Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Finishing a wood gunstock

Part 1:

In the custom guns forum I am documenting the steps in building a high end blued and walnut .280 Remington, based on a Mauser action. (See .280 Remington thread.) I have been getting some PM traffic about the details on how I am finishing the stock and have decided to start a thread here on my technique. Part of my reason for doing it is that discussions of stock finishes have a tendency to get opinionated, behind perhaps only optics and politics. I don’t want to derail the other thread.

Let me start by saying that there is no perfect stock finish. Tom Turpin, in his lovely book Modern Custom Guns writes “A perfect stock finish though, is the Holy grail of the custom gun business. I don’t know any custom makers who are happy with the finish they use. Each is still looking for the perfect finish.” More evidence of the range of finishing techniques comes from David Wesbrook’s book Professional Stockmaking, which I regard as an essential reference to the beginning stock maker (but unfortunately is out of print and becoming quite expensive on the used market.) Wesbrook includes two finishes himself—one for utility applications and one spare-no-effort hand rubbed oil technique more suited to show pieces. Wesbrook goes on to include essays from 5 other top flight custom gunsmiths, and they lay out the detailed steps of their stock finish over several pages each. No two techniques are the same, although there are important similarities. With that in mind,one ought not become too wedded to their technique as the only one worth using.

At this point I want to acknowledge the epoxy-based finish that Sitka Deer (Art) uses and advocates. I understand the benefits of getting the epoxy penetrated into the wood. There may be no better seal to to minimize water movement in and out of the stock. I have even used his approach a few times, including on a English walnut stock for a Browning T-Bolt and a Claro stock for a .35 Whelen. But I have found the finish is beyond my limited talents. I simply cannot sand down the epoxy without repeatedly cutting through it down to bare wood. On the Whelen I think I had to re-apply epoxy six different times to fix sand throughs and simply swore off the technique as too difficult. If other people can use it, more power to you.





In reviewing all of the techniques in Wesbrook and other sources I have, I have broken stock finishing into four distinct steps: sanding, sealing, filling, and top finishing. There may be systems that combine or skip a step, but that is not how I approach it.

So the bare wood on this stock was pretty pale...


Let's see how the appearance changed as the steps unfolded.

Sanding—The purpose of sanding is to get a perfectly even, uniform surface.The secrets to sanding are to scrupulously maintain the flowlines of the stock (Wesbrook’s book has ever so useful photos on this,) use a range of sanding blocks to get into corners and avoid rounding corners, change your paper out often, and don’t rush.

A critical part of finish sanding is whiskering—applying a little bit of water and then warming the stock over a gentle heat. The water will raise the grain, and then your sanding will remove more material. My technique on this stock was two different whisker/sand cycles at 150 grit, and then a final one at 220 grit. Some makers sand all the way to 400 grit, but I think you can polish a wood surface too much and impede the way the finish adheres and soaks into the wood. I did use 3M Pro Grade synthetic backed sand paper, which lasted way longer than any paper-backed I have used in the past; my local Home Depot carries it.

For me, doing one whisker/sand cycle takes an hour. You have just got to have good light, take a lot of time and be thorough. Even then, when I did subsequent steps I found sanding marks and flaws that I had missed.

Sealing—The purpose of sealing is to get finish way down into the fibers of the wood. The sealer I used comes from the woodworking firm Lee Valley. It is paired with a finish that is noticeably thicker. You likely could never get a built up final coat using their sealer, and the finish is too thick to penetrate. A number of the gun makers in Wesbrook’s book use a similar two-product technique. I went with Lee Valley because their products work well for me.



The standard way to use a sealer is to brush it on quite heavy, and then wipe off the excess after 30 minutes. Be sure to coat the interior surfaces with sealer, but make sure it is not pooling in the corners of the inletting, or you will be grumpy later. About three applications of sealer is sufficient; stop when it stops absorbing and the surface starts to look shiny.

Even so, the stock after sealing looks dark and murky. I have to admit to being worried at this point that I had buggered things up.

Part 2

Filling—A top flight stock finish will be perfectly smooth, which means that the pores of the wood need to be filled. It is presumably possible to do hand rubbed coats of oil until the pores are filled, but I don’t have the patience for that. I was also worried that so many coats of oil would look like plastic on the surface of the stock. I went with a filling technique described by Monte Mandarino in Wesbrook’s book. You make a thick paste of your finish, rottenstone, and a dye. Some people use black, but I did not want that much contrast and went with a reddish-brown transparent dye, procured at Woodworkers Supply. Take a piece of t-shirt material, stretch it tight across your finger, and rub the paste hard into the surface of the wood, using small circular motions to do small areas at a time. Let it dry 8-10 hours and re-apply. You will need to do this 3-4 times to adequately fill the pores. Don’t skimp on the effort—places you have failed to adequately fill the pores will take more effort to fill with oil coats later.

After the pores are full, you need to cut it back by wet sanding with water and 600 grit paper until you are back to the wood surface. This took me well over an hour, to make sure that there were not places I missed. It will look white and dreadful at this point—again, I was sure I had screwed it up.





Keep the white sanding slurry from building up in the inletting. After the stock is sanded out, take it out into the sunlight and look for pores that need another go. I wish I had noticed a couple of areas that caused me problems later.

Top Finishing—The purpose is to create a thin top coat that has the right luster and feel. I started using the Lee Valley finish straight as it came from the can, and it was ending up too glossy. I did several coats to fill pores I had missed. I wet sanded again with 600 grit back to bare wood. As per their instructions, I blended 1/3 finish with 2/3 sealer, which produces a lower luster finish, and started over with the finish. This sanding back step would not have been necessary had I started with the low luster blend.

You apply really thin coats of oil, spreading a single drop as far as it will go. As you get more coats on, those single drops cover more and and more. As I am now in the final stages of the finish, I think I can cover the whole stock with about 4 drops. Make sure that you allow adequate drying time between applications. About every other coat, I buffed the finish gently with polishing wool to enhance adhesion. The product I use is Fibral polishing wool, available from Brownells. It is softer than steel wool, and I don’t like the idea of remnant steel pieces in my finish. I would clean the stock really will with soft cloth and blow it off with compressed air. This whole buffing thing might not have been helpful, but I did it.



I cannot tell you how many coats of finish I have applied because I have not kept track. Surely over 10, but I doubt 20. I have gotten the even “showcar paint job” surface I was aiming for. Just understand that the top finish cannot hide flaws in the substrate--rather, it magnifies them.



But I will soon be done, and have already sent a deposit to Sherry Abraham to get a place in line for it to be checkered. Nothing fancy—a 24 lpi open point wrap around pattern.
At any rate, I have come to believe that a high quality stock finish can be deconstructed into sanding, sealing, filling, and finishing. At least that is the way top gun makers get that gorgeous “in the wood” appearance and warm tactile feel. And while I am not a top gun maker, but I am more than willing to learn from them.




And as noted in Part 1, there are countless variations on how to do these steps, and I do not feel the need to defend the specific steps I went through. Next time, I am likely to try a different twist. But I can't imagine departing too far from the fundamental sequence of sand, seal, fill and top finish.

Beautiful. If anyone gets into a p match on this one they are going on ignore.

I wonder how the Fibrewool compares to rotten stone? Looks to be like the grey or white 3m pads. I still think the padding down is the way to go as the hard felt won't produce the ripple effect as much as a soft pad. Not seeing it on your rifle though.

My only other tip is I use a magnifying glass at each step but especially with the filling stage. Saves a lot of time as you can see micro pinholes in good light easily that I otherwise wood have missed.

Thanks for posting.

Very,very nice! Thanks for the write-up, and the Fiberwool tip.

Bravo. I could nitpick a couple of points, but it would be just that- nitpicking. I think you accomplished a fine job of work. I especially like the pic of the stock on the hood of the car. The low light angle shows no waviness in the wood- straight lines of reflected light, the true test of a woodworkers skill.

I wasn't aware of the existence of that fibral abrasive wool. I will get some to try out myself. Thanks. (I often ignore Brown-give-me-all-your-money-ell's, seeking my answers elsewhere. As a result sometimes products like this escape my attention.)

One thing I have endured from customers/bosses is grief about the amount of time spent finishing something. Most people don't realize that one can easily spend as much time finishing something as they did building it. Yet, the finish is the first thing people see (and sometimes the only thing) and as such requires the builder to expend whatever time/labor (and money for 1st rate materials) that's necessary to accomplish the goal of first class work.

There exists many ways to skin a cat. What irks me is when people ignore basic precepts and aver that their cat-skinning techniques are the best. The OP has taken a sound approach to his task and achieved nirvana!

Since the fibral abrasive wool has been mentioned by all of the commenters, let me expand on it. I never knew of it until I found it on the closeout table at my local tool supply. It was about a buck a box, so I bought one to try out. It has turned out to be a go-to product for gentle buffing. You can wrap it around a sanding block to keep things level. It comes in different grades; all I have is the fine. I am only about half way through that one box, so I am still a newby in terms of using it.

It is imported from France, and not widely marketed in the states. My google work found it at Brownells; the next time I order some stuff from them, I will likely add a few boxes for my order. It is only about $4 a box, and ordering it from somewhere else to to save a buck is probably not economically feasible.

Nice work.

Nicely done. However, you can combine the sanding, sealing and filling all in the same process by using the sanding-in procedure: http://www.woodworking.org/WC/GArchive99/1_20waltcunfin.html

One of the modern oil modified polyurethanes works very well.
I use Minwax Wipe-On Poly. The finish is nearly as hard as epoxy and can be deep and glossy or thin and satin as you like.

RAN

I used the sanding slurry finish on a couple of stocks back in the 1990's, including this one...


I am not convinced that it generates as much visual depth as other methods. It is also noteworthy that none of the custom gunmakers in Wesbrook's book use that approach.

The finish and sealer I used were polymerized oils.

Utah very nice is that a Kimber stock? I sure don't notice a lack of depth in the photo but know what you mean. There can be an almost imperceptible muddiness with the slurry method.

Very well done! I have to admit more than the occasional sand-through when using epoxy...

The one thing I would suggest trying sometime on a sample board is the simpler approach of applying finish heavy, allow to set for 10-15 minutes and wiping DRY. It is far faster and easier than rubbing out every drop, builds faster, and looks better IMO.

Because finishes vary so much I will admit some oils do look as good applied by the drop...

Again, great job!

I have helped a number of people build stocks. Virtually all made sample boards with off-cuts of their stock. None has ever thought the sanded slurry finish was even close to a properly filled finish. The better the wood the easier it is to get away with it because the pores are so small, but the greater the natural depth in the wood the worse it looks. Pore size is the huge factor. Better wood has smaller pores and most of the wood with better depth has tiny pores.

I generally spend more time finishing then shaping stocks, often by 2:1...

I bought this LH Kimber new in about 1984 for $400, when I really could not afford that kind of money. Loved everything about the rifle, except the wood in the stock was plain as mud. In the mid 90's I was living in Oregon, and got a local stock and had the late Earl Milliron (a truly fine stockmaker in his day) from Portland duplicate the stock using the factory stock as a template. I inlet it for grip cap and buttplate, used the sanded-in finish technique and had Kathy Forster dress it up.



Since moving to UT some 15+ years ago the stock has shrunk quite a bit, leaving the buttplate metal proud.




A sanded in finish certainly works. It just does not seem as precise as my latest technique.

Very nice post, thanks for sharing. Always used Tru-oil, or hand rubbed linseed oil for my re-do's. They are better than factory to my eye, but tough to achieve the finish you displayed with the car hood pic.

Nice pictures of "how to do it" that I manage to screw up regularly. Thanks for taking the time to show how it ought to be done.

Utah708. Thanks for the interesting post. Truly appreciate the write-up. Hope you'll share some pics of the checkering Sherry does.

Regarding clear and work time. There's a place for spray. Basecoat. Sand. Topcoat. Done. That car hood was sprayed afterall, it's smooth and super durable... Reportedly this stuff works good. Not a basecoat/topcoat automotive system but spray nonetheless. http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...od-finishes/acra-coat-wood-prod1162.aspx

Wondering if your original KoO stock also had the point ahead of the front take-down? Later than the 1984 you mentioned, we did a run of pointy 82s, for a couple weeks in '89 or '90. Seemed there was some history of it's use. Curious stuff. To me, at the time, it was a pain to not wipe out as I rolled the forearms round on the table of a big 10"x12' belt sander. On the pointy ones, kinda carved it in on the front wheel of a 4" belt which left stuff more choppy for the shapers; harder for everyone to change things up like that. Don't see many pictures showing them.

It's a handy way to help get things slimming right away.
Point on a 10/22, just to get some chubbiness gone - and kill some time.

Used here (more KoO in shape) on a blocky Weatherbyesque Mauser stock rework as a way to help unsquare things while maintaining lines. So - what's the point? LOL

Thanks for chiming in. I would not be above using a spray if it generated top tier results. It would have saved me a bunch of time. But I sure love the feel of the finish I am getting on this stock.

Regarding the KofO stock--that pointed detail in front of the triggerguard is part of the shape of the original stock. The serial number on my rifle is less than 500, so it was fairly early.

Tag for later use