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Stock refinishing, is it possible?.....

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Booneliane

40 Cal
Joined
Mar 8, 2021
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I got a rifle I built ten years ago who’s finish I’ve never really been “in love” with.

It was the first stock I ever did with Aqua fortis, it ended up very dark. The stock actually has a decent bit of figure that I feel is hidden by what I did to it.

If memory serves, I believe I applied one coat of permalyn sealer, than multiple coats of tru-oil.

Is it possible after a decade to strip the finish and work back the Aqua fortis in the hope of bringing out the figure or some contrast more?

I wish I had tried to work it back more at the time. But I was an Aqua fortis virgin.
 
If the gun is carved you’ll have a tough time. If plain you should be fine. Strip with paint stripper then see how much figure you can recover by scraping or light sanding with 220 grit. You may need to file down the metal in a couple spots.
 
a few years back Dave Person jumped in on a thread i had and said i should scrape the finish off with sharp scrapers. my stock did not have any carving tho. here is the description he gave me.
it was easy to strip it. i sure appreciated Daves help on that.
ou

Hi,
I use simple wood scrapers. You have a fair amount of extra wood on your stock that can be thinned anyway. You can use cabinet scrapers, carpet knife blades, carving knives, or make uniquely shaped scrapers from old hacksaw blades. The pictures below show me using different scrapers to rework and refinish a Pedersoli brown Bess musket. Sandpaper then can be used to clean up.
dave
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a few years back Dave Person jumped in on a thread i had and said i should scrape the finish off with sharp scrapers. my stock did not have any carving tho. here is the description he gave me.
it was easy to strip it. i sure appreciated Daves help on that.
ou

I actually did most of the finish work on this stock with scrapers.

It too was the first time using them. I did a lot of “firsts” on this one. They really grew on me though.
 

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