MAG-NUM
Member
I purchased the almost new looking model 29-2 recently and after a thorough cleaning and application of Renaissance wax I noticed a strange looking blush or hazing on certain areas of the stocks that was not there before waxing. I posted pictures of this on the forum as I had never seen this before and wasn't happy at all about it. I received several replies and a lot of you suggested sending the stocks to Mike Kieffer or VM for refinishing. Now I am sure he does good work from the feedback he has received and I am not trying to steal his thunder in any way, but I am a do-it-yourself kinda guy and decided to not only refinish my stocks but thought this would be a good opportunity to contribute something of value to the members of this great forum who may like to try doing this also.
So, this will be a little step by step tutorial with photos of how I accomplished the refinishing. Now for the disclaimer....In no way will I guarantee that your results will be identical to mine, as a matter of fact, they may even be better.
Here is a shot of the materials I used for this project minus the wood filler...oops.
I read almost all of the posts covering types of top coats to use and it seemed like the majority of you felt that Birchwood Casey TRU-OIL was the best product for this job. Now I most likely would have used Mohawk brand toning lacquers and topcoat as that is what I have used on other wood projects but several of you felt that Lacquer would not hold up well and I really don't care for Polyurethane but I wanted a gloss similar to the factory finish on the 60's - 70's guns. I thought of using Formbys Tung oil but never having used this before, I was not comfortable experimenting on my vintage stocks and wasn't sure of the stripability if it didn't come out right. So, off to the local gun shop to buy a small bottle of Tru-Oil. As luck would have it, they were out of everything but one big can of spray Tru-Oil so I bought that.
It was around $9.00.
To begin the project, I knew from the posts that I would have to strip the original finish from the stocks with Acetone. I happened to have a can on the shelf in the garage and found an old baking pan to soak them in. After about 10 minutes, I started scrubbing the stocks with a fairly stiff tooth brush and the old varnish began to just dissolve and wash away. Now I see what you mean about "the rest is just gravy" as that is exactly what the varnish soaked Acetone looked like in the pan.
After about 10 to 15 minutes of scrubbing all of the varnish was gone and I removed the stocks and blew them dry with my small compressor. You really don't need a compressor as the Acetone dries almost instantly on its own. I then washed them down with Denatured Alcohol for the last good cleaning and allowed them to dry completely.
Now, at this point many of you stated that you may elect to "chase" the checkering with a tool to deepen any unevenness or flat spots. (There were some flat spots in the checkering straight from the factory.)That is a good idea and if I had a checkering tool, I would have done that but, I wanted to move on.
Using 320 grade sandpaper, I very lightly sanded only the smooth wood portion of the grips with the grain only. DO NOT sand across or against the grain. This is basic woodworking 101.
While inspecting the stocks I found two faults that I wanted to correct. One was the grips were slightly mismatched in the front near the top where your middle finger wraps around. The right hand panel stuck out proud of or beyond the left hand panel by a good 1/32" to a 1/16" just in the curved area. This was corrected by wrapping some sandpaper around my finger and working it down until they were even and then blending in the area. That came out fine and now they are exactly flush along the leading edges.
The next fault that became very obvious after washing was a crack heading north and south from the logo medallion on the left hand panel. The crack was not all the way through the wood and it appeared to end just a quarter inch each way. Almost like when they pushed the logo in it was a little tight and after almost 40 years, I would say it has done what it was going to do. I did not want to try to force glue into the crack as I was sure you would be able to see it after finishing so I used some Elmers Pro Bond wood filler in Walnut color that I have used before with excellent results. I used a small screwdriver to force the putty into the crack, avoiding spreading it around too much. This was left to dry over night and sanded smooth the next day with the 320 grit being careful to avoid the medallions. Now the crack is almost unnoticeable.
After a final sanding and close inspection I felt I was ready to mask off the checkering and medallions in preparation for the first application of finish. For this I used regular blue painters masking tape and an X-Acto knife with a fresh blade. Pressing the tape down firmly on the medallions and kind of burnishing it into the design with my fingernail allowed me to see the outside diameter and then carefully cut around it with the knife using only enough pressure to go through the tape.
The same was done with the checkered areas and I used the outer edges of the routed groove as my trimming guide.
At this time I was now ready to begin the first coat of finish. I laid the stocks on a piece of 1/4" thick wood I had to keep them off the surface of the newspaper so they would not become bonded to the paper with the Tru-Oil. I shook the can well and sprayed some test sprays on a piece of scrap wood and to my horror
the spray came out not in the fine mist that I had expected but big wet drops that trickled down my fingers or splashed all over the paper. 
The nozzle looked brand new and there was plenty of pressure but something was definitely wrong. Because I use spray cans quite a bit, I have a habit of saving the old nozzles after cleaning them out with lacquer thinner. I picked one and pressed it into the can and gave it a try. It worked just fine and the spray came out like it should, a nice fine mist.
Ok, so I apply the first light coat and it pretty much soaked right into the wood.
I let that dry for about 10 minutes and gave them another light coat. Good so far. After about two hours, I applied another coat and noticed that it just sort of laid on the surface and was pooling very lightly so I did what many of you suggested and holding the grip between my fingers on the blue tape and the back, used the index finger of my right hand to smooth the Tru-Oil and rub it into the surface going against the grain and then with the grain. This worked very well and produced a nice even coat. You have to work rather quickly as the Tru-Oil starts to set up in a matter of minutes. I let that dry two hours and did the same thing one more time and let them dry for about 24 hours.
For those keeping count that's four coats at this point. I wanted a nice glossy finish but didn't want that "dipped in honey" look that is not appealing so I am going to say that 4 coats are enough at this point.
After the 24 hour drying period it was time to sand the finish and I decided to go with 800 grit wet or dry automotive type sandpaper. I don't like using steel wool (0000) between coats as it has a tendency to just smooth over the high spots instead of knocking them down. I left the blue tape on the checkering and the medallions while I was sanding to avoid any damage to those areas. As you begin to sand there will be places where the finish is not totally dry under the top and you may start to see little balls of dust rolling up under the sandpaper. Just wipe them off with a clean rag and shake off your sandpaper and keep going. If your piece of paper starts to get clogged, switch out to a new piece. A word of caution is in order here: you want to avoid sanding through the clear coats if at all possible. Just use a light touch and smooth down the finish a little. The photos show how my stocks looked after sanding.
When I was satisfied with the sanding, I removed the blue tape from the checkered areas and wiped the grips clean with a TACK rag which is a type of cheese cloth that is sticky and lifts any dust left on the wood surface prior to painting. I applied the first coat of Tru-Oil lightly over everything and allowed that to dry for about two hours. Then, deciding that enough was enough, I applied the last coat and used a small flat artists brush to smooth out the finish by just lightly dragging over the wet spray going in the direction of the grain. If you don't have one of these brushes, you could also use your fingertip. This type of finish, because of the fact that it dries slowly, will level itself out nicely as it dries. After about two hours, I removed the blue tape from the logo medallions.
So, that is it for now. Right now, they look really glassy smooth with only a hint of grain showing through. This is almost too hard of a gloss finish. I will allow the stocks to dry for about a week before I get into the final process of sanding with 1000 or 2000 grit paper and a final rub down with polishing compound. I will post the finishing technique and photos as soon as possible. To be continued........
Thanks for looking, Bob
So, this will be a little step by step tutorial with photos of how I accomplished the refinishing. Now for the disclaimer....In no way will I guarantee that your results will be identical to mine, as a matter of fact, they may even be better.
Here is a shot of the materials I used for this project minus the wood filler...oops.
I read almost all of the posts covering types of top coats to use and it seemed like the majority of you felt that Birchwood Casey TRU-OIL was the best product for this job. Now I most likely would have used Mohawk brand toning lacquers and topcoat as that is what I have used on other wood projects but several of you felt that Lacquer would not hold up well and I really don't care for Polyurethane but I wanted a gloss similar to the factory finish on the 60's - 70's guns. I thought of using Formbys Tung oil but never having used this before, I was not comfortable experimenting on my vintage stocks and wasn't sure of the stripability if it didn't come out right. So, off to the local gun shop to buy a small bottle of Tru-Oil. As luck would have it, they were out of everything but one big can of spray Tru-Oil so I bought that.
It was around $9.00.To begin the project, I knew from the posts that I would have to strip the original finish from the stocks with Acetone. I happened to have a can on the shelf in the garage and found an old baking pan to soak them in. After about 10 minutes, I started scrubbing the stocks with a fairly stiff tooth brush and the old varnish began to just dissolve and wash away. Now I see what you mean about "the rest is just gravy" as that is exactly what the varnish soaked Acetone looked like in the pan.
After about 10 to 15 minutes of scrubbing all of the varnish was gone and I removed the stocks and blew them dry with my small compressor. You really don't need a compressor as the Acetone dries almost instantly on its own. I then washed them down with Denatured Alcohol for the last good cleaning and allowed them to dry completely.
Now, at this point many of you stated that you may elect to "chase" the checkering with a tool to deepen any unevenness or flat spots. (There were some flat spots in the checkering straight from the factory.)That is a good idea and if I had a checkering tool, I would have done that but, I wanted to move on.
Using 320 grade sandpaper, I very lightly sanded only the smooth wood portion of the grips with the grain only. DO NOT sand across or against the grain. This is basic woodworking 101.
While inspecting the stocks I found two faults that I wanted to correct. One was the grips were slightly mismatched in the front near the top where your middle finger wraps around. The right hand panel stuck out proud of or beyond the left hand panel by a good 1/32" to a 1/16" just in the curved area. This was corrected by wrapping some sandpaper around my finger and working it down until they were even and then blending in the area. That came out fine and now they are exactly flush along the leading edges.
The next fault that became very obvious after washing was a crack heading north and south from the logo medallion on the left hand panel. The crack was not all the way through the wood and it appeared to end just a quarter inch each way. Almost like when they pushed the logo in it was a little tight and after almost 40 years, I would say it has done what it was going to do. I did not want to try to force glue into the crack as I was sure you would be able to see it after finishing so I used some Elmers Pro Bond wood filler in Walnut color that I have used before with excellent results. I used a small screwdriver to force the putty into the crack, avoiding spreading it around too much. This was left to dry over night and sanded smooth the next day with the 320 grit being careful to avoid the medallions. Now the crack is almost unnoticeable.
After a final sanding and close inspection I felt I was ready to mask off the checkering and medallions in preparation for the first application of finish. For this I used regular blue painters masking tape and an X-Acto knife with a fresh blade. Pressing the tape down firmly on the medallions and kind of burnishing it into the design with my fingernail allowed me to see the outside diameter and then carefully cut around it with the knife using only enough pressure to go through the tape.
The same was done with the checkered areas and I used the outer edges of the routed groove as my trimming guide.
At this time I was now ready to begin the first coat of finish. I laid the stocks on a piece of 1/4" thick wood I had to keep them off the surface of the newspaper so they would not become bonded to the paper with the Tru-Oil. I shook the can well and sprayed some test sprays on a piece of scrap wood and to my horror
the spray came out not in the fine mist that I had expected but big wet drops that trickled down my fingers or splashed all over the paper. The nozzle looked brand new and there was plenty of pressure but something was definitely wrong. Because I use spray cans quite a bit, I have a habit of saving the old nozzles after cleaning them out with lacquer thinner. I picked one and pressed it into the can and gave it a try. It worked just fine and the spray came out like it should, a nice fine mist. Ok, so I apply the first light coat and it pretty much soaked right into the wood.
I let that dry for about 10 minutes and gave them another light coat. Good so far. After about two hours, I applied another coat and noticed that it just sort of laid on the surface and was pooling very lightly so I did what many of you suggested and holding the grip between my fingers on the blue tape and the back, used the index finger of my right hand to smooth the Tru-Oil and rub it into the surface going against the grain and then with the grain. This worked very well and produced a nice even coat. You have to work rather quickly as the Tru-Oil starts to set up in a matter of minutes. I let that dry two hours and did the same thing one more time and let them dry for about 24 hours.
For those keeping count that's four coats at this point. I wanted a nice glossy finish but didn't want that "dipped in honey" look that is not appealing so I am going to say that 4 coats are enough at this point.
After the 24 hour drying period it was time to sand the finish and I decided to go with 800 grit wet or dry automotive type sandpaper. I don't like using steel wool (0000) between coats as it has a tendency to just smooth over the high spots instead of knocking them down. I left the blue tape on the checkering and the medallions while I was sanding to avoid any damage to those areas. As you begin to sand there will be places where the finish is not totally dry under the top and you may start to see little balls of dust rolling up under the sandpaper. Just wipe them off with a clean rag and shake off your sandpaper and keep going. If your piece of paper starts to get clogged, switch out to a new piece. A word of caution is in order here: you want to avoid sanding through the clear coats if at all possible. Just use a light touch and smooth down the finish a little. The photos show how my stocks looked after sanding.
When I was satisfied with the sanding, I removed the blue tape from the checkered areas and wiped the grips clean with a TACK rag which is a type of cheese cloth that is sticky and lifts any dust left on the wood surface prior to painting. I applied the first coat of Tru-Oil lightly over everything and allowed that to dry for about two hours. Then, deciding that enough was enough, I applied the last coat and used a small flat artists brush to smooth out the finish by just lightly dragging over the wet spray going in the direction of the grain. If you don't have one of these brushes, you could also use your fingertip. This type of finish, because of the fact that it dries slowly, will level itself out nicely as it dries. After about two hours, I removed the blue tape from the logo medallions.
So, that is it for now. Right now, they look really glassy smooth with only a hint of grain showing through. This is almost too hard of a gloss finish. I will allow the stocks to dry for about a week before I get into the final process of sanding with 1000 or 2000 grit paper and a final rub down with polishing compound. I will post the finishing technique and photos as soon as possible. To be continued........
Thanks for looking, Bob
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