Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Revisiting CZ 457 stock refinishing

Several weeks ago Drover posted questions here and in the Rimire forum about refinishing a CZ 457 American stock. There were many good responses in both forums. I’m also going to post in both for maximum exposure. As Drover decided, I also thought I could “live with it.” But since then I got one of the limited edition Ruger 10/22s in French walnut. Now the 457 stock is a lot harder to look at, and prompts me to seek more advice.

I am not intimidated by the finishing part because I have done just a little bit of that. My first deer rifle was a Japanese Arisaka that I sporterized as a very poor college student decades ago. I did that using a semi inletted blank from Herter’s.

What really intimidates me in this case is stripping the existing finish. Several approaches were offered in earlier comments. But from what I have found in researching, the successful products used are seemingly no longer available because of new rules prohibiting some of the chemicals. In particular, MEK and a recommended Formby’s product are not available. Some people report using Citristrip, but reviews are mixed. From what I read, it appears the CZ finish is a kind of lacquer and it has been successfully removed by cutting toes out of tube socks, putting them over the stock and soaking them with lacquer thinner. Should I try that or are there other suggestions using available materials?

Also, in the past I used G-B Linspeed and have been pleased with the results. My childhood 22 has been used a lot and looks great after probably 50 years. But what seems popular these days is TruOil or Pro Custom. Does anyone still use Linspeed? Any related comments?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Al,

rimfirecentral.com CZ sub-forum has had quite a few posts about stripping and refinishing the mud stocks. Some of them have turned out nicely but there were also a couple of trainwrecks. Anyway you may be able to pick up some ideas about strippers there, I do remember some conversations mentioning different ones.


Good luck on the project, I just don't have the patience or skillset for stock work so "I will live with it" but I certainly understand wanting to make it more presentable.

drover

Thanks, drover for replying on both forums. I’m afraid of getting into a train wreck myself. I’ll look at Rimfire Central. The stripping prospects really have me stalled.

I like the suggestions on your earlier post to start with the simple things. Perhaps begin with Mule Deer’s idea of rubbing it out with steel wool. (I know folks say this can lead to rust issues down the road. All I can say is I’ve never experienced that on a couple of stocks I did decades ago.) Then a possible next step if I want to do one is to rub with Minwax Furniture Refinisher which is apparently the “safer” replacement for the Formby’s product which Sitka Deer recommended that is no longer available. And then, if I’m not happy but a bit courageous, move to trying chemical strippers. It seems if you are patient and persistent the Citristrip will get it off with a bit of effort.

I use the citrus stripper and it works fine .

Citristrip will remove any lacquer.

From what I have read on the various forums is that there are some strippers used in conjunction with plastic paddles the finish can be removed but the problem comes with try to remove the finish that is in the bottom of the checkering, that seems to be an issue.

drover

Tooth brush.

And a dental pick to get what the toothbrush might not.

I just sanded off the checkering. The wood was fairly soft and the checkering was mediocre at best.



If I wanted to save the checkering I'd tape it and work around it but if I wanted to actually remove the finish from the checkering I'd use a methylene chloride product and be careful to not use any sort of brush that might fling it around. If rinsing was necessary I'd use acetone but the methylene chloride evaporates pretty quick. After I was certain I'd removed ALL the methylene chloride, I might use a wire brush to get any remaining crud from the crevices. Methylene chloride is nasty and burns.

For a finish I like minwax wipe on polycrylic or if the gun will be exposed to significant weather then polyurethane, also wiped on with a rag.

Thanks for the responses. Good food for thought and appreciated!

Well, I put on my big boy pants and stripped the stock. Dear Wife offered a lot of encouragement as I headed to the workbench, saying,”I think you are on a fool’s errand.” 😉

I reviewed all of the comments on both of my posts and drover’s previous query. I also did a lot of Google searches and reviewed posts on Rimfire Central. There’s a lot of good and different ideas out there. As the Irish say, “Many roads lead to Dublin.”

I am convinced that today’s available strippers are not the same as those of a few years ago, including some older stock that folks may have on their shelves. It seems the “rules” changed sometime in 2022. In the end, I decided to use Citristrip. It took two applications but I got the stuff off. I only left the first application on for five hours. I got a good bit off then, but I suspect I would have gotten more off if I had left it on longer. But I was sure I would need two applications and wanted to do an overnight, and it was time to do that. In both cases, after applying a thick coat of the gel, I wrapped the stock in clear wrap to keep it moist. I had laid a strip of aluminum foil on my bench which kept the bench clean and made clean up easy. I scraped the stuff off with an old credit card that worked pretty well. For the checkering I used something like a toothbrush but stiffer — I’ve had it so long I don’t know where I got it — probably part of some gun cleaning kit.

After two applications there was nothing more to scrape. I wiped it clean with mineral spirits, using the brush in the checkering. There were dark spots left on the stock that I assume are stain or residual thin finish. I experimented by sanding on the butt stock and those came out. I’m in the process of masking the checkering and will then completely sand the stock. My wood is very attractive when I wet the surface to get an idea. The grain is very tight so I don’t think filling pores will be an issue.

One tip I saw somewhere was very helpful in getting the buttplate off. I found the screw holes by putting my thumbs “opposite” and tugging. The screw heads for my rifle were a Torx 20. When the screws are out, the plate is held by glue. I carefully put the stock in a vise just catching the part of the plate next to the wood but being sure the wood was not in the vise. With gentle rocking it popped loose.

So at this point I feel relieved and pretty optimistic. As I said at the top, there are lots of approaches. I’m satisfied with what I did.

I’m going to use G-B Linspeed for the finish. I know other things are currently more popular, but I’ve used this in the past and been happy with the results. I did my Winchester 72A stock about 60 years ago and it still looks great.

Sounds like a good project. Hopefully it turns out great!! I'm one of the ones that am very happy with the factory finish, on my new CZ457. I've seen some posted that look like crap, so I understand why you would want to strip it. Let us know how it turns out!! Thanks..