Need some finishing guidance on a gun stock

[doobes]

All,

I've got a Stevens Savage model 311 shotgun that I've have for about 30 years that needed a new firing hammer.  In the course of the discovery, I noticed the stock was split at the receiver.  Actually, I noticed today it's split on both side of the receiver.  Need to glue the second split.

Anyway, I decided to strip off all the sprayed on finish so I could refinish the stock.  I've got some Tru-Oil that I was going to apply to the bare wood without a colorant (stain) for a natural finish.  Unfortunately, the bare wood of the stock is decidedly different colors and a bit splotchy to boot.

I wiped it down with some mineral spirits to get a feel for the finished look and I'm not overly excited:

   

   

My "typical" bare wood treatment is a Minwax stain covered by a satin or semi-gloss poly. I'm not thinking that this would result in a nice rich even finish on this stock.

Would someone please provide some suggestions on moving forward with this?

thanks

[doobes]

Help!

[SteveS]

Help!

I refinished a dymondwood stock for a buddy with Enduro high performance waterbourne poly. I had to sand down the cheek pad and needed to match the look of the existing finish and it worked quite well. I brushed on the finish then allowed it to dry before applying additional coats then buffing to match the sheen. He said it looked like it came from the factory that way.

[RKMBrown©]

[fredhargis]

I think one problem is that the stock isn't walnut or an exotic wood. Tru Oil is just linseed oil, and does very nice on those woods. It is polymerized to make it cure a little faster, but it's still just linseed oil. Putting that over a stain isn't something I would do (just me). I'm not sure I have any suggestions since it seems you want some color of some sort. I think you're stuck with limited options: use a stain and then some kind of clear coat (what about a wiping varnish?) or stay with the Tru Oil and get the appearance you have. I suppose you could use a tinted finish of some kind, but that's not something I do a lot and have no idea what the steps would be.

[RKMBrown©]

The Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil Stock Finish Kit includes a walnut stain that can be used to get the wood to the desired color before applying the tru-oil.

[doobes]

Thanks all.

Appreciate the feedback.

[MKepke]

Thanks all.

Appreciate the feedback.

To control splotching, use a gel stain..topcoat with whatever you like. For a practical finish, I like spray-on poly.

For my Garand, I used Rite-Aid fabric dyes dissolved in alcohol (to give it the red color common in original Garand-stocks) then topcoated with tung oil with a bit of spar-varnish added as I wanted some improved water resistance.

-Mark

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

Gunstock or not, it’s birch. If it were mine I’d sand to 320 to close the pores. I’d then use Charles Neil’s wood conditioner or a spit coat of seal coat. I’d then spray coat of Transtint dye in a 50/50 denatured alcohol and lacquer thinner solution. I’d then seal with seal coat or move to a vinyl sealer and pre-cat lacquer. Another option is to sand to a high grit and then go straight to spraying analine dye. Follow with a sealer then top coats.