stock refinishing ....??how to??

quinnbrian

quinnbrian

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I bought an old Stevens double barrel shotgun awhile back and would like to refinish it, has some scratch's in the finish, but very little marks on the wood. I need to know how to:
1) remove the old stain finish (it looks more like a paint???)
2) would like to do some sort of hand rub finish/stain
I NEED a step by step here guys, I've work with wood (new) but have never taken off , the old finish on a gun before, that is with out sanding it off. And would like to try and remove, with out sanding too much. Chemical stripper???or...
It has checkering on the butt stock and fore grip and would like to leave it in tacked.
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Thanks for any help, I would really like to clean it up, I like the shot gun a lot, shots great.
Cheers
Brian
 
Use some "Circa 1850" stripper. I apply it with a good natural fibre paintbrush. The stuff will essentially dissolve rubber gloves and is nasty on bare skin.
Brush it on, wait until the old finish has bubbled up and scrape or wipe it off. I use a flexible plastic scraper or Scotchbrite type pads that I buy at the dollar store. Cut them into 6 pieces or so, throw the pieces away when finished. You may have to apply stripper a couple of times to get it all. I like to keep the stripper wet, don't let it dry on the stock or it makes more work. I use a nylon-bristled brush to clean out the checkering. Once you have finished stripping, give the wood a wipe down with a wet rag. If you've missed any of the finish, it will quite evident.
The "checkering" on your gun looks like it's is simple pressed into the wood, so it may lift a bit due to the moisture introduced into the stock during the stripping process.

Any dents can be steamed out using a wet cotton rag and your wife's iron (or your soldering iron with a paddle-type" attachment). For larger dents, I put a drop of water on the dent and let it sit for at least an hour to allow the water to soak into the wood. Lay the wet cloth on the dent and press the hot soldering iron onto the dent to cause steam to form and lift the dent.

I refinished a stock for my Husqvarna, and my total sanding time was less than 5 minutes and was with 400-grit paper. Be patient, don't expect to finish the project in a day.

I use Watco Danish oil as the finish on my stocks. It's available in lots of colors.
 
Second the 1850 remover. Used some on older varnish and it works great.

Since you live in Ottawa I suggest you go around to Lee Valley and buy some of their Polymerized Tung Oil. It produces a lovely warm looking and nice to handle finish that really brings out the best in the wood. It's also very water resistant.

To apply it over the cleaned and dried wood I like to thin the first coat with low odor paint thinner about 1:1 to aid with getting better penetration. The Polymerized Tung Oil (PTO) takes up to a week to fully dry in a cool place. But some sun and warmth can speed this up to drying nicely over the course of a sunny afternoon or two. Brush on a coat and let it soak in for about 5 minutes. Feed the end grain as needed to keep it wet. Raw wood will soak up a lot on the end grain. At the end of the 5 minutes rub the excess off briskly with paper towels.

SAFETY NOTE! The oil curing/drying releases heat. DO NOT PUT THE OILY PAPER INTO A SEALED BAG OR OTHER CLOSED CONTAINER OR WAD IT UP AND JAM IT INTO A SMALL SPACE! ! ! IT CAN GET HOT ENOUGH TO BURST INTO FLAMES! ! ! Instead lay the paper out and let it dry until stiff. Then it's harmless and you can simply toss it like normal. Don't dismiss this warning. I've had it happen and was very lucky I didn't burn the house. I always thought it was an old wive's tale. But it's not. It CAN happen all too easily.

For subsequent coats I apply the oil straight from the can using a pad of 4O steel wool to rub the oil on and cut away any fuzzies raised by the last coat that dried. Again leave it for a few minutes to soak in then briskly rub off the excess. You only want to leave the oil that is down in the wood grain. These full strength coats will take two or three days each to dry. Don't rush it. Leaving it longer to dry for each coat is better.

Repeat this steel wool oiling for up to 4 coats. When done and it has finished drying the last coat a rub down with some Minwax furniture wax will bring out the low lustre sheen that looks so great. And the tung oil will be very water resistant.

With any oil finish you will need to apply a feeder coat of oil about once a year. Or maybe a little more often if you use the rifle a lot in harsh wet conditions. For this feeder coat clean the surface first with a rag dampened with low odor paint thinner. After that dries use a small patch of paper towel to rub on a little of the PTO so the stock looks shiney but not "wet". Let this feeder coat dry for a couple of days and your stock will be highly water resistant again for some months of use up to a year or a little more depending on how often it goes out.

You really don't need any stain. And with a proper oil finish you really should not use a stain. The stain will block the oil from going down into the wood like it should. To see what the wood will look like with the oil before you start rub some of the paint thinner onto the wood. You'll see it darken up to what it will look like with the oil only. If this is not dark enough for you then the best way to "stain" the wood is to tint the PTO directly and let it carry the colouring into the wood.

I don't have any ideas for you on how to tint the oil since I've never wanted to do that. But I do know that if you stain the wood first then try to apply an oil finish that the PTO and thinner will just lift out the stain and leave you with the wood and oil. Or if the stain resists the oil then it'll also block the oil from penetrating properly.
 
From your photos, and because I once owned a shotgun like yours, I know that the stock is not walnut. It is some other type of light colored hardwood such as birch. When you remove the finish, the "walnut" color will go with it, and you will be left with an unattractive, essentially white stock. There is a way to make it look good again, though it won't do anything to improve the look of the impressed (vs. cut) checkering.

If you try to use an oil based stain, it will in all probability, not take well to the wood. It may turn out all botchy, or simply fail to actually add much noticeable color to the wood. I was faced with the same sort of thing when I recently refinished the stocks of a couple older Spanish SxS guns, and a circa 1940 Savage .22. What worked for me was a water based stain called SamaN. I bought a 4 oz. bottle of rosewood, and the same in black walnut, and mixed the colors in equal proportions to give me the the color I wanted. I probably have enough stain left to do at least another 20 stocks.

You just apply the SamaN with a small foam brush, wait for a couple minutes, then wipe it off. A bit of experience will teach you how long to wait, and how hard to wipe it off. If you leave it too long, it will look like paint. If you wipe too soon or too hard, you will wipe too much of the color away and will have to re-do it.

I topped the stain with several (8-12?) coats of hand rubbed Circa 1850 tung oil, cut about 50/50 with mineral spirits, and wiped very lightly between coats with 0000 (extra fine) steel wool. Go extremely lightly with steel wool, especially at the begining, or again, you will end up removing the color from the wood. I rubbed each coat of oil in by hand until it was pretty much dry to the touch, but it should be left to cure for 24 hours after that, before applying the next coat. If you start applying more oil before the previous application has fully cured, you will eventually end up with a sticky finish that will never cure. There is no rule on the number of coats. I just quit when I like the way it looks.

The stocks I did with the above process were finish sanded to 400 grit before I stained them, and before the final sanding, a wet rag and an iron were used to help raise any obvious dents in the wood.
 
By the way, I'm not discounting the earlier suggestions offered, or any that may follow ... just providing another option.
 
Careful with water-based stain since many types can "raise the grain" of the wood. If you use a stain that says it can raise the grain, then be careful because it may reduce the imprinted texture (simulated checkering) because the water will swell the wood fibres. The "SamaN" brand of water based stain is different from most since it won't raise the grain. It also says it covers in one coat and you don't need a wood conditioner, so it's probably more like a gel stain or translucent paint and will tend to sit on top of the wood, rather than like a penetrating dye stain that tries to be sucked into the grain. Those two different styles of colouring can give you an indication of how careful you'll need to be when applying top coats or if the finish is more likely to chip off or not.

When colouring stocks, I prefer tinting polymerized tung oil with a solvent or oil based stain. After stripping the old finish with a chemical stripper like Circa 1850, removing any oil with a heat gun and steaming out any dents, I do the colouring first. The reason is I want the first coats of finish to get in the grain and get that colour inside the fibres for a durable colour job. Subsequent coats of finish are from the original can and act as a protective layer.

One sample: My friend wanted a dark-coloured stock and the catalpa wood on a Chinese SKS is quite light.

Before - original SKS stock:

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After I made it look weathered and beaten up with multiple coats of different coloured tung oil:

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Just having some fun. :)
 
quinnbrian said:
Thanks, Jimbo14. What color did you uses, that the color I'd like to shoot for!
Click to expand...
Mostly ebony Minwax stain mixed in the polymerized tung oil with a little red-brown (cherry) stain by Chemcraft that's tough to find. I also used one of my dark brown stains, but not that much. Can't remember which one because I have a ton of stains here. Woodworking is one of my hobbies. :)

Here's a pic of the buttstock. This shows a bit of the gradient I wanted to include to add some character to the stock. This was done by playing with the application of the oil which included the amount of time I let it sit, buffing areas a lot to reduce the colour, as well as what colour of tinted oil I used where. I personally find a consistent colour, like paint, to be boring. You've got to do what's right for you. :)

After_2_zpsbe84b5cc.jpg
 
jimbo14 said:
Mostly ebony Minwax stain mixed in the polymerized tung oil with a little red-brown (cherry) stain by Chemcraft that's tough to find. I also used one of my dark brown stains, but not that much. Can't remember which one because I have a ton of stains here. Woodworking is one of my hobbies. :)

Here's a pic of the buttstock. This shows a bit of the gradient I wanted to include to add some character to the stock. This was done by playing with the application of the oil which included the amount of time I let it sit, buffing areas a lot to reduce the colour, as well as what colour of tinted oil I used where. I personally find a consistent colour, like paint, to be boring. You've got to do what's right for you. :)

After_2_zpsbe84b5cc.jpg
Click to expand...

At this point you are an Artist! This finish makes it look like the SKS was carried by a soldier during a long ago forgotten war, instead of sitting in a crate in some warehouse.
 
roadwarrior said:
At this point you are an Artist! This finish makes it look like the SKS was carried by a soldier during a long ago forgotten war, instead of sitting in a crate in some warehouse.
Click to expand...
Thank you. :) That's exactly the effect I was going for. The stock was in bad shape when it came to me with some sort of red glazing putty filling in the gouges and what looked like red felt pen all over it. My friend tried to refinish it but his attempt failed so he gave it to me to do what I wanted with it - as long as I didn't paint it pink. lol! So I stripped it, removed the crappy filler, steamed out what dents I could, made some black wood filler to partially fill in the gouges and sand the edges smooth, and then coloured the stock. It was a fun project. :)
 
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