Refinishing gun stocks

[Maddog Avraham]

My Step Father gave me a T/C .54 cal. Hawken flintlock he had won in the 70s that he never fired. After years of shooting it I decided to refinish the stock. They must have sed polyurethane to finish the stock because no stripper would strip it. After sanding the finish off I used a steam iron to pull up the minor nicks and scratches but it didn't pull out the old stain. I remembered a friend of mine who used to buy and restore old roll top desks. After stripping them he used chlorine bleach to remove the stain. I applied the bleach with a stiff cheap paint brush and scrubbed it until got thick. Then I rinsed it with a garden hose. I repeated the process six times until I had removed all of the stain. The original stain was walnut and I applied Cherry stain and a hand rubbed sealant and finish. Poly should never be used on gun stocks, fine furniture or anything you have to refinish down the road.

 

[IanH]

Polyurethane is okay on kitchen cabinets. First time it needs refinishing, paint them. Next time, rip them all out and put in new ones.

I don't use Permalyn, spar varnish, or anything else like that on gunstocks. I don't even care much for varnishes that go heavy on the resins.

 

[Maddog Avraham]

Polyurethane is okay on kitchen cabinets. First time it needs refinishing, paint them. Next time, rip them all out and put in new ones.

I don't use Permalyn, spar varnish, or anything else like that on gunstocks. I don't even care much for varnishes that go heavy on the resins.

I'm new to refinishing gun stocks. What do you use for the finish. Some say shellac. Some wood workers say it's best to buy shellac chips and mix it yourself because shellac starts to go bad after six months.

 

[IanH]

I make my own. Start with linseed oil and/or pure tung oil, process the oil with dryers and if desired, natural resins. I'm firmly in the linseed oil camp but tung oil is a better outdoor finish. Fresh 4# shellac is a good wood sealer to use under finish but I prefer boiled linseed oil as a first coat to soak into the wood. Finish on top with tung oil or linseed oil with or without varnish resins depending on the look you want.

 

[Felonious]

Boiled linseed and Tru-oil are my first two choices for finishing / refinishing. BLO is applied with a rag, I do the Tru-oil with my bare, well washed, hands, and some 0000 steel wool between applications. BLO seems to bring out the color, and any imperfections if they are there, and Tru-oil seems to do a better job of covering up small blemishes. That's just my opinion though, I don't have a ton of experience.

I've never done it myself, but I know you can add certain kinds of pigment to the oils for a slightly different color as well.

 

[IanH]

Pigments cloud and dyes fade. I'm more of chemical stain guy, ferric nitrate or lye depending on the wood.

 

[SOLANCO]

I believe that, in the day, a stock was finished to protect from the elements. Pretty was nice, but secondary. I believe this was also true of metal finishes. I am not, of course, talking about high end guns but guns built for a variety of work a day tasks. So, for many, if not most, guns what was available cheaply and locally that would "waterproof" wood and/or metal. Probably why we do not see scads of low end 200+ year old guns.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I was under the opinion that all TC stocks were unstained walnut, I stripped an older one the other day, it was just plain walnut, no stain.

If there is a K prefix on the barrel serial number it means it was a kit, if so, there is no telling what the kit builder did to the stock.