Repairing stock with woodburned vandalism

[Centurion]

Good evening All, picked up a rifle a while back which has suffered some vandalism at the hands of an “artist” with an electric wood burner (sigh). Goofy Indian hydro-glyferics and what-have-you.

A number of solutions have occurred to me, such as sanding, bleaching, etc., all of which will probably not completely remove the damage. Any recommendations on how to proceed, and especially, what kinds of stain will finish hiding the Michel Angelo foolishness to an acceptable degree?

Thanks for the help, fellow art critics!

Enjoy your evening,

don

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

pictures would most likely aid in you getting viable responses.

 

[Sam squanch]

Sanding off most of the damage, maybe you can artificially stripe the stock like a Leman trade rifle to cover the rest?

 

[bubba.50]

Don't have any advice for you, I'd just like to see what it looks like. As my uncle would say, "it's a strange roarin' goes through some people's heads".

 

[Peregrine]

Maybe like a bad tattoo, you will have to cover the 'art' with other art. Depending on the depth of the burn you may have to live with it in some form or if the burning iron wasn't too hot and pressed in the wood fibers more than burned them, you might be able to steam some of the impressions out with a damp cloth and a hot iron.

 

[Malamute]

Depending on the gun, it may be less painful to just get another stock for it. The online you-sell-it place has tons of such things.

 

[martin9]

I'd go at it with cabinet scrapers....a lot of stocks could lose a little wood anyway. Sand it then stain with tannic acid and iron nitrate. I think the heat reactive stain may hide any remaining "art" better than a wipe on stain. They darken it further with stains if needed....maybe even some bone black and give it an aged appearance. If you get can a nice dark color it'll hide whatever's left or at least it'll be very faint under the finish.

 

[martin9]

Meant to say "then darken it further with stains" not they