Need finishing help for gun stock.

[ACobra289]

Hello everyone.

I need some help with refinishing a gun stock. It’s a 70’s era Glenfield Model 60. Many years ago I tried to refinish it and I was never happy with how it turned out. I decided recently to try again. I have sanded it down to bare wood and now I could use some assistance on the best way to refinish it.

I don’t know what kind of wood the stock is made of, but its very light in color and in weight. Birch maybe?

Since I don’t have any experience refinishing, I’d like make the process as idiot proof as possible. :gar-Bi I would prefer the finished product to be fairly dark since that it how it was originally.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Canuck]

No experience with gun stocks, Bill,

You may want to try out some of the Transtint dyes, They have a bunch of different colors and you can mix them up in distilled water or alcohol to get the preferred shade/color. Then just apply a top coat of your choice.

Just make sure you test on some scrap first.

Wayne

 

[Tarhead]

Tru-Oil is a time tested gunstock finish. I'm also using it on my Ukes. It's easy to apply, inexpensive and is renewable should there be any scratches later. Use 000 Steel Wool to apply the first few coats to make a slurry grainfill. Lightly buff with the steel wool when dry. I pour ~1/2 teaspoon at a time and use a paper coffee filter with a flat hand to spread it out and burnish it until it starts to grab a little. Keep the workpiece warm (65 or warmer) to allow it to cure. You can get 4-5 coats/day if you apply thin coats. I use our guest bathroom shower as a heated drying area. If it's a nice day, direct sunshine works great to speed up the hardening. When you build up the finish as much as you want, lightly buff with 0000 steel wool and paste wax.

Remember to properly deal with anything that has been used to wipe the Tru-Oil. It can cause spontaneous combustion if you don't.

 

[jhreed]

I have used Tru-oil on several gun stocks. I use my finger to apply it. Very forgiving.
James

 

[bob vaughan]

its very light in color and in weight. Birch maybe?

The majority of gunstocks are made of walnut, thus the various "gunstock" finishes are likely to be formulated to enhance that species of wood. Non-walnut stocks are often dyed to imitate the color of walnut, and that's maybe what you want as an end result.

Making birch (or whatever) look like walnut isn't going to happen. The best that can be hoped for is a dye that gives the color of walnut. A dye soaks into the wood pores.

Wiping stains sold at the consumer goods stores aren't going to work well. At best, you'll get a blotchy result. If there's rubbing involved in the final transparent finish coats, there's a high risk that the stain will be abraded away leaving light colored details on outside corners and the like.

Consider simply putting a clear finish on the wood as is. Maybe get fancy and put a contrasting forend cap of walnut.

My own forays into stock finishing years ago put a non walnut stock in front of me. The results were pretty bad. Considering the skill level I'd have to have to uniformly color a light wood to look like walnut then finish it correctly, I'd look for a walnut replacement stock if such is available.

 

[ACobra289]

Thanks for the help. I was curious if there were different shades of Tru-Oil, but it doesn't look like that is the case. I guess I'll look into some sort of dye or stain. I definitely want to go darker than the natural color of the wood.

Thanks again.