refinishing wood
- Thread starter got to go
- Start date
Strip the finish, stain and oil. Doesn't work if the stock has different types of wood though. A Lee-Enfield or an M1 Rifle with walnut and birch stock parts, for example.
Finishing stock wood is no different than finishing fine furniture. Same products and techniques. There are lots of furniture finishing books in your local public library.
Finishing stock wood is no different than finishing fine furniture. Same products and techniques. There are lots of furniture finishing books in your local public library.
x2 above
stripper: Circa 1895, keep area wet with stripper and remove finish with a nylon brush
prep: -steam out dents by placing a damp towel on the dent & use the
missus's iron on hot (best done away from the wife's radar
)
-sand lightly with 400grit
stain: Scherrols, Minwax
finish:5-6 coats TrueOil, lightly buff between coats with 0000 steel wool
stripper: Circa 1895, keep area wet with stripper and remove finish with a nylon brush
prep: -steam out dents by placing a damp towel on the dent & use the
missus's iron on hot (best done away from the wife's radar
)-sand lightly with 400grit
stain: Scherrols, Minwax
finish:5-6 coats TrueOil, lightly buff between coats with 0000 steel wool
If you have two different types of wood or even the same type of wood but cut from a different tree there are a couple of things you can do to make it look "decent". Stripping the old finish is mandatory. Don't sand it, use a chemical stripper. Then choose a dark stain. If your two pieces of wood are completely different shades of light and dark give them each a coat of your dark stain. After allowing them to dry look at them and note how much darker the one is. Then give the lighter one another coat of stain. And then another, and another....... until the wood shades are close.
Remember, depending on the time you allow the stain to "set" on the wood will determine how dark it gets. Doing this on two different shades of wood is tricky. You will most likely want to lightly rub the stain on and then immediately off and do it in stages. It's not always possible to achieve a nice finish so if you're starting out with oak and maple you might not want to try this. However if maple and birch are used it is definitely doable. I have only done it once (in college and under the supervision of my professor) it worked and turned out quite nice.
***Disclaimer***
If you are planning on doing this to your dad's $1000 Model 12 that he left you (or something of extreme value) test the method on scrap pieces first. Some stains are nasty and unforgiving. Wrecking nice wood is one of the easiest things to do while finishing.
Remember, depending on the time you allow the stain to "set" on the wood will determine how dark it gets. Doing this on two different shades of wood is tricky. You will most likely want to lightly rub the stain on and then immediately off and do it in stages. It's not always possible to achieve a nice finish so if you're starting out with oak and maple you might not want to try this. However if maple and birch are used it is definitely doable. I have only done it once (in college and under the supervision of my professor) it worked and turned out quite nice.
***Disclaimer***
If you are planning on doing this to your dad's $1000 Model 12 that he left you (or something of extreme value) test the method on scrap pieces first. Some stains are nasty and unforgiving. Wrecking nice wood is one of the easiest things to do while finishing.
Good advice given above. Here is my tuppence worth from my experience working on Lee Enfields. They used light and dark walnut, maple, beech, birch, coach wood, mahogany and Indian crap wood. All different grain, different density, different colours, pain in the arse to match up a set all same wood.
When I am at the refinishing stage, all my repairs have been done, wood has been stripped, and cleaned down to dry bare wood. Different ways of cleaning (whole new story) but I end up with dry bare wood all pieces with same roughness/smoothness grade of surface finish.
To see the wood true colour, a dab of water will show each piece of wood as it will look when finished. If colours are way out, I even things up by spritzing on some deck bleach, the stuff that is formulated for use on wood.
I rinse and when dry, I apply an alcohol based dye. Note that I say dye, not stain. The pigment in stain is relatively large particles as compared to dye. Dye will penetrate right into the wood cells and I found that it works best for me where an oil finish is to be used. The wood will still accept the oil whereas a stained surface sometimes won't as the stain seems to seal the surface. Dye soaks into the wood so won't wear off like stain, in fact, if I screw up and have to start over, it takes sandpaper to remove it .
Easiest source of a range of alcohol based dyes is at a hobby shop that deals with leather craft. Yup, shoe dye. I adjust my mix to give me the colour and shade that I want. Took me a while to figure it out. But a sure thing is to dye everything a dark colour such as saddle brown or a dark russet.
I then apply my boiled linseed oil finish as normal. Works for me.
When I am at the refinishing stage, all my repairs have been done, wood has been stripped, and cleaned down to dry bare wood. Different ways of cleaning (whole new story) but I end up with dry bare wood all pieces with same roughness/smoothness grade of surface finish.
To see the wood true colour, a dab of water will show each piece of wood as it will look when finished. If colours are way out, I even things up by spritzing on some deck bleach, the stuff that is formulated for use on wood.
I rinse and when dry, I apply an alcohol based dye. Note that I say dye, not stain. The pigment in stain is relatively large particles as compared to dye. Dye will penetrate right into the wood cells and I found that it works best for me where an oil finish is to be used. The wood will still accept the oil whereas a stained surface sometimes won't as the stain seems to seal the surface. Dye soaks into the wood so won't wear off like stain, in fact, if I screw up and have to start over, it takes sandpaper to remove it .
Easiest source of a range of alcohol based dyes is at a hobby shop that deals with leather craft. Yup, shoe dye. I adjust my mix to give me the colour and shade that I want. Took me a while to figure it out. But a sure thing is to dye everything a dark colour such as saddle brown or a dark russet.
I then apply my boiled linseed oil finish as normal. Works for me.
Jack
