Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots NEED advice on refinishing a ruger#1 stock

Has original finish rubbed away near cheek piece from highly figured stock. Suggestions are welcome. I would like to restore back to original shine if possible. IS sending back to ruger an option??????

Thanks in advance
MARTIN

Think on the Ruger site they say the DONT refinish wood.
They can put new wood on though, and its not cheap.

Cheek piece on a Ruger factory stock ?

Need to see a picture.
Phil

I’ve not seen a factory #1 with a cheek piece.

I think he might of meant the comb.

YES COMB WHERE YOUR CHEEK GOES. I will post some pictures as soon as able to.

I would just take the opportunity to refinish the whole stock. Strip the old finish, sand it down, and sand in boiled linseed oil. Linseed oil finishes are a lot easier to repair too.

...but crappy in terms of actual protection.

Agreed that a refinish may be in order but would have to see it first. Not something to rush into. Whatever you do bear in mind its compatibility with the fore end.

BLO is definitely crappy in terms of actual protection on its own. I personally coat with wax before taking one hunting. There is just nothing that looks as good to me.

While a complete refinish is easy for the stock pro, I would be a little nervous on a nice gun like a No1. If the ultimate solution is a complete refinish as suggest by others. I would try a touch up first. Nothing to loose right? I have had very good results with TruOil to hide small dings and scratches. It would not hurt to put a little finger dab on and see how it looks.

Linseed does not seem appropriate to me. I think TruOil is just as easy and dries with a real finish. If I had a pile of No1's to experiment on I might try Tung Oil, but; given a sample of one, TruOil seems more tried and true. It will actually dry.

I would clean it up with 0000 steel wool and see if the true oil will fix it. One good thing to do is to wipe it down with vinegar before you start, it will remove wax and grime. A good scrub with Murphy's soap can do wonders, I have used this on stocks that I thought would need a complete refinish but after the cleaning and a wipe down with linseed oil they were fine.

After the True oil see if wax brings it around. I personally like some wear and signs of honest use but not neglect. I have refinished guns to only find I have removed a lot of history to the detriment of enjoying a rifle. Try the easy fixes first.

real wood stocks all can be refinished ,it depends how hard and how far you wanna go. as has been posted True oil is a good choice. myself i would take both fore arm and back stock off the receiver and barrel also remove everything from these 2 pieces of wood, then zip strip both ,sand smooth , maybe restain ? steel wool ,wet rag clean stock up and dry, then put about 5 - 6 coats of True oil on both wood pieces and after each coat when its completely dry steel wool lightly wet wipe dry and apply another coat of True oil the more coats the nicer it looks. so after at least 5 coats lightly 0000 steel wool. then wax both pieces well i have used car wax polish with great results. you have to decide how far you wanna go with refinishing stock? with what i posted the finish is a real nice rich looking satin. good luck take your time,Pete53

Wise post

Ixnay on the car wax, please. It contains silicone that will play hob with any future re-finishing no matter how much you try to scrub it off. Best to stick with good quality furniture paste waxes for gun stock use.

My last #1 project, a 1A-B re-barreled from .270 to .250-3000 with a Douglas barrel, led me down a rabbit hole. I didn't care for the goofy long and thick 1B fore arm on the short 1A barrel so I cut 5" off, slimmed it considerably, and put a 1 3/4" long ebony tip on. (Overall forearm length now equals the factory 1A stock.) I gave it a glassy finish with Epifanes glossy spar varnish (10 coats blocked out with 320x between coats), then rubbed that out to a dull matte effect, and finally waxed with Butcher's Wax to restore a pleasant subdued luster. It came out appearing to be a superbly executed "oil" finish but with actual decent protection provided by varnish. That, of course, made the factory butt stock look like a poor cousin so off came the original finish, tedious masking of the wrist checkering because it was in beautiful condition (and I didn't wish to have to re-checker it from scratch), and varnish protocols to match the new forearm. Light touchup of the checkering, and the same wax as on the fore arm and now it's a thing of beauty and a joy forever, haha!

If you want to use something to rub down the finish or wood surface, don’t use steel wool. No matter how well you wipe down the stock it will leave teeny, TINY steel slivers in the surface which will eventually corrode and leave little rust spots. I had read that but pooh poohed the idea and used it on a Garand stock. Sure enough, when held at the right angle you could see little shiney steel particles in the surface. Had to start over. 😡

Use a Scotch Brite pad instead.

...or rottenstone.

Yep. That’ll work well too.

So plz tell me exactly what Ruger uses in their finishing process??? I would like a durable finish not a pieces of showroom furniture. Not saying I don't like showroom finish For this application I prefer a nice stock matching finish.

All great postings and suggestions except for a few. Plz keep sharing your experiences.
MARTIN

The old #1s had an oil finish, newer (early or mid 70's) they had a poly of something.
The old poly finishes age and w the stain Ruger used, a gold and red tone often the result. IMHO they look great.
Total refinishing will probably lose such color.


I had some Outers brand finish in a little bottle that set up quick and was good stuff.
Of course that was yrs ago and the stuff was old (no longer made) then. Gunslick of some type it was.


Maybe spot finish with that type. Whatever it was.

If not, then send it to a pro that has duplicated the old Ruger color/finish.

Or leave it and just add more wear.

I have a #1 B that has a beat to hell stock.
Also have a #3 wearing older #1 wood w a few marks.


IMHO run it as is or go synthetic.
Or pay a pro to do a refinish.


I got decent results yrs ago doing a couple of stocks (Remingtons)
Am too old and cranky to push my luck these days.

No more wood refinishing for me.

I picked up a little 1a in 7x57 about 20 years ago at a gun show that looked like the wood had been ridden hard and put up wet. Big patches of what turned out to be polyurethane missing, wood grayed underneath and remainder of the finish was cloudy. The metal was good otherwise I would have passed. It took a lot of scraping and then careful sanding so as to not mess up the checkering which was also in good shape. I used a British formula called Slackum oil that I found over on the doublegun.com forum and it turned out to be one of the best looking stocks I have. As I remember it took a long time to remove that old finish but worth it. It looks better than any of my newer #1 rifles.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I am like you getting older and lots of things to do.. I hope this does not fall into the back of the stove category. Plz keep more suggestions coming.
MARTIN

I was told Ruger used Lin-Speed


Lin-Speed

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-...wood-finishes/gunstock-oil-prod8004.aspx


There is a "how to" out there on stock refinishing that specifically deals with Lin-Speed. Cutting the first couple coats with mineral spirits, sanding between coats (more like gentle rubbing down between coats) ect ect....

I did a No. 1 RSI years ago.. Something like 10 coats before she stopped penetrating and getting dull spots.

On the rack, you couldn't tell the finish difference between the the one I did and the others.

That old red pad model I refinished did not have Lin-Speed for an original finish. It was something very hard and tenacious to remove, probably a polyurethane type. Common solvents such as lacquer thinner, xylene, or acetone would not touch it. I have removed Lin-Speed and True Oil, both basically linseed oil and varnish with no problem using solvents and that was not the case with the Ruger Stock.

Look up AJ Renner, here you go did it for you. http://www.rjrenner.com/ruger-no.1.html

If I had any reservation whatsoever on doing the re-finish myself I would turn the whole thing over to Mr. Renner and let him do his magic on the stock work and re-finish. You can ask him to use Alkanet or Spirit stains to get that red color and he can match any era Ruger or make it look antique if you want.