Wooden gun stocks get scratched. That's the nature of our sport; when you take a gun into the field, things happen to it.
Most scrapes and dents, as well as marred finish, can be repaired in a wood shop. It's a task which requires care and patience, but if you're careful you usually can do it yourself.
Robin Sharpless, vice president of sales and marketing for H&R 1871, Inc., says the first step in refinishing a stock is to remove all metal, rubber, and plastic parts from it. The chemicals you'll be working with can cause a great deal of damage to them.
He says factory stocks come with a variety of finishes, from linear polyurethane to hand-rubbed oil finishes; the chemical stripper you need depends on the type of finish. If you know, or can find out from the manufacturer, you can purchase the specific stripper you need at a paint store. If you don't, it's a matter of testing different kinds of strippers until you find the right one. Test them on a finished area inside the stock to see which one removes what's there.
One thing you must be very, very careful of: don't get any stripper on any kind of bedding in the stock.
"In most cases, bedding material is nothing more than fiberglass," Sharpless says. "Some strippers can eat bedding material out of a stock. Mask those areas inside the stock so nothing can get in there--masking tape is a wonderful thing."
Typically, he says, you'll be working with a finish over a stain. Once you get the finish off, you may want to remove the stain as well. This usually involves a wood bleaching agent (not laundry bleach), also available from a paint store.
During this entire process, you must be very careful not to damage any checkering or other detail work on the stock.
"One person I know was fairly successful at using a chemical stripper and a soft bronze brush," Sharpless says. "He would put the stripper on and it would raise the finish. Then he would brush with the direction of the checkering, along the lines." This sweeps the material out of the checkering without doing too much damage to it.
Sharpless says Brownell's makes an outlining tool you can use to touch up the checkering if you do damage it.
"Use an outlining tool instead of a checkering tool," he says. "The outlining tool isn't made for deep cutting, it's made for cleanup work. You can go back and re-point the checkering with it."
Once you have everything off, make any repairs. For any cracks, there's always wood filler. For dents and scratches, take a hint from experienced cabinetmakers: use an iron and a moist cloth to raise the grain of damaged spots. Set a plain household iron on a low setting. When it's hot, place a damp cloth over the dent and gently touch the tip of the iron to the spot. The heat causes the wood fibers to absorb moisture and swell, filling the damaged area. You may have to do this several times if it's a deep scratch or depression, but in most cases it will work.
Once you've completed any repairs, it's time for sandpaper. Sharpless recommends using only fine grit sandpaper during all phases of refinishing.
"Even if you have some badly raised grain, the coarsest sandpaper you may be using is 320 grit," he says. "Remember, the smoother the wood is, the glassier the finish is going to be. Take the final little scratches out with bronze wool."
Why bronze wool instead of steel? Remember where a gun is going to be: outside. No matter how careful you are, you're going to leave a few little fragments of metal on the stock. Steel wool will rust; bronze wool won't.
Now it's time for finishing. You may or may not choose to apply a stain to the stock; that's a personal taste issue. But plan ahead; you must match the filler you use for repairs as closely to the stain as possible because the filler won't take stain the way the wood does.
Some of the wood finishes routinely used on cabinets and fine woodwork are not appropriate for use on gun stocks, Sharpless says; other finishes are formulated specifically for the kinds of conditions guns must stand up to. Despite their high quality, for example, oil finishes allow wood to absorb water; if you expose your gun to the vagaries of weather, you probably don't want to use an oil finish.
For the practical hunter, Sharpless says, a good quality spray-on polyurethane is probably the best choice. He recommends a semi-gloss or a matte surface, to reduce reflectivity in the field.
In a well-ventilated area, hang the stock from a coat hanger so you can get all the way around it. Don't try to apply the finish in just a few coats; put it on with many light coats instead. Between coats, use bronze wool to buff any rough spots and create a good adhesion surface for following coats. Spray the inside as well as the outside, to seal the wood and prevent it from picking up moisture.
Sharpless recommends against using a typical brush-on polyurethane.
"The average person probably can't do a good job on the variety of contours and radii they're dealing with," he says. "You're going to get into all kinds of spots where the brush is going to drop a lot of material, and you'll have to try to brush that out. You'll wind up doing a lot more bronze wooling, and maybe even going back to sandpaper."
Once you have the stock done and the gun reassembled, run a dollar bill under the barrel to be certain it's still free-floating and not touching anywhere. If it does touch, use a section of dowel wrapped with sandpaper to smooth down the high spots. Spot-apply finish anywhere you sand, to be certain the barrel channel remains sealed.
One thing is clear from all this: if you don't have a lot of patience, don't start on this job. It can be time-intensive labor which tests the persistence of even the most dedicated woodworker. But with the right combination of care, patience, and determination, it can make even a beat-up working gun look brand new.
Sources Of Refinishing Products For Guns
Refinishing kits:
Birchwood Casey
7900 Fuller Road
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
612-937-7933; 612-937-7979 FAX
Checkering and outlining tools:
Brownell's, Inc.
200 South Front Street
Montezuma, IA 50171
515-623-5401; 515-623-3896 FAX
Copyright (c) 1997 Carolee Boyles-Sprenkel. All rights reserved.
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