Post by: Rob on March 17, 2010, 09:01:42 AM
I am selling a muzzle loader for a buddy of mine (it was listed for a while in the classifieds and will be back soon).
The stock was a classic dark stain and if you looked closly you could see there was wood grain, but it did not pop. I am looking for some practice before building a kit gun, and asked my buddy if I could take a whack at re-doing his stock since he was selling it anyway. He told me to go for it.
I removed all the old stain and finish with sandpaper, and then re-sanded it down starting with 180 grit and moving down to 240, 320, 400 and then finishing off with crocus cloth (that stuff is amazing!) I whiskered between sandings on the finer grits.
I put on coats of minwax stain until it would not take anymore. I think it was about 4 coats. I then tried to bypass the spar varnish and went directly to boiled linseed oil, but after 3-4 coats of oil, the stain started to rub off and I was not pleased with the way it looked.
I did another round of sanding with 400 grit and crocus cloth and re-stained with 3 or so more coats of stain.
I then put on 4 coats of spar varnish, rubbing it down with fine steel wool between coats.
I finished it off with 4 coats of linseed oil.
The nipple was missing and there was some pitting in that area as well, so I polished it and removed a bit of the bluing and touched it up with some fresh bluing.
All in all I am happy. Learned some stuff and the rifle looks better than when I started.
First set of photos are the “before” shots. The second set is the “after”.
Post by: Rob on March 17, 2010, 09:02:51 AM
Post by: rasbo on March 17, 2010, 09:10:24 AM
Post by: Rob on March 17, 2010, 09:15:52 AM
I spend about an hour a night on and can have one done in about a week and a half.
I'm a firearm romantic and love wood stocks with character. I have a hard time getting into the synthetic stocks (although I have a couple).
I'll look into that other oil.
Post by: JackOfAllTrades on March 17, 2010, 09:34:39 AM
-Steve