I have a l579 243 in the 29600 serial number range, I got the rifle relatively inexpensive, due to condition, the barreled action is not in bad shape other than a spot on the barrel. The stock is another story, it has several scratches, and gouged, truly taking away from the rifle, which shoots like a house a fire. My question, should I attempt to refinish the stock, to try to bring it back, or leave it alone? If yes, has anyone done it, if so, how did you get the old finish off, and what did you use for the new finish. It appears to have some nice wood, but a lot of scratches
Unless you do or have a quality professional refinish done you are not going to enhance it's looks or it's value. If you don't repoint the checkering it will look like an amateurish refinish job. From the questions you are asking it sounds like you don't have the experience or skill set to properly do a quality refinish. Perhaps you should consider practicing on some inexpensive stocks from some rimfires or buy some cheap used stocks at a gunshow to hone your skills on before attempting to restore your Sako. Lots of tricks of the trade to learn regarding stripping, steaming & removing dents, staining, type & application methods of finish, & considerable costs to acquire the necessary checkering tools, not to mention the practice required. A lot of the color & "beauty" of the stocks from that era come from the coloring in the finish. What "appears" to be nice wood can sometimes be quite disappointing after it is stripped & without the right staining & finish techniques will result in disappointing results. I've refinished dozens of Sako, as well as other gun stocks for others, & my best advice is to have it professionally done.
Atticus, I have a 243 that came in similar condition to yours, that shoots as well. Used paint stripper to remove the finnish, working in smallish sections at a time, and being carefull not to get any in the checkering. Once the finnish had been scraped off, I used an iron and wet cloth on any dents in the wood before using several grades of sand paper to sand all over to remove any scratches and the stain that was under the gloss finnish. I then used lots of coats of True Oil to refinnish, rubbing with steel wool between coats. It's a good product that an inexperienced user can achieve good results with with good preparation of the wood beforehand and some care while applying it. I was fortunate that the checkering was still in reasonable shape so I kept the true oil out of it all together. The stock came up a treat with no sign it had been an ugly duckling a week earlier.
I have refinished a number of stocks to remove damaged/faded factory finish. I have tended to find that by doing so I have found some nice grain and figure in the stock wood that wasn't particulalry discernible under the factory finish - particularly under that dark brown stain that seemed to be all the range at one time. I use a combination of Citristrip (not as harsh as some of the chemical paint strippers) and a box cutter/Stanley knife blade used as a scraper. Same process as SRAAW but try and minimise the sandpaper. I also tend to use wet and dry sandpaper rather than steel wool to avoid getting steel wool fibres in the finish. I have previously used Tru-oil on a number of stocks and it it a good place for a beginner to start. There is some useful tips in these two threads on rimfirecentral: http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=331108 http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2066878 They essentially detail the use of Armourall to harden Truoil quickly - without the Armourall used to put 1 coat on every 3-4 days, on my Brno Mod2 I managed to get 5 coats on in a day. I now tend to apply a wet sanded oil finish using Organoil: http://www.organoil.com.au/gardenfurnoil/index.html I have been really happy with the results. Marcus
