Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Basic wood stock refinisher

Just picked up an FN 98 Mauser by Husqvarna. Really pleased with quality of rifle. My only gripe is the beechwood stock could stand a refinish. Not looking to sand or reshape, just have old finish removed and new applied. Nothing fancy, just uniform stain.

Does anyone here offer that service or recommend anyone? Not looking for showpiece.

Sounds like a good DIY project. Plenty of instructions and suggestions on the internet, even videos, so why not do it yourself?

Formby's Furniture Restorer is the right stuff for this kind of job... very quick and easy. All it does is soften the old finish and allow you to move it around until uniform color is achieved. You do NOT want to remove the old finish on a job with your expectations.

After cleaning it up let it dry for a week or so before adding a few coats of oil finish on top...

There is a guy on Rimfire Central who has some good looking refinishes. I plan to use his method on a couple of projects soon.


http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=331108

I like the ProStock finish. You can get a nice "in the wood" finish with it and it does create a moisture barrier.

That is a horrible finish and creates a whole series of nightmares...

Well, here it is. Stumped and open to chastising - If it were mine, I'd paint it faux synthetic! What'da'ya'll think?

Has that stock been stripped yet? If it has, it needs to be gone over again. If it hasn't, you need to go over it with a good stripper, including using a toothbrush or similar on the checkering until it is down to bare wood. It really isn't a bad looking piece of wood and should refinish pretty well with the right products.
Once the stripping is done it will be easier to see what would be the best product to finish it- depending on what you want to accomplish and what type of finish look you are after.
Personally, I like Tru Oil for most refinishing jobs, but a good spray lacquer would also work fine. If the wood is light, you may need to get some brush on/sprayable lacquer so you can add some color to it before spraying it on like the factories do. Try it on an obscure spot or a scrap piece of similar wood first to get the color right before putting it on the stock permanently.
I don't like staining the wood prior to finishing as it sometimes will give blotchy and uneven results then you are out of luck to repair it as you'll never get the stain back out of the wood.

Bob

I don't see anything wrong with it and I think the worst of all possible stock finishes is paint on wood. Get it stripped and then play with darkening it. I prefer water based stains and frankly have found the Birchwood Casey stain to work just fine. After that I'd rub in several coats of a good hybrid oil finish such as Prostock or Linspeed. I've never been a fan of aerosol finishes, but to each his own.

I have used both Pro Custom Oil and Linspeed, my preference is Linspeed. Brownell's sells a water stain kit that consists of 5-6 small jars of dry pigment. They give several recipes for different color of stain, the dry pigments are measured with a reloading scale and mixed with water. If you don't like any of their recipes you can experiment till your heart's content, if you get it too dark it can be lightened by wiping with water. I refinished a Winchester 1892 several years ago, the stocks were gumwood and I used Minwax wiping poly which had the stain in it. The job turned out real nice, lately I have been using Timberluxe finish, they also sell a stain which can be applied over an existing finish. It penetrates the finish without needing to strip, I have used this to darken a stock that was real blond. It did a good job of making the wood look more walnutlike. Check out the Timberluxe website, there is a video that walks you thru the entire process of using their produccts. I have used the timberluxe finish as well as the stain and feel it is a good product that produces nice results without a lot of work.

Bob
Guessing your experiences with Beech are limited...

Moving the old finish around with the Formby's will give you a lot less trouble and a quicker finish, per the OP's original request.

Getting the dark out of the checkering alone would take more time than the whole job I suggested.
art

Son of a beech!

So Art, with the Formby's, would some of the darkness come out from the checkering too? Then it would all sorta mix around and become uniform?

Yeah Art, completely missed that line in the OP's post. You're right, better to sand the checkering off than try to get the stain out. Kinda thought you'd be showing up sooner or later....

Bob

I realize I'm going beyond the OPs request, but would recutting the checkering clean out the old finish? I cringe at the thought of sanding it down, but the diamonds do look fairly fattened. Sometimes investing a little time and money in a rifle is worth doing, especially if it's a keeper.

Looks to my amateur eye that someone used a lot of bone black at some point. If that's the case, its HARD to sand out! It really takes the edge off sandpaper.....please don't ask me how I know this...LOL!

Chris

Yes, much of the black would come out to be redistributed. Better, you would be able to "spot stain" areas that are not dark enough and then end up with a fairly uniform finish without a lot of trouble.

Taking the whole thing down to beech white would be a nightmare without a good or easy end in sight.

no need to sand the checkering off, though it will probably remain a shade darker than the rest unless the rest is stained a bit heavy, but the options remain open.

Recutting the checkering would reduce the black a great deal, but likely would not eliminate the black... it is also a lot of work and I am not convinced a beech stock is worth the time...

Chris
I can guarantee without hesitation there is no bone black involved in that finish... just old finish and wax with some dirt.
art

I don't know, but in this instance I would be tempted to re-cut the checkering and leave the rest of it alone and see what it looks like. Or else just leave the whole thing alone and shoot the heck out of it...