Hi Guys -
I was wondering if anyone has ever refinished a Ruger gray laminate stock? I'm going to refinish a stock for my daughter, and I am planning on coloring it with RIT after stripping so my question is what do I want to do for the following:
1. stripping: products/method
2. bleaching: I am assuming that I will need to somehow bleach this thing. Do I need to worry about any solution that does this dissolving the glue holding the laminate together
3. protective coating: What do people use here? regular househould varnish like minwax or something or something more rugged like spar varnish?

thanks in advance for replies.
Northerner

Stripping laminates is usually a very tough proposition. getting enough out of the grain to get any penetration from the stain or dye is tougher yet. A tremendous amount of resin is squeezed into the wood veneers as a laminate blank is pressed and cured.

Daly's Wood Bleach is a two-part mix that is by far the best. It is Hydrogen Peroxide and lye. Mixed together they are synergistic.

Assuming you get this far, any good wax will work... Johnson's Paste Wax is fair, Bri-Wax is my favorite. Avoid liquid waxes as they are even softer than JPW.

Waders did it with a hardwood stock for a 10-22.



Granted, it's not a laminate....

Apple, meet orange...

BTW, Rit would be a last choice for me as wood dye... It is generally not a stable color even on products it is designed for. Some colors work well on wood and others simply do not. Without a tremendous testing effort it could easily look great and stay that way for just a month, or less...

Rethinking it in a positive vein...

It would probably work better and easier to strip the stock, clean and degrease, then shoot it with high-quality paint, tinted and thinned to your liking.

You could do very simple or very complex things that way and know the system would work.

For the effort involved, you may want to consider picking up a used wood stock on Ebay or Gunbroker.

If cost is an issue, you could sell your laminate stock.

I know...that post is what got the whole thing started. I wanted to do the same thing for my daughter but with a stainless laminate Hawkeye compact

So it sounds as if I may want to go with a McMillan or something else? The Laminate idea may just not work?
Thanks for the replies

paint sticks to plywood...

Good paint will...

Those plywood stock laminations are dyed with what are called aniline dyes. I doubt you'll have any success changing the color, or removing what is there now. A new laminated stock, in your choice of color, isn't that expensive.

There are also places that dip stocks.

If the stock is grey with a light black running through it you might want to use it for awhile. I had one on a Browning I owned and which I didn't much like at first. Over time it grew on me and it became one of my favourites.

Jim

Why not just get a new Boyds in your choice of color?

Northerner,

I recently bought a MKii with brown plywood and a few rough spots. There was also some sort of rubber stuck to the wood. I think it was left from a slip-on recoil pad and was fused to the finish.

I couldn't stand looking at that anymore so I hit them all with a scotchbrite pad and Tru-Oil as a temporary fix. The scotchbrite had little trouble taking the finish off and the Tru-Oil blended in with the original finish. Later, I plan to sand the whole stock and use Tru-Oil.

Not sure about changing the color on yours though. If it were me, I'd enjoy it as-is, or sell it and get what you want.

Jason

or paint it.......

And hide that beautiful plywood?!