Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Dulling A Shiny Stock???

I have a wingmaster that I wanted to use for turkey hunting. I dulled the stock with a pumice/oil mixture and rubbed it in with a felt pad. It worked beautifully and looks almost as if it came from the factory with this finish.

I tried wet sanding and steel wool but it scratches the finish moreso than dulls it. Pumice gave me a completely dull finish without any visible scratches.

Will

Birchwood Casey stock sheen and conditioner might do the trick. It cleans accumulated crud off stocks and will soften down the high gloss.

Pumice is a bit coarser than rottenstone and will leave some scratches in the finish. Of course the way my eyes have gone I need glasses to tell that. Some folks do indeed start with pumice and then move to rottenstone for gloss reducing.
art

And it is wax and rottenstone paste.

Brownell's tech support to rub the gloss off a finish???????????????????? Shame you cannot take on such a tough question yourself.

Steel wool is indeed the wrong thing to use on a stock.

So doggieboy, steel wool will not embed in a finish. Think you better learn something about wood finishing.
And save the "azz" for you playground 5th grade equals!

Maybe it does in your boat finishes, must be operator error or something? while you are waiting for your finish to dry get a copy of Professional Stockmaking by David Wesbrook, its a technical manual so it might take you some time to get through it. David was a stockmaker for Griffin an Howe,, you might have heard of them with all your worldly knowledge of everything. Some of his professional stockmaking friends also collaborated on the book especially on finishes and finishing.Try and pay careful attention to the mention and use of steel wool. Then you can come back and tell me how the Professionals are doing it wrong also.

Blackdog
There is no doubt steel wool has been used for a very long time on wood stocks. Unfortunately, it is no longer the best choice because better has been here for a very long time. It takes magnification to see it well, but little shards of steel remain in the finish, rust, expand, and create "freckles". In bad cases they are plainly visible. Any stock finished with steel wool will show freckles under magnification.

Certainly not trying to side against you, just need to state the reasons for disagreeing with steel wool.
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Rich,

Here's my BLR. I dulled it with the dreaded steel wool. It has no visible spots, though I have not looked at it with a magnifying glass.

I don't feel your are taking sides against me at all, As I mentioned in an earlier post, I use rottenstone and GB to rub out a finish, I also use pumice and GB and/or boiled linseed oil with a little japan drier to achieve just the right sheen also. It depends on the rifle or shotgun and which is more appropriate for it and what were the clients expectations. I fully agree with you about steel wool embedding itself,I was actually trying to draw Oldman out(which he does with a certain Yosemite Sam style) a little further about embedding because bronze wool does so also, and at a significantly higher cost.It is also quite noticeable in the final finish as well. His remarks about "Rusty Wood" and his proclamation regarding his boat building prowess raised my eyebrows. From the arrogant, pompous way he conveyed himself, it became obvious that he lacks any proficiency in stock work as well.It's very apparent that his reading and comprehension skills are also suspect regarding the OP's post about knocking the shine off a high gloss Browning stock, when he suggested bronze wool or else you are going to have Rusty Wood and then contacting Brownell's for further assistance. I was arguing a steel wool position to draw him out and expose him for the blowhard he is. My comments regarding David Wesbrook and his wonderful book are true,some pros still use steel wool.I apologize to the forum and the OP for disrupting this thread to flush him out again, like what recently happened with his comments regarding Winchester no longer producing Silvertips. His obvious lack of knowledge and his arrogant, pompous attitude are dangerous to those that are seeking honest, unbiased, answers to a multitude of questions

You can always loan your shiney rifle to a friend or even worse, to an in-law. Almost guaranteed to come back dull.

Hey, I don't really give a durn if you want to use 36 grit paper on your stock to "dull it down". Just trying to save you the heartbreak of rust dots after a hunt in the rain.

You "experts" have yet to explain why is bronze wool even made, if steel wool is so great?

Suggested you call Brownells and get some real expert opinion. You don't want to fine. Your gun, do what you wish.

Brownell's tech staff includes a "real expert" stockmaker?

for those who have used any of the methods described here (whether you approve of them or not) my question is how do you go about protecting the checkering of any given stock from damage/rounding off as you work your magic on the stock?

If it is a tight multi-point pattern I sometimes use blue painters tape to mask out the adjacent areas of checkering while I'm repairing or rubbing out an area on the stock. I remove the tape immediately afterward to make sure that any finsh/rottenstone mixture didn't puddle up in the existing checkering and if it's there, remove it.
I use felt pads that I cut to different shapes to reach in and work around checkering and I go very slooowwww...and take my time. The felt pads are made in different densities and stiffness. limp pads are used on the round and curved areas, stiff pads on the flatter areas. They key is to take it easy and go slow,wipe the stock down frequently, checking your progress as you move along. You don't want to cut through the existing finish down to bare wood.Damage to checkering generally comes from being in to big of a hurry and not using the right materials for the job