HomeSmith Trainwreck: Door Stop

[Shotguncoach]

Here we are 12 hours after the 2nd application of Danish Oil. Tonight I'll give them a very light sand with an extra-fine abrasive pad and oil them again....then it's rinse-and-repeat for the rest of the week.

I'll spend the time in between mumbling to myself about whether the final finish should be Renaissance wax or wipe-on poly.

 

[2152hq]

On the use of steam to raise dents in the wood...
Take a small piece of cloth or even a cotton ball and load it up with warm water.
Place that on the wood surface right on top of the offending dent. Let it sit for a few hours.
The water will soak into the wood and soften the fibers.

Then go ahead and do the same steam raising method you did as before.
The wood will generally respond much better being pre-soaked. The steam will be generated deep down in the wood and much more of the wood will be raised up.

A soldering iron/gun does a much better job IMO than an laundry iron.
I've even used heavier pieces of brass or steel heated in a torch flame when more area needs to be covered than the small soldering iron can handle.
Old (sometimes those cheap, soft, useless new mfg) screwdrivers come in handy for this with their big wide flat blade.
Give the shank a slight bend for a better handling tool for this purpose.
Soldering irons heat to 400 to 500F. So you get super heated steam.
Keep the cloth very wet as it'll dry out quickly and you can't hurt the wood surface with any water you'll be using. It'll dry..
Better than leaving a char mark on the surface.

Repairs to small edge breaks on wood can be done in several ways.
The use of expoxy as you've done is one way. Then coloring it when done to match the stained/finished wood is usually needed to hide the mismatched patch. Same with the old glue and sawdust method.

They are slow as the glue/epoxy has to set or dry before continuing. Not that it's a big deal.

Many times I fill these small imperfections with a dot of SuperGlue and cover that glue with a sprinkle of Bi-Carb of Soda.
The combination makes the glue set up immediately into
a hard, opaque (sp?) white colored suger looking blob that stays right there.
You can immediaetly file it, sand it, ,,in checkering diamond repairs you can checker through it.
It's a wood carvers/bird carvers trick. They likely got it from someone else but that's where I picked it up.

Find the new repair a bit lacking in height?,,Just add a bit more SuperGlue and sprinkle on some more BiCarb of Soda on to it.
Immediately it hardens once again and go about shaping it back down.

Now it doesn't take oil stain all that well. It will take alcohol and other 'solvent stains better.

Sometimes I will first glue in small pieces of flakes of wood into those edge damaged area with SuperGlue.
Not really being careful how they are placed or wether they stick up above the edge line or not. They are there to provide some wood grain and natural look to finished patch.
Then right over that mess I do the above SuperG& BiCarbSoda layover . Then file and sand that back down to the final shape.
The small wood flakes and splinters make a decent camo job of the damaged area, give it some real wood base for the stain and finish to cling to and give it a look much different from anything that would scream out like a putty patch.

Then there's always touching up patches with Faux Graining by use of acryilic artists colors and fixing the colors in place with a thin coating of Poly. Then the final finish over that.

Sometimes a combination of methods is used to get the final look.

 

[mikerjf]

Epoxy and sawdust works great, that's how I fill around pearl inlays. Matching sawdust can be generated off the inside of the grips.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

"Alternate title: HomeSmith plays with his wood."
You would have gotten a lot more looks if you had used the alternate title. Just sayin'

 

[Shotguncoach]

It took 6 coats (24 hour dry time in between) to get these poor things to stop just slurping up the oil. They're 24 hours into a 72 hour dry time.
I'll get some final pictures up on Sunday.

 

[Llance]

When I refinish a stock, I start with a mix of 75% turpentine and 25% Linseed oil. 5 thin coats. That is followed by a mix of 50% turpentine and 50% Linseed oil. 5 thin coats. Back to the mix, only this time it's 75% Linseed oil and 25% turpentine. Yup, 5 thin coats. Lastly, there is no mix, just 5 thin coats of Linseed oil. Oooh, don't forget to rub it down between each coat with old soft rags.
Stay out of SWMBO's linens or face a fate worse than death. (Do not ask how I know this)
Drying time between each coat of finish depends on the percentage of turpentine. For the last 5 thin coats I plan for 4 days between each coat. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes not. Regardless, do not rush the project or you are going to have to start all over at the 50% point. Again, please do not ask how I know this.

 

[Shotguncoach]

Here they are after 6 coats of Danish Oil, a light pass on the buffer, and 2 coats of hand rubbed Renaissance Wax. The bubble-gum turquoise epoxy filled the losses but looks like....bubble-gum epoxy. I won't be using that method again. Next time I'll try some copper powder and the cyano-whatsit super glue stuff.

They look much better than they did when I started and I learned quite a bit. Next time will be a set of smooth walnut Herrett stocks that don't have any losses or dents and just need the finish brought back.

 

[K Harris]

You might try Fiebing's Leather Dye on the bubble-gum epoxy. A few coats with buffing in between should do the trick. There are many colors available, so matching shouldn't be a problem.

 

[offrdmania]

Whenever I fill dents and dings with epoxy, I have an old beat-up stock that I use as a donor and sand off wood filings, letting then drop into the epoxy before mixing in the hardener. This will help color match the epoxy to the wood.

 

[Pig Hunter]

Mohawk make an epoxy stick that is colored. You knead a small piece and shape into the hole. Use a color lighter than the final color as it will take stain and blend better. Any of the Tite=bond series of wood glue will make an almost invisible glue line if clamped properly. Surgical tubing or the various colors of bands you get at physical therapy make excellent clamping devices for odd shapes. scraps and chunks of wood will accumulate from projects. save them all as color variations and grain patterns can be matched. 220 sandpaper and donor wood over a piece of paper will yield plenty of dust to blend with whatever glue you use. Super glue is great stuff but is not shock resistant. it can pop apart sometimes you don't want it to. On large dents being raised if you take a sewing needle ( sorry may require a trip into the dark realm) and put small holes between the grain fibers it will help "fluff" the dent up . If you do checkering on larger pieces you will go off line if you don't hold the cutter perpendicular to the surface of the piece and move the work under the cutter. Also a cross light from the side will cast a shadow making it easier to see the straight lines. That's all I have off the top of my head. Just like your scrappers, make cutting tools as sharp as you can. Good luck and have fun.

 

[ezb57]

You are doing great work, and it reminds me of the kind of things I do almost eerily.
But, am I correct that no chemical agent was used for stripping the old finish?
I have some diamond period grips that acetone hasn't cleaned very well, especially in the checking. I am wondering about lacquer thinner. Have you tried it?

 

[chief38]

I just recently repaired a pair of Target K Frame grips. They were actually in pristine condition except for the chip one of my friends managed to impart on them when he dropped one of the two pieces. Of course it chipped right on the edge. I took a piece of wood which closely matched in color, sanded it for a few minutes to get some saw dust off of it and mixed it with Titebond glue. I made the texture of the mix a bit dryer than normal so I could form it and so it would not run. I put a blob on, let it dry overnight and sanded it down carefully so I did not touch any undamaged parts. After color matching the repaired section I let it dry again for a few days and then used a few layers of finish to go over the repair. Pretty much undetectable to anyone who is not privy.

 

[BC38]

The sawdust & wood glue or sawdust & epoxy is a great way to make matching wood filler. You can get enough sawdust just sanding the smooth areas to do the job when you have tiny chips like those to fill.

Just another thought: why not sand about 1/16" off the bottom of the grips with a horizontal mounted belt sander? The stocks would be a tiny bit shorter, but not enough to be noticeable, and the chipped edges would be eliminated.

 

[Protocall_Design]

You could also radius the bottom corners like the rounded magna grips.

 

[Shotguncoach]

You are doing great work, and it reminds me of the kind of things I do almost eerily.
But, am I correct that no chemical agent was used for stripping the old finish?
I have some diamond period grips that acetone hasn't cleaned very well, especially in the checking. I am wondering about lacquer thinner. Have you tried it?

Yes, you are correct - the finish removal was completely done with the metal scrapers, no chemicals were used.

I'm going to have to depend on others to answer the question about lacquer thinner. You're looking at the sum total of my experience.

 

[BC38]

Yes, you are correct - the finish removal was completely done with the metal scrapers, no chemicals were used.

I'm going to have to depend on others to answer the question about lacquer thinner. You're looking at the sum total of my experience.

To strip the original finish, I like to soak the stocks in a tightly closed glass jar (like a pickle jar) filled with acetone for a couple of days.
Pull them out and scrub with a stiff toothbrush. If any finish remains, soak 'em a couple of days & hit them with the brush again.
I've never had to soak & scrub a set more than twice.

 

[2152hq]

Laquer Thinner works well for stripping finishes. I use it more than Acetone.
It will evaporate from the wood just like Acetone does when the wood is pulled out of it. It takes maybe 5 min for it to completely disappear from the wood visualy.
I usually let the wood hang for several hrs before doing anything with it.

Stripping old finish by scraping it off is very efficient. You need nothing more than a sharp knife with a blade about 5 or 6" long.
Long even strokes and the most important thing is not to dent the wood eveythime you set the blade down to take a new cut.
Nice and easy and the finshes come of cleanly as well as any wood you want to take off in very fine curls. This to elliminate marks, scars, etc.

I still finish up by sanding, but I like it much more than using a stripper for removing old finish on rifle and shotgun stock.
It only takes about 30 to 45min to do a stock this way and no mess.

If te stock is a mess with deep down soaked in oil,,then I go right to the oil-removal process which during the first step using the LThinner will remove any of the old finish anyway.
But in these cases, it's the deep down that is the problem and must be removed.

Here's a pre-war Savage Mod Target I redid and upgraded some.
It had a nice piece of wood hiding under all that old finish.

I stripped the stock by scraping with the knife in the pic. I use it for all such work.

 

[ezb57]

How long does lacquer thinner need to work? Soak it for days, hours, minutes?

 

[2152hq]

Just to remove finish, usually over night. Sometimes less.

If there's oil in the wood I leve it in longer till th LT takess on a dark muddy look. Then dump it.
The finish is gone at that point and so is some of the easy to remove oil.
Then I start going after the down deep oil with whiting powder.
That can take quite a while to complete depending on the piece of wood.
Many weeks is not un-usual for some of the resoration stuff i've gotten in to.
But thats a whole different thing from just removing a finish on a good solid piece of wood.

 

[ezb57]

Just to remove finish, usually over night. Sometimes less.

If there's oil in the wood I leve it in longer till th LT takess on a dark muddy look. Then dump it.
The finish is gone at that point and so is some of the easy to remove oil.
Then I start going after the down deep oil with whiting powder.
That can take quite a while to complete depending on the piece of wood.
Many weeks is not un-usual for some of the resoration stuff i've gotten in to.
But thats a whole different thing from just removing a finish on a good solid piece of wood.

Thanks so much. I got impatient and put a pair in overnight. Not a lot happened in the first 2-3 hours, brushing occasionally. By the morning the LT was darker but each diamond still has finish on most facets. I've been chasing the checking and that has removed a lot but spots remain. Im not sure how anyone ever gets it all out.