Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing How to remove original finish and stain on walnut rifle stock?

Hello Campfire Crew!

I have been looking into refinishing a couple of CZ stocks over the past couple months. I have multiple that appear to be hiding some decently figured walnut underneath the thick factory finish.

Through research, I have found and heard of quite a few chemicals and processes that can be used to remove the old, original finish on a stock. I have heard everything from lacquer thinner and tube socks to gel'd methylene chloride.

As I continue down this process, I am hoping for some guidance and to read some feedback from y'all on what has worked for you and what has not. While I am not new to woodworking, I am certainly new to the idea of refinishing some rifles stocks.

With that said - how would you go about removing the old finish and stain?

I appreciate any advice and guidance you can provide!

Cheers!
iShoot17

The first thing I would try is lacquer thinner. If that does it, its going to be fairly easy, just wiping the lacquer thinner on and the finish off. The stain they use will be a different story. Sanding is likely the only way to remove it, but be very careful anywhere the wood meets the metal in a flush fit. You don't want to sand the wood much that would result in the metal being proud to wood. After that, just finish it however you would like it. If lacquer thinner doesn't do, you will need some serious finish stripper which can be quite a mess.
Phil

I have a Remington 700 factory stock I want to refinish so I just tried the lacquer thinner on it. No results.

Citristrip.

Going to sound crazy but do it in a blasting cabinet. Done several synthetic and wood stocks in prep for painting using a friends cabinet. He uses black oxide and turns the pressure down so we're not pulverized the wood. Result is lots of media through the nozzle at reasonable pressure and only takes a few minutes to clean a stock. Use a test piece of soft wood to make sure no damage to the stock. Only areas that might need some attention will be the checkering. Give it a good spray with compressed air and wipe with denatured alcohol to remove residue.

That’s the Remington RKW finish, it was initially used as a bowling pin coating.

To the OP use a commercial stripper Zip Strip, Strypeez, Citri-Strip, etc.

To the 700 owner, good luck. That Remington finish is tough! I don't know of any chemical stripper that phases it.

Citristrip is a pain.

Use a good quality paint/epoxy remover (I use Jasco). Scuff the finish with 80 grit paper before for applying the stripper, it breaks the "surface tension" so to speak and allows the stripper to get into the finish rather than sitting on it. Wrap it in AU foil until softens, then go to work carefully with a plastic scraper. Repeat. It's time consuming and a PITA, but it will come off. I use acetone for a final rinse.

Like mentioned above zip strip is what I have used. Worked good.

Have a friend that earns a dam good living sand blasting.
Has a shop and does on site work.
He frequently does log and wood sided homes.
Several restoration businesses get him to strip nice old furniture.
The Corvette restoration business gets him to do all their bodies.


It's amazing that the same tool he uses to cut script into granite, can
clean paint from wood without harming it.

I hate wood stocks with a passion. But when I've had to do this, the above method works very well.

Good shootin' -Al

Thanks for the tips on removing the Remington finish. Not trying to highjack the thread iShoot17.

There is an old thread on here where member szihn removes a weatherby high gloss finish in minutes. Part of a wager with another member. Scary to watch...but I would follow the method if I were doing it, before using stripper. Stripper sucks and takes too much fiddling.

Thanks for the feedback, y’all. I don’t have direct access to a blast cabinet, but may be able to make something work.

As far as the other commercially available products, I’ve heard mixed reviews, but may consider. I also like Craigster’s process.

Jim1611 - No worries at all! I’m glad the feedback has been useful for all. Pending how the CZs go, I also have a couple M700s that have their fair share of battle marks and could likely use some refinishing love themselves.

Plumdog - I did some searching and managed to find the post!

Here is the thread: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12968913/6

Here is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcFxs6RikPA

I am far from an expert but will say the wood to metal fit would be seriously compromised using that knife and 180 grit sand paper. Use a chemical stripper if at all possible and put the sand paper away!

We used to refinish old Mausers and Springfields in the 1960's with a broken piece of glass very similar to his method.

I stripped a CZ 527 with citristrip. All it did was soften the finish and then used the back edge of a butter knife to scrap it off. It had an amazing piece of walnut under the sludge CZ used as finish

IIRC it was a Browning, but either can be the same... it was a pathetic joke and they refused to show any close-ups of the job. But the tools used are not consistent with competent work on quality items, period.

I've had some success with Jasco paint and epoxy remover for the bowling pin finishes, but it needs time to work.

Only did one of the Remington finishes and used epoxy remover from a spray on can. I gave it plenty of time to work and it was messy as heck, but it did the job and took off almost all the finish the first pass. A few small areas needed a second spray but came off right away ... I think I went through about a half roll of paper towels getting it wiped off and cleaning up my mess but the wood looked great after it dried for a day or two...