how to make beech wood from cva/s and other hardwood shine like you have n

[BlackHillsBob]

hard wood has grain and their is a way to bring it out. cva/s can be made to look like the best high end gun on the range. they use beech wood. beech wood is fiberous and very very tough and cheap. however the cva people do not know how to make their wood way better than it was ever ment to be. if you get a cva kit and you want the wood to be better than even the best tiger stripe maple here how to do it step by step. first when you get you cva kit, make sure every thing fits. put the gun together so every thing fits the way you like it. do not start on the stock untill the gun is together and fit the way you like it. i will do a rust brown and rust blue or rust black post later so the metal looks more better than a paid for job and you can to it in your kitchen. now when you kit is together and every thing is good and not to tight when it goes back together here what you do step by step and going to like the results. sand with the grain with 250 wet sanding emery paper until smooth.go to a tandy leather store or saddle or shoe repair shop or the internet and buy a bottle of leather dye. medium brown in color or mahogany in color. put several coats of this dye on the wood. let it dry good between applications. when it is dark and really soak into the wood and dry. wash it of really good under running water until it is washed good. then take watco clear penatrating finish and cut to 1/3 watco and 2/3 rds thinner. take that mixture and start applying to the stock. put libral amounts on every time you do it. rest the stock for about 10 minutes and with a clean cloth wipe off the excess. this is very important. when the stock cant take any more let settal for a few days and wipe down a couple of times a day the excess that seeps out of the wood. let dry for a few days and until the final finish. go to the best high end auto parts store you have around your area. buy a spray can of clean high gloss acrilic top coat of auto mobile finishes. acrilic not anything else. now lightly spray your stock with very very dusting light coats. not heavy or it will run. very light dusting. let dry well between spraying. if it runs wet san that area when dry with 1500 to 2000 grit emery paper available at the auto store. when you have a good finish after a few days that is even and very dry then comes the last part. go to the internet and buy a bottle of HUTS plastic polish. this is the best rubbing out polish out their bar none. the only thing that is equal is 5f polish grom brownells. now get some flannel 100 percent cotton cloth and start rubbing out by hand your stock. rub for hours on end watching tv from your recliner. rub until it is smmoth and a higher more transparent gloss that you have ever seen. also if you have another finished gun rub it out with HUTS and with will talk to you. their you are guys and gals. ive done a sticky on another site and it has gotten thousands of hits, now it is on you site. sharing info is what men do, they dont keep it to them selves, they share, blackhillsbob.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Bob,
A picture of a finished gun would be nice.

dave

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Hi Bob,
A picture of a finished gun would be nice.

dave

The glare would be so bad we'd all go blind. Bob, lots of people don't care for a high gloss finish.

 

[BlackHillsBob]

i have a cva precussion hand gun i can post pictures of but i need some ones email that can post easily and i can send them the pictures to them to post here. im computer nothing but i can do it that way. also go to pineridgeblackpowder.com and look at the bench gun i built and anyone who want to post a picture here of the center part of that gun can do so, feel free, i can make wood talk, blackhillbob.

 

[BlackHillsBob]

their is no glare when you rub it out as ive said, the glare goes away and it is just pure oil rubbed wood at its best. one thing most guys and gals dont know they, the finishes all are the same, some just have more trace metal or hardeners than others.they all are a form of plastic, even the ones with just linseed oil. you can use what you like best but again all finishes are a form of plastic, some with just more trace minererals and hardners in them. rub your gun out with Huts or 5f from brownells and then it will be as it should be. not high gloss. but a layer of completely transparent finish over beautiful wood. the only thing i can compare it to is this. i flew into bermuda one time. 100 miles out the sea was shallow. you could see the bottom. it was like a clear glass over the hill and valleys of the ocean floor. never saw anything ever as beautiful as that. your wood can be like a sea floor with a clear glass over it if you rub your stock out with HUTs or 5f rom brownells. ask me what is the most beautiful wood for a gun stock. i will tell you, it is quilted maple from the coast of oregon. if you want the best of the best get a chunk of that and have a stock made from it. it will cost but tiger stripe mape doesnt even come close to quilted maple from the oregon coast. built a gun from that once and sold it to a florida man who shoots pigs with it all the time. ask me what the worst wood to build a stock from. OAK. makes a beautiful gun but every time you shoot it a piece will pop off. cant stand the vibration. cherry is the best wood for stress, beech is up their with cherry. walnut cracks but not as easily as OAK. made a nice stock out of quarter sawn oak once. look great. threw it away and made a cherry replacement stock because every time i shot the oak stock a chunk flew off of it. i got tire of fixing it. as is realy good also but very very difficult to stain. you can like what i print or not, that this wonderful america, im a very old man with miles of experience. one or two guys will like what i print and thats all that is need to pass it on.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

every time i shot the oak stock a chunk flew off of it.
That gives me a lot of confidence. I'm an old man too Bob and have built muzzle loading rifles almost all my life. We have a difference of opinion on how to do things and what looks good. And that's fine.

 

[BlackHillsBob]

please let me learn from you, tell me how you do things. thanks before hand

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

I've worked a lot of beech over the years, probably several dozen stocks. I treat it just like hard maple. I currently use acid stains and tung oil finish with Bri Wax over the top for a low luster finish. There is much more to it but that's the short version. I have done several hundred maple and walnut stocks the same way for nearly forty years. No big deal, you do it your way I'll do it mine, just keep in mind when you post stuff like this on the internet you're going to run into people with a lot of experience that have done this stuff professionally for many years. Mr. Person is very experienced and likely has his own tried and true methods that work incredibly well too. There's many ways to skin a cat.

 

[crankshaft]

I want to know a good way to hide the beech grain without staining it black. It is still beech.

 

[Zonie]

While I agree that Beech can be greatly improved by staining it, in my opinion, there is no way it can begin to match a curly maple stock or even a walnut stock with a lot of grain showing.

That said, Beech does take a good alcohol or water based stain. It does not take any of the oil based stains worth a darn. The grain is too fine for a oil based stain to soak in so the color stays on the surface rather than actually staining the wood.

I'm sure one of the shoe dyes would work fine but IMO, if they are going to be used they should be thinned with denatured alcohol first.
Doing this will allow the craftsman to slowly build up the darkness he wants by applying additional coats until the color/darkness he's after is reached.

Below is an example of a CVA double barrel shotgun. I used Birchwood Casey Walnut stain on it and finished it off with multiple coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-oil.

 

[BlackHillsBob]

again i learned this method from dixie, read it in their catalog years ago, gripe at them not me, it works wonders with me. dixie is right about a lot of thing they put in their catalong.

 

[Desperate Lee]

BHB
If you send pictures to me [email protected] I will post them here . Also I would like pictures of your CVA Colonial pistol you redid and of the Kentucky pistol also. I like the inlays and nose caps and grip caps you did . Do you guys know if Captchee visits this forum or if he is still active? I have seen some of his work and I like it.
Gary

 

[BlackHillsBob]

ive only done the cva pistol, the rest are long sold. that one is only with watco oil and leather dye. i did my own rust browning on it also.tomorrow ill have the wife take pictures and send them to you. you may have me confused with some one else also. at pineridgeblackpowder you can see a partial picture of a bench gun i carved for my self, still have that one and wont sell it. going to rebarrel it soon.

 

[Desperate Lee]

Yeah some of those pictures are guns that Captchee did. These 2 are I know.

 

[davidmc62]

CVA Kentucky rifle, standard beech stock, modified, stained, faux striped....it can be done.
LMF nut brown stain, Feibings med brown leather dye for the striping, Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil finish.

https://ibb.co/eDFmea

 

[bubba.50]

That is one sharp lookin’ CVA Kentucky.

 

[crankshaft]

Nice........

 

[BlackHillsBob]

can you tell me what kit that is as i may want to build that rifle from a kit? you have a fine looking gun their and i bet it shoots to point of aim every time. im getting restless again to make something beautiful.

 

[davidmc62]

This is an old CVA Kentucky rifle, this was actually a friends rifle I "rebuilt" for him. It was a kit that somebody had not done a very good job of building in the first place. Traditions still offer this same gun, called Kentucky Rifle(imagine that) but in 50 caliber, same gun as of old, same parts, same stock pattern, everything pretty much the same design as the old ones. These old guns were originally made for Connecticut Valley Arms by a Spanish company Jukar, but are now being made by the Spanish company Ardesa. Same patterns. I did a WHOLE LOT of rework on this one. Took off allot of extra wood, joined the two parts of the stock together eliminating that ugly brass spacer. A new nose cap and new trigger guard, but everything else is the old Jukar rifle. They can be made to look rather nice if folks would just take a little more time and effort to finish.

 

[BlackHillsBob]

thanks, i think i may get one and do what what did, looks good and should be a good shooter.