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Post by dogteam on Sept 12, 2014 22:21:30 GMT -5
Anyone have experience refinishing the stocks on the later field grade guns? The poop brown sprayed on finish annoys me, but I'm unsure that a redo would be worth the effort. I'm guessing the wood is cherry? Close grained and not highly figured, I'm concerned the outcome would be disappointing. I have no experience refinishing a gunstock.
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Post by cw on Sept 13, 2014 16:59:01 GMT -5
I have done a few in past years... Last ones I did where a couple family cherished Sheridan Air rifles.. I did a quick job on my 24V when I added a rifle pad on a couple 24's last fall. CW
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Post by dogteam on Sept 14, 2014 0:53:49 GMT -5
Nice work for sure, cw! But you had wood with depth and character to start with...I guess I'm questioning whether the material that I have to work with is worth the effort, as much as I'm questioning my ability. Am I trying to make a silk purse out of a sows' ear? There are 24s out there with nice wood, I've seen them, but I don't think this is one of them. And expert can make cherry glow...but maybe I should be content with the "truck gun" roots of my Savage. Dt
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Post by cw on Sept 14, 2014 15:54:59 GMT -5
Nice work for sure, cw! But you had wood with depth and character to start with...I guess I'm questioning whether the material that I have to work with is worth the effort, as much as I'm questioning my ability. Am I trying to make a silk purse out of a sows' ear? There are 24s out there with nice wood, I've seen them, but I don't think this is one of them. And expert can make cherry glow...but maybe I should be content with the "truck gun" roots of my Savage. Dt DT, That "depth" comes form what YOU do as the refinisher! ALL wood has beauty. Figure, well that's another story. But if you look at the Sheridan pic I posted there is little figure. Those suttle highlights in the Savage stock where INVISABLE until I refinished.
PREP and careful applied multiple coats give you the depth. Sanding and sanding and whiskering and more whiskering and carding all remove wood down to a extremely small particle. Then multiple coats fill in the remaining "pores" resulting in a glass smooth finish. AFTER you can go mat or satin or all out gloss at your discression.
CW
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Post by captcapsize on Sept 14, 2014 19:03:14 GMT -5
The blond one had a sand blasted look when I got it. Some sanding and polyurethane brought out the beauty of the cheap maple stock. The darker one has not been worked on yet but it shows potential. You won't know what you have if you don't give it a try.
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Post by dogteam on Sept 15, 2014 0:45:35 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Guess I'll have to give it a try! Cw...what is "whiskering"?
Dt
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Post by cw on Sept 15, 2014 18:55:07 GMT -5
There are steps. Start with as fine a grit paper as needed to do the job. Then sand with higher grit and higher grit until you get to about 4-600. Then start whipping the stock with a DAMP cloth and after dry sand again with the fine paper. Repeat instill there is no whiskers when the wood is dry. Then start with steel wool and about 0 or 00 grade finishing with 000 and wetting in-between. This wetting is whiskering. It raises the grain so you can sand it off. When this is done, you will be ready for your first coats of stain IF your using any and then finish. CW
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Post by cas on Sept 17, 2014 21:52:28 GMT -5
The problem is a lot of the 80's era guns are near snow white under that spray on "stain".
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Post by vancmike on Sept 26, 2014 18:18:55 GMT -5
I've done a few of those "snow white" stocks. Alas, I've since sold them, so I don't have photos.
Minwax (brand) stains are your best friends on that white, bland wood. Their red oak stain, when mixed with a little black walnut ends up looking like the old pre-'64 Winchester red finish. Minwax has a gunstock shade that looks like walnut on many woods...again, you can darken it with black walnut if you want to.
Their Provincial shade is lighter, and looks pretty good on a set of Smith & Wesson revolver grips that I'm now re-shaping.
My biggest challenge was a Marlin guide gun. I've never liked the Marlin color, so I decided to darken it. When I applied the paint/varnish remover, I discovered, to my dismay, that the stock wasn't stained at all: rather, it was covered in kind of a wood-toned paint that obscured some kind of mystery wood that was half-dark on the top, and almost white on the bottom. And the forearm appeared to be, if not of the same species, at best from a different tree in the forest. Very clever of Marlin....this way, they didn't have to worry about matching woods. Grinding, then sanding out the factory "checkering" (which is obviously stamped), made for a slimmer stock without compromising the strength.
So after cleaning and feathering, I judiciously applied Minwax gunstock stain to the portion of the stock that was white wood and gradually matched the two buttstock shades. I applied two different stains to the forearm and over a period of time finally matched it to the buttstock.
Then, the piece d'resistance: I took a feather and some tiny brushes and created dark figure/grain on the stock, so it ended up looking very French walnutty. I'd first seen this technique on doors in a 1920's bungalow; I can't remember the name of said technique, but back in the day, it was cheaper to hire an artist to create fake wood grain on plain doors than it was to make doors and trim out of highly figured wood. That might be true today, come to think about it, but I suspect the technique has become a lost art.
A friend of mine saw the completed guide gun job and made me an offer I couldn't refuse and, alas, I didn't take any photos.
The point is, your Mdl 24 isn't a thing of beauty now. Play around with the stock and see if you can make it purdier! Winter's coming on: you need this project!
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