AV stock bedding

[bigcountry4me]

Danish Oil has a product called Rejuvenating Oil that combines finish oils with some kind of cleaning product. I use it on my solid wood furniture about once a year. (My dining room and bedroom sets are finished in Danish Oil.) It works well to get surface grime out of the wood and renew an oil finish. I've only used it once or twice on guns, on old, dirty military stocks that I wanted to clean up some but didn't want to destroy the collector value by stripping and refinishing. The product did have some positive effect, although not as much as I would have liked. For a quick clean-up and polish on an oil finish stock it is a good product, but it will not seal the pores.

I don't care for synthetic finishes of any kind, or for lacquer. I prefer an oil finish that soaks into the wood and brings out the natural grain. An oil finish is also easier to repair than a polyurethane or other finish that sits on top of the wood.

One product you will see quite a bit in gun stores is Tru-Oil, which is made by Birchwood Casey. It's a blend of natural and synthetic oils. It's popular because Birchwood Casey products are in most every gun shop, and it's ready to use out of the bottle. It's good for beginners, but I don't care that much for the final result. I did a couple of guns with it when I first started refinishing stocks, but I don't use it any more except to touch up stocks that were done with it in the first place.

I usually use tung oil to finish a stock, unless I am trying to match an existing or previous finish. It's easy to work with, doesn't discolor very much, and dries reasonably quickly. Linseed is the traditional gunstock finish, but it is slow to dry and can be a pain to work with. "Boiled" linseed oil is heat treated for faster drying, but you still need to thin it and add Japan Dryer to get something you can work with. Back in the day, military stocks were finished by dipping them in a vat of hot, raw linseed oil and then wiping them and hanging them to dry for a week or more. Don't try this at home! Brownell's makes a product called Lin-Speed that is handy for touching up or recoating stocks that are finished with linseed. I use linseed for restoring military stocks that were done that way in the first place, but I much prefer tung oil for sporting rifles. You can get it as pure tung oil, or with additives to give you a high or low gloss or satin finish. I usually put between 10 and 20 coats of thinned oil on a stock or a set of pistol grips.

Grain fillers are available and can be useful, especially if the wood has a very open grain. I have always tended to avoid them, because some fillers can give the grain a hazy or muddy appearance. This depends on the product and the wood. You can also make your own grain filler by adding some sanding dust to thinned oil. I just use more coats of oil. I sand with 400 or even 600 after the first few coats. Later in the process I use bronze wool. I prefer bronze wool to steel wool, which leaves very abrasive shavings. My local Ace Hardware carries bronze wool. As a finishing touch, some stockmakers will rub the stock with rottenstone before the last coat or two. You can get rottenstone from Brownell's or at some hardware or woodworking shops.

I'm not familiar with Pro Custom. Having seen pictures of Sean's work, I'll have to give it a look next time I'm in the market for a jar of gunstock finish.

Depending on the stock and the grain, I also wet sand with Pro Custom. Most dense woods do not require wet sanding if you’re patient and allow for several coats. Wet sanding has advantages by filling large open pores, with paste, but it can be messy and it’s important to wet sand and fill evenly. I’d consider this technique perhaps more advanced and again not required for a large percentage of stocks, rifle or shotgun. Thanks icebear. Take care.

 

[icebear]

When you say wet sand with Pro Custom, do you mean you are actually wetting the stock with finish rather than water? And if so, how much do you dilute the oil? Or do you just mean that you wet sand, work the mud into the pores, then apply finish without rinsing? I normally rinse after wet sanding, as I learned about wet sanding when I used to paint motorcycles. It never occurred to me to leave the sanding residue behind as a grain filler, but it does make sense.

 

[bigcountry4me]

When you say wet sand with Pro Custom, do you mean you are actually wetting the stock with finish rather than water? And if so, how much do you dilute the oil? Or do you just mean that you wet sand, work the mud into the pores, then apply finish without rinsing? I normally rinse after wet sanding, as I learned about wet sanding when I used to paint motorcycles. It never occurred to me to leave the sanding residue behind as a grain filler, but it does make sense.

I wet sand with the finish. I only use water to raise the grain, prior to wet sanding. I raise the grain with water even if I don’t wet sand. But the next step here is 600 grit, then finish. Again, this depends on the wood.

When I wet sand, I use an old school rectangular pencil eraser wrapped in 320-400 grit paper. The rubber eraser bends and flexes around cheek pieces and pistol grips, plus any other curvature. Obviously the paper has a short life. I have to change it frequently. I typically thin the finish 60-40 but have used it full strength also. There are so many little tricks, which is sort of the beauty of refinishing.

I typically wipe the excess build up as I go with a very lightly dampened in mineral spirits, non shedding cloth. Timing here is everything, so is the degree of how hard to wipe.

Then the stock is set in a clean warm spot for 24-36 hrs. In the winter I use a cabinet with a heat lamp. I then repeat if necessary. If not, I sand lightly for evenness , the begin to build finish.

What I’ve learned over 30 plus years is this - there are tons of nuances, techniques and tricks, but no real science. If you mess up, it’s an easy do over, most of the time. I’m 100% sure others do their process with a different method. I’m simply doin what’s worked best for me.

 

[gowyo]

I'd look into Liberon finishing oil. A Finnish gent, Markus Forstrum, on the sako facebook page, has redone several rifles, including full rust bluing. He highly recommends this product.

 

[icebear]

Sean:
Thanks for the info. I'll try wet sanding the finish on my next full refinishing project. I do have a couple of heat lamps that I've used to paint model trains, but my drying cabinet isn't big enough for a rifle stock so I guess I could just use them out in the open.

 

[bigcountry4me]

Sean:
Thanks for the info. I'll try wet sanding the finish on my next full refinishing project. I do have a couple of heat lamps that I've used to paint model trains, but my drying cabinet isn't big enough for a rifle stock so I guess I could just use them out in the open.

You’re welcome,

Living in Oregon in the winter months requires some sort of way to provide heat to assure a reasonable cure time. My wife is really understanding, but the smell in the house is a no go. Living in Arizona as you do would obviously provide for more seasonal warmth, although northern Arizona does experience real winter. Using a heat lamp in the open would be fine. Take care.

 

[icebear]

My shop is in a separate building, so I don't have to worry about noise and odors in the main house. I got lucky when I was house shopping and found a place where a previous owner, a contractor, had built himself a nice little shop, complete with an overhead garage door, skylights, wrap-around benches, a bathroom, and 240v in the floor for the table saw. It wasn't air conditioned when I bought the place, but I took care of that with a heat pump on the roof. Not only that, but after I moved in, I discovered that an old girlfriend from back East had moved to Arizona and was living a mile up the road. We wound up getting back together. The day I found the house was definitely my lucky day.