salt bluing doesn't work well. I wonder about rust bluing? It's a slow process but perhaps that would be the way to go? Again look on You Tube for a bunch of good videos. In particular ones from Midway USA and Larry Potterfield. There's a few videos of him rust bluing different guns.
 
I polished the receiver on mine. Previous owner took very coarse sandpaper to it to make it look "old" but only succeeded in making it look like crap. Since there isn't really any way to reblue the receiver I used a dremel with polishing bits and metal polish. It came out beautiful. Looks like an Uberti silver boy. I need to do something with the rest of it as the sanding was not limited to the receiver. It has lasted great, not a speck of rust after 3 years and I've hunted with it a couple times was well.
 
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