Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 23B stock refinish

I have an early 1920's 23B that I have stripped and have the schnabel end soaking in acetone for crack that needs fixed.

I have seen some nice repairs done lately. My question is how would you go about putting the final finish on that is close to the original Savage finish.

Nash

gnoahhh (gary) is the man you want to talk to about that. He has a recipe I think is just about as good as it gets for a "period" finish. I'll let him tell you. But for a 23B I suspect a varnish finish was what Savage used, or for all praticle purposes would be close enough.

I'm fairly sure it would have been varnish. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong. If I am, stop reading here.

I find the best way to do varnish is with wiping varnish. All this is is varnish, I use spar varnish, thinned with mineral spirits and applied with a clean, lint free cotton cloth. The first coat is the thickest and you're only really interested in filling the grain. For the first coat I use a 1:1 ratio and apply it fairly liberally. Let it dry then sand it with ~250 grit paper (dry) until it's even and you're almost back down to the wood except in the gain. The key is it should be "flat" with no low spots because of the grain. When done wipe it down with mineral spirits and let dry.

The next coats are done the same way only with thinner varnish. I personally like 3:1. Let it dry, sand lightly until it's even scuffed with no runs, wipe down with mineral spirits and let dry. For the last two coats I like to use 4:1 varnish and finer grit paper. However on the last coat I usually don't sand it or it I do because of runs or whatever it's with at least 400 grit. Then the final step is buffing it out with rotten stone.

Don't sand with your hand, use something like a felt pad backer on the paper. 8-10 coats will probably be fancier than what left the factory but I'm not sure. I've never seen a brand new rifle from that era. But it sure looks great.

Oh you'll probably want to stain the wood prior to finishing. I like minwax mahogany or gunstock.

I'm interested in Gary's recipe too, I hope he posts his process. I'm always trying to improve mine.

Minwax red mahogany matches the color on some of the eras really well, but I mix them occasionally as well. Some have a brown tint rather than red.

The Bombay mahogany matches well also.

The stock is pretty dry also, should I oil it with something before staining?

Is Bombay the brand Joe?

I got a completely trashed 23B a few years ago, the only thing that was good on the gun was the bore. The metal was even painted black, compete with runs everywhere. I repaired the stock, finished it, then polished and blued the metal. I never saw a decent original finish on any 23, but read on here that they were varnished. I stained with red mahogany (Minwax I think) then used Helmsman spar urethane to finish it. It took a few coats of finish, scraped with furniture scrapers between coats, to fill the grain then a few thin coats rubbed on and wiped off with cheap napkins (think fast food joints). Cheap napkins don't absorb much, and allow some finish to remain. After that, a coat of paste wax rubbed in, and it was done. Since it came with five extra holes drilled for who knows what scope mounts, I drilled a couple more and mounted a Lyman Alaskan that I had. Also, I figured some checkering would look nice, so looked online and found a picture of the factory checkering on a 23D. I enlarged the picture to life size, covered the screen with saran wrap and traced the pattern.

That turned out beautiful. What is it chambered for?

Wow, that's a serious looker! Nice job.

That looks great.

Read the nice big pic for the caliber!

That certainly is nice. That's the same varnish I like to use, when I'm feeling too cheap to use Epifane's (which is most of the time!). I simply use it straight from the can for initial build coats, and I sand with 320x between coats. After pore fill is achieved, usually at around 6-7 coats (I sand pretty thoroughly between coats), I decant a couple teaspoons of it into a small cup and dilute with naptha, (1:4 ratio, for optimal flow) I then continue on with two to four more coats. 9 or 10 coats usually does it. Sometimes 12 or 13 if I get runs/sags in the "final" coat and have to sand and re-coat, and again, and again. Sounds like a ton of varnish but remember I block it out thoroughly between coats which removes most of the previous coat. What remains in the end is a mil thickness about equal to three or four coats just slopped on without sanding between coats.

Use glossy varnish for this. It has better UV resistance than matte or semi-gloss.

Rub out the last coat to dull the gloss. Make it really dull. Don't be afraid to wield the rubbing pad or oil-free 0000 steel wool. Then wax it with some good stuff like Ren Wax or Butcher's Paste Wax to restore a nice soft luster/glow.

Wiping on varnish is certainly one approach, but it's difficult to get a good thick build. I have a collection of old badger bristle brushes I've been varnishing with for years, decades. Truth be told, as often as not anymore I just use disposable foam brushes, 1" or 2" width, and get just as good results- without the hassles of brush cleanup and keeping them soaking in linseed oil+mineral spirits.

Staining is ok if that's what you want. (I rarely ever stain walnut, I simply rely on the varnish to enhance the natural wood color.) If you do stain, avoid oil-based stains if you can- they can/will muddy the grain to one extent or another, and have poor UV resistance. (The stain's medium will soak into the wood whereas the solid pigments can't travel below the wood surface where they remain to cloud the situation.) To really make the grain "pop", use a dye- lots on the market. Dyes are color-fast (UV resistant) and everything goes into the wood not on it. Remember though, that if a repair to the finish ever needs done you're compounding the work of the craftsman if he has to deal with stained/dyed wood under the finish- just makes matching up all the more difficult.

That's my approach and technique. Certainly not the only way to skin this cat, but it suits me. Labor intensive? You bet, but everything in this man's world comes at a price. You get out of it equal to what you put in.

Wow, that looks better than new. Well that gives me some ideas on what to do.

Thanks

First, thanks for all the nice comments.
Gnoahhh- I agree 100% I don't usually stain walnut, but in this case I had to make so many repairs, the stain did a lot to help hide them. I have no idea why, but the stock had a bunch of random small holes, about 1/16-1/8" diameter, all over it. Almost like someone took a hammer and pin punch to it. Plus, there was a chunk of wood missing between the bolt handle and safety and a large gap around the bottom metal, from the magazine to the front, that I had to replace. That was a lot of stuff that I needed to hide. I took a bunch of wood out of the barrel channel to male the repairs. Also, I do use 0000 steel wool to rub out the final coats and I lubricate it with paste wax. I wasn't very clear about that on my post.

Slightly off topic, but it pertains to finishing wood. I inherited an old cheap harmony guitar that belonged to my best friend and drummer (go figure!) of 14 years. The body finish was in BAD shape. I stripped it, and found PLYWOOD under the finish. Been trying to find a way to fill in all the pores and everything I've tried say "one or 2 coats".

As wood and I are natural enemies, I've been frustrated in trying to refinish it.

This thread has given me new hope, as I didn't realize the technique required to fill in pores.

So, all this experience and knowledge has served in other areas of life!

Good job fella's!

Blitz

Thanks. I didnt see that the first time.

You're very welcome. Of course 23B's SHOULD all be .25-20s because they are very hard to convert to another caliber (I suppose you could get one rebored to .32-20 but you'd have to have a very adventurous rebore guy and then you'd only have a non-collectible shooter....).

I've never seen a 23 rebored or relined to the original caliber, either .22 LR, .22 Hornet, .25-20, or .32-20. Has anyone else?