Hobby - Gun Stock Refinishing a few examples

I enjoy refinishing gun stocks, spend a fair bit of time doing it in the winter when i can't ride.

Usually get about 20 hours into each one; stripping, sanding, applying hand rubbed Tung Oil finish and then polishing.

A few examples - Before and After pictures;



As received courtesy of the US Postal Service careful handling and Owners efforts to strip the stock



Finished yesterday



another one Finished - no pre-pix. Many Beretta Shotguns, like both above, have a factory finish that hides some beautiful wood figure. The finish is some kind of urethane varnish and is quite difficult to remove.



Before - Old Remington Family Heirloom. Nice piece of wood beneath years of grime



After



Before - This is a friends family heirloom, an ~1890 Belgian made shotgun, the stock was in terrible shape, grime encrusted and cracked in multiple places. Wood was deteriorating and needed to be reinforced with some fiberglass internally.



After



Before - Another family heirloom, Grandfather to Son to Grandson



Before - bad crack all the way through the fore end



After - crack repaired and refinished



After - Couldn't get all the dings and dents out of this Family Heirloom but the finish is ready for the next 80 years



Before - A pair of Foxes - made in the early 1900's



Finished and ready for another 100 years.

Thanks for looking.

Sweet work there John...... A lot of love put into those beauties....

Very nice work. I love to look at it but don't have the patience to do it. Good to see someone that does.

Nice work. Some of those dings and dents are character marks -- they don't impact functionality, and look just fine on an heirloom piece.

Nice work, I did a few many years ago. Still have one I'll need to do when I have completed all my other projects that have been piling up for years, an aftermarket stock on my 1896 Krag.

Beautiful work, Sir.There is nothing like a great piece of wood, preferably on a blued gun. Of course, I'm showing my age here. I did manage to get one really nice piece of furniture on a Cooper rifle. Great stocks are getting rare and very expensive.

Great looking work!

Being an amateur woodworker/furniture maker those look very nice! I have some old rifles. What products do you use to strip down the stock?

I do some woodworking as well. Trouble is I don't really have the patience for the finish. Kudos to you for the fine work!

rickysnickers said:

Being an amateur woodworker/furniture maker those look very nice! I have some old rifles. What products do you use to strip down the stock?

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It depends on the finish on the stock to be stripped.

Most "Old" rifles have a Varnish or cellulose lacquer finish on them, some have a linseed oil finish, not many and usually only high end custom stuff.

In any case on an "OLD" pre WWII stock I usually start with a soak in Acetone. 95% of the time an overnight soak in acetone will remove all of the old finish.

On old guns there is often a fair bit of stain from both oxidation (rust) of the metal where it meets the stock (looks black) and excess oil that has soaked into the stock.

For some reason lots of folks adhere to the axiom "if a little oil is good, a lot is better"

To remove the oil I soak the stock in MEK then wash with Soap and water and rinse with MEK. An Industrial Chemist recommends Gasoline to remove oil from the wooden stock!

To remove the rust or Iron Oxide stains I use a q tip and Birchwood Casey Rust and Blue Remover (some kind of mild acid). I dab it on, let it sit for awhile and then rinse off with water. I repeat until the stain is gone. Soak with MEK first to get the oil out as this lets the Birchwood Casey product soak into the wood fibers and work.

Hope this helps you, good luck

Nice work and good info. I read that you can remove light dents by using a clothes iron over a wet towel on the wood after it's soaked in water. I guess the steam expands the wood cells and pushes the dent out. Do you have experience with that or another technique?

Reminds me of my first .22 LR as a kid, exchanged with a neighbor for a summer of mowing his lawns.

Rough stock, but Pops showed me how to sand just enough, to reshape just a bit, then copious amounts of rubbing with linseed oil..

I still have that .22 to this day.

Linseed oil is a great finish for show guns. But the gloss is a bummer in the field.

I just started a refinsh on an early 1900's single shot Stevens arms .22, it's going to be a "wall hanger" so the finish is going to be 3 feet deep and shiny.

I've been doing as John does for a long time myself.I enjoy bring out the story in the old wood of some of them. The new wood lacks character.

Warpdrv said:

Sweet work there John...... A lot of love put into those beauties....

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My thoughts also!

Rider said:

Nice work and good info. I read that you can remove light dents by using a clothes iron over a wet towel on the wood after it's soaked in water. I guess the steam expands the wood cells and pushes the dent out. Do you have experience with that or another technique?

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Yup, that's how I do it. The forend above with all the character had lots of trips under the steam iron.

Beautiful work man, true artistry!

So John, given your obvious skill and fondness for working with wood, have you considered making an FJR version of a Woody station wagon?

He'll, I just spent time with both John and Bust. Wish I'd gotten a peek at both your collections. John, looks great!

Pterodactyl said:

So John, given your obvious skill and fondness for working with wood, have you considered making an FJR version of a Woody station wagon?

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Well i am ready to put a finish on Fred's Oak Mirror Extenders and Light Brackets