Refinishing my Mosin. BLO question.

jongun said:
Wow it's looking awesome. Gonna be finishing my M44 sometime in the next couple months but will most likely be going the traditional shellac route. What mount are you getting?
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I am going to use the BullseyeXpress mount.

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As my first wood finishing project I wanted to keep things as simple as I could. I know the original finish should be shellac, but I wasnt shooting for an original look but one to show off the wood and its bumps and bruises. I like the 'battle scars', and there are so many, some quite deep; gouges really. I was going to have to sand all the stamps and aresenal marks off in order to get a surface suitable for a shellac job.
 
Travis Bickle said:
Bah!

Pay no mind to the purists! lol

I finished my M44 in BLO, it turned out out-fackin'-standing! :rockOn:

My stock was in great condition hence the smoothness of it.

I really like the look of your war ravaged wood with the BLO over the top.........did I just say "I like your war ravaged wood"? lol

Here is mine after about 9 applications of hand rubbed straight BLO:

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That is one sweet stock, love the heel insert. Is the stock white birch? How long did you let each coat soak before wiping off the excess, i left mine for 30 minutes, then let it dry over night, wipe off any that didnt dry and let it sit for 3 days before the next coat. If my next Mosin has a stock as nice as yours I may consider shellac, but yours looks amazing and Ill bet it feels butter soft!
 
Just to add to the whole project, i shimmed the trigger and made my own spring from some stainless wire to take the floppiness of the trigger. The scope is the cheapest 2-7x32 that I could find, that suprisingly enough has pretty good glass. We'll see how it holds up. It came with the teeter totter mount, its garbage. I have a BullseyeXpress mount on the way that is a solid one piece mount and replaces the rear sight completely rather than fixing to it. Finished off with the requisite recoil pad, cant wait to get the new mount and get her sighted in.
 
I think I'm going to have try this out on my m44 !!
I won't feel bad about it, the stock has a lot of patchwork, the finish is in rough shape, plus its import-marked so that old girl can use all the help she can get !!
 
Knuckles Muldoon said:
That is one sweet stock, love the heel insert. Is the stock white birch? How long did you let each coat soak before wiping off the excess, i left mine for 30 minutes, then let it dry over night, wipe off any that didnt dry and let it sit for 3 days before the next coat. If my next Mosin has a stock as nice as yours I may consider shellac, but yours looks amazing and Ill bet it feels butter soft!
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I've read on net sites that a solid birch stock with a laminate heel repair is rare but don't know if there is any truth to that.

I simply stripped off the old shellac with Acetone and '0000' steel wool. Gave it a very light sanding with 200 grit paper.

Then Hand rubbed BLO into it until it wouldn't soak in any more. Wiped off the excess with a rag.

Let dry for 24 hrs in a warm area of the house, next layer I would gently go over the stock with more '0000' steel wool to open the pores.

Then another hand rubbed layer of BLO and wipe etc

I just repeated this for about 8-9 times. The finish is awesome! Water just beads on the surface now. Oil is the best finish, it soaks down deep into the pores so no moisture can get into it. It becomes part of the stock and the wood. The only down side to this is that it is very very hard to remove if you want to change it at some time in the future. But come, look at her, why would you? ;)
 
Travis your M44 looks almost identical to mine finish wise and I'm pretty sure it's just BLO so maybe I won't be refinishing after all. I am kind of a purist but won't be messing around with the wood if it's gonna be a super pain in the ass to remove the BLO.
 
I say no to BLO, and go with good 'ol shellac. It's easier than staining, sanding, and applying BLO. Looks better and is original to boot.

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Tyler said:
I say no to BLO, and go with good 'ol shellac. It's easier than staining, sanding, and applying BLO. Looks better and is original to boot.

P7260020.jpg
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You know, I was just gonna ask if anyone has actually reproduced an original looking finish... Very nice job... That looks fantastic... BLO on Mosins SKS's and the like just doent do it for me... The original shellac finish has way more character and warmth IMHO...
 
Thanks guys!

Caleb314 said:
If you re finish a stock with shellac does it flake off easy like the original finish?
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No. I've had mine on for about 2 years now and it's a hard finish. If it did nick at all, all would do is just dab some more shellac on it.

Storing stuff in grease for 60 years will produce what happens on the original finish. So I expect the new one to hold up for some time.

If anyone was wondering I used garnet dewaxed shellac from shellac.net.
 
Tyler said:
Nope! Just plain 'ol garnet dewaxed shellac.
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For you shellac novices, "garnet" is the key word here when it comes to colour. Also, "dewaxed" is a nice feature too. If I went the shellac route, that would be exactly the type I'd use. :)
 
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