Spanish Mauser refurb, progress report...

Good work Lou
Nicely done

Everyone hates a critic (I'm not a critic) but recommend avoiding stain (neener neener skirsons) especially with an oil finish....

BLO will oxidize over time and give you a nice deep red hue. Its absolutely amazing what this stuff does.

I often use 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper on the 4th application of BLO. It makes a slurry that reduced high spots and fill depressions.

When dry I polish with AAA steel wool to remove any sheen.

I repeat as required.
 
Riflechair said:
Good work Lou
Nicely done

Everyone hates a critic (I'm not a critic) but recommend avoiding stain (neener neener skirsons) especially with an oil finish....

BLO will oxidize over time and give you a nice deep red hue. Its absolutely amazing what this stuff does.

I often use 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper on the 4th application of BLO. It makes a slurry that reduced high spots and fill depressions.

When dry I polish with AAA steel wool to remove any sheen.

I repeat as required.
Click to expand...

I would only use the stain if someone had sanded all the patina and color off and I had to restore it. If my rifle had varnish on it, I would gently chemically strip it without abrasives, not sand the patina off, then start BLO treatment.

Of course we're not museum curators, but removing the patina would be grounds for dismissal!
 
Camo tung said:
So, if I go back to your original advice in post #17 the process is as follows:

- super clean stock, apply raw linseed oil and repeat (and repeat...etc),
- "sun ripened" BLO, cut with turpentine for the next few coats,
- straight BLO, until I get the finish I'm after (tone, depth of colour)?

Should I be doing anything between coats? "0000" steel wool for cloth fuzz, dust?
Click to expand...


That's basically it, though I don't know what you mean by "super clean" stock. I have a few sock cleaning methods depending upon severity. The harshest method I still use is a scrubbing with TSP diluted with hot water. I DO NOT immerse the stock, I dunk the brush and scrub the wood with the wetted brush.

For less severly soiled stocks, I use less intrusinve celaning methods. The mildes is that I apply the first coat of linseed oil using a piece of old denim and use the oil itself as a scrubbing agent. This works for dusty and mildly dirty stocks.

For grimy stocks, another trick is to coat the wood in vaseline, let it sit for 24 hours, and then agressively buff off the goop. It's surprising how well this works.

The TSP treatment is for really bad grimy, oil soaked cosmolene impregnated stocks like some Ishapore SMLE's and Yugo Mausers.

The sun ripening trick works on both BLO and raw linseed oil. I keep bottles of both on the go, and typically use ONLY the aged oil, unless I'm going for a lighter look.

I use the raw oil until the wood is no longer drinking it up and use BLO for only the last one or two rubs so that the surface oxidizes to a more or less sealed finish.

The only times I abrade the stock are if I need to fix damage with raised wood fibres or after a TSP scrub which can also raise wood hairs. I use only fine steel wool and do not go near any cartouches.

Ususally, using my methods, the wood does not end up being shiny. If it does though, I knock it back with a light steel wool buff.

I NEVER use stain.
 
skirsons said:
I would only use the stain if someone had sanded all the patina and color off and I had to restore it. If my rifle had varnish on it, I would gently chemically strip it without abrasives, not sand the patina off, then start BLO treatment.

Of course we're not museum curators, but removing the patina would be grounds for dismissal!
Click to expand...

Stain will not restore patina, it will only create a conservation problem for the next (wiser) owner.

The only way to restore patina is to oil the stock and then let the oil oxidize over a year or two.

Keeping some aged linseed oil around will speed up the process considerably.
 
I've had good results using the Murphy's. It takes the gunk off well, and it is 'supposed' to be safe for the wood. They do recommend it not be used on unfinished wood.

Claven, thanks for the tip about aging the BLO, I'm going to have to try it out.
 
Claven2 said:
Stain will not restore patina, it will only create a conservation problem for the next (wiser) owner.

The only way to restore patina is to oil the stock and then let the oil oxidize over a year or two.

Keeping some aged linseed oil around will speed up the process considerably.
Click to expand...

I wasn't arguing stain = patina. I was talking about repairing patina after someone has sanded it off of part or all of the stock. Oxidization is a long-term process that cannot be restored over a few years. This is why it is so valuable to collectors and museums and why it should never be sanded off. You can also use stain to repair the look of wood that has needed repairs on only part of the stock. If I splice a piece in, for example, or need to repair the stock, stain works well to restore that patinated look. If someone sanded all the patina off I would use stain to restore its color at least instead of having a blotchy bubba'd-looking finish. BLO will inhibit oxidization which is why I stain first, then BLO. The Linseed Oil does lift the stain partially but it results in a more natural looking finish.
 
I love it when a few pictures trigger really informative wood restoration discussions :D

I used stain at times, very small amount, before the first coat of oil, to help match wood colour in a few early projects. What I would like, though, is to find dyes that are made just for BLO. Not sure if that exists.

Lou
 
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