Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Would you re-finish?

Have a Sauer 101 for a couple yrs now that has some nice grain and burl in the stock. I can live with it the way it is but I don't like the glossy finish that I'm assuming is a sprayed on epoxy or acrylic. Also hard to see in any picture but plenty of open grain in the wood. Thinking of stripping the finish off and wet sanding to close up the grains and giving it a hand rubbed oil finish.

But nice enough rifle as factory, maybe I should let my hands off of it.

Had a real shiny Browning like that, with the thick urethane finish….had it redone with an oil finish and it was much nicer…. You won’t regret it.

Don’t touch it

My brother has a Browning Safari that has really pretty wood but the heavy urethane finish was cracked and some of the sharp edges like on the cheek piece were dinged. I stripped it and rounded off some of the sharp edges and gave it a nice satin finish and it looks much better. A fun rewarding project.

Don't know if I'd do anything with that finish but on a Remington BDL I had with that shiny bowling ball finish got worked on. Gave it a light rub down with 0000 steel wool, just enough to break the sheen and now it looks more like an oil finish. A light application with Pledge about once a year keeps it looking nice.
PJ

Yeah I was thinking that route also, but don't know if I'd be able to stop at that. But, I could always knock off that gloss which is easy enough to do and see how I like it.

Grey Scotch-brite pad with paste wax is your friend when taking the shine off of a high gloss finish. Use a light touch and follow with a micrfiber cloth to remove the wax left behind. Steel wool will leave metal slivers embedded in the finish which will later rust.

Rottenstone for me.

You can probably knock it down to a satin finish with some pumice powder or rottenstone powder and a damp cotton pad.

Knock it back and leave it.


That finish is way better than oil on a hunting gun.


Yep.
He said it.

If you can knock down the finish to reduce the gloss before refinishing completely it might save you some time. The wood and finish look pretty good besides the gloss . The worst that would happen is you would need to strip and refinish after.

You could knock down the finish a number of ways. If it were me, I would use a gray 3M pad and knock down the gloss finish to a point it would be a completely dull looking outer surface. Then you sand with 1000/2000 grit wet/dry paper to bring it back to a smooth surface, then polish it to a relative gloss with an automotive polish and a soft cloth. Once you get it to the gloss you're happy with, put on a couple coats of good wax like Rennaissance Wax of Johnson wax and buff ....

You can also do this with rottenstone to start off and will probably get about the same results if you know how to use the stones for finishing ....

Rub it with 4F pumice on a dampened felt pad.

80 grit and spray paint. Hint………..

I’d leave it as it is

Yeah I’d leave it alone too

I would leave it alone. Why do you not like gloss?

That's the way you do it...money for nuthin' and chicks for free.

I agree with this. I've seen some of your stocks, so I know you know what you are talking about. Something else I've used to knock down the shine is Birchwood Casey's stock sheen and conditioner. Then like you say, hit it with a couple coats of Johnson's paste wax.

Stock looks great to me. I wouldn't try to dull it.

Leave it alone