ruger no.1 stock refinishing

[7 REM MAG]

hey guys, a friend of mine bought a ruger no.1 with a high gloss finish that i believe is a lacquer finish and he is wanting to strip the original finish and do a hand rubbed oil finish. just wondering what is the best way to go about stripping the original finish? thx guys

 

[double gun]

Circa1850

 

[salter]

Any of the commercial strippers should work. Most of the chemical ones I checked contain methyl chloride, methanol and sometimes toluene. Have not tried the citric based strippers yet. Event the chemical ones just soften the lacquer slightly, it no longer bubbles up like it did with the strippers available 40 years ago. Once the stripper is applied and has had time to do its thing, I used a paint scraper on the large areas like the forearm and butt to remove the varnish/lacquer. It may take several rounds of applying stripper and scraping to get the job done. I used a pocket knife with about a 3" blade as a scraper to get at the contoured parts and up close to checkering. Gently does it, as you don't want to scratch the wood but with a bit of care you can control both the paint scraper and pocket knife so this doesn't happen.

Once the finish is off, sand with 150 grit, then 320 and finally 400. I wet sanded the 400 with a bit of oil finish to get the wood satin smooth. I found that wrapping the sandpaper around a sanding sponge worked best.

 

[sunray]

Far more likely to be a polymer than lacquer. Try any regular wood finish stripper(Poly-Stripa, et al) and see what happens Do not dump the resulting sludge down any drain. It's toxic.

 

[John303]

As before Circa 1850 and or soak it in acetone. I do both, first Circa and then into the acetone.
Should it be some sort of "epoxy" finish your best bet is acetone. As with all volatile liquids do all
your work in a well ventilated area (like outside) --- John