refinishing wood stock

Velzey · Jun 5, 2016

@Tillikum The Garand pic you posted, did you actually use XIII ? Or did Brownell's make a XIII and now they stopped carrying it...I only see VIII on their website now.
It looks great!

Tillikum · Jun 6, 2016

You did a wonderful job. The stock is beautiful! Wonderful grain in the wood, too. Congratulations, she's worth bragging about.

Tillikum · Jun 6, 2016

Velzey said:
@Tillikum The Garand pic you posted, did you actually use XIII ? Or did Brownell's make a XIII and now they stopped carrying it...I only see VIII on their website now.
It looks great!

Yes, although it used to be listed under another name. I haven't bought any more for several years, but I quoted the into on the last bottle that I purchased. A friend and I experimented with blending oil stains for a couple of years but never got quite the same color. VIII just always comes out the right shade. Although, that said, I have seen a lot of original Springfield and Garand stocks with color variations. The government used to blend stain and linseed oil together, warm the oil and just dump stocks into a tank.

MountainBear · Jun 6, 2016

The Krag on the right in the photo was 6 coats of true oil, mud rubbed with 400 and 600 grit for the first few coats, then hit with scotchbrite for a few coats, and finally 0000 steel wool for a few coats. Then a final polish with Brownells triple F polish.
The swede next to it came to me with so much alkanet root and varnish on it that I swear someone dipped it in a wine barrel and then bar top spar varnished it. Looked plastic. Several hours of scraping, some chemical stripping (generally not something i like to do), and 13 coats of Velvet Oil. Again, mud run with 400 then 600 grit to fill the grain, then 0000 steel wool and papertowel rubdowns between coats. This is still my favorite product, but it really needs at least 12 hours between coats and I've seen it need 36 hours over here in the valley.
The Springfield to the left of that also used Velvet Oil, with the same process as above, but I cannot recall how many coats. It's pretty subjective. Go until it looks like how you want it.

Velvet Oil is the product I have the most experience with. It was the product I was taught with. It is pretty forgiving if you give it proper drying time. It also builds up slower but more consistently than truoil, so you can really fine tune the sheen you want. If you don't properly seal the can after use it goes bad quickly and has to be ordered straight from the maker and isn't cheap (especially with shipping).
I don't mind truoil occasionally, as it dries fast and builds up fast. Good for rush jobs. It also patches well if a repair needs to be made. It can also look like chewed up dog crap if done incorrectly.

Polishing the stocks after the finish can also help. I like the triple F compound from Brownells, but I've seen folks use birchwood Casey wax and Johnson paste wax with good results.

This guy makes sexy rifles, and has been nice enough to share his finishing technique on his website, so I finally broke down and bought the product and will give it a go. Need some alkanet root still. The Dalys products are expensive as hell, we'll see if it's worth it.

Stock Finishing (http://www.customgunandrifle.com/gunsmithing-tips/stock-finishing)

Linseed Oil/Alkenet Root Application (http://www.customgunandrifle.com/gunsmithing-tips/linseed-oil-alkenet-root-application)

When I get a rifle done with this process in a few months, I'll likely post it.