reconditioning stocks
- Thread starter tedog
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DGNY
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I don't know that thread location, sorry.
But sometimes wood with an underlying oil or varnish finish [not sure if you mean revolver or long gun stocks] can be freshened by wiping with rag just damp, not running, with paint thinner, especially where dirt has accumulated. Then mix a very small quantity, say a teaspoon, of boiled linseed oil with two or three teaspoons of paint thinner in a suitable container.
Apply small amount of the mix to the wood, with palm of your hand, only lightly or with an almost dry soft old toothbrush to any checkering, and rub wood til warm. Let dry/cure in a warm, dry place. More than one application may be helpful. When all done, a coat of Johnson's Paste Wax might help.
By the way, I would not use this on urethaned or shellacked wood.
Regards,
Dyson
But sometimes wood with an underlying oil or varnish finish [not sure if you mean revolver or long gun stocks] can be freshened by wiping with rag just damp, not running, with paint thinner, especially where dirt has accumulated. Then mix a very small quantity, say a teaspoon, of boiled linseed oil with two or three teaspoons of paint thinner in a suitable container.
Apply small amount of the mix to the wood, with palm of your hand, only lightly or with an almost dry soft old toothbrush to any checkering, and rub wood til warm. Let dry/cure in a warm, dry place. More than one application may be helpful. When all done, a coat of Johnson's Paste Wax might help.
By the way, I would not use this on urethaned or shellacked wood.
Regards,
Dyson
rburg
Absent Comrade
We've been having threads on the subject for the last 10 years or so. People also have different standards of workmanship which they'll accept as good. Others not so good.
First, anyone who uses urethane on a set of fine grips should be taken out behind the barn and shot. Simple.
How you want to recondition or rework your grips is basically dependent on your level of workmanship.
My feeling is the best approach will be determined by the amount of damage or wear the wood has going in. Some people want to rework grips that are nearly perfect. Other folks won't touch them until they're nearly worthless. How good you are at wood working will play a big role here. Also how much money you want to invest in tools or tooling.
You can always farm the job out to Keith Brown and be assured of a very good job. Maybe not cheap, but probably as well done as you could ever do yourself.
You can touch up your grips with one of the oil based products like Tru-oil thinned out as suggested above. Just remember not to glob it on, and if you don't fully strip the old finish, you'll be sealing in some dirt and grime.
A few years ago (OK, maybe 10) we spent a lot of time discussing cleaning the old grips. We explored the use of acetone to soak the old grips, with my preference being to submerge them in a pickle jar full of the stuff. Soaking wood grips in a jar is interesting. Wood floats on water, but sinks in acetone. I've experimented with different times. when I first heard of the method I was both flush with old ratty grips, and had time to experiment. So I just put the first set into a pickle jar (small size, wide mouth). Then I set them off to the side and forgot about them. The next day I was upset because I figured I'd ruined them. Nope. The originally nasty old grips were now sitting in "sun tea". An off color liquid containing all the old finish and oil and dirt which had soaked out. Much like you in a bath tub.
But the impressive part of the process was when I fished out the grips, fearing they were "acetone logged", the equivalent of being water logged, no such thing happened. They weren't dry to the touch as they came out, but after spending a few seconds in the sun, they were dry. Just like they would have been before God had applied the original finish, except for the wear and tear of a prior life.
In fact, they look so good you could really just reapply an oil finish and they'd be hard to tell they'd been refinished. Well, except for the dents and such.
We already know a steam iron and a wet cloth will often swell out dents in the wood. But remember it will also infuse the wood with moisture, so you'll need to allow it to dry before finishing.
If you're one of the mega-rich and own a paint spray system, you can apply the stain of your choice (we have different opinions on it, but most folks prefer to mix their own stains using walnut and cherry). Then you can spray or even brush on a very thinned out oil finish. Multiple coats if you want.
If you're even more energetic, browse Brownells and buy yourself a file for cleaning up checkering. Buy a hand file, power tools are cool, but they allow you to do damage more quickly. Files come in the number of lines per inch you want to work on. Which means if you are dealing with 1900 to 1920, you're probably working with around 22 lpi. Then until WWII maybe 20 lpi, and with modern stuff, maybe 16 or 14 even. Get out your handy-dandy scale and measure. Good tools last a long time if not abused.
Remember back at the start of this little novel? I gave you the easy way out. Call Keith Brown. He'll do better work than you, and you'll save the collecting community another set of grips from mindless destruction at your own hands.
First, anyone who uses urethane on a set of fine grips should be taken out behind the barn and shot. Simple.
How you want to recondition or rework your grips is basically dependent on your level of workmanship.
My feeling is the best approach will be determined by the amount of damage or wear the wood has going in. Some people want to rework grips that are nearly perfect. Other folks won't touch them until they're nearly worthless. How good you are at wood working will play a big role here. Also how much money you want to invest in tools or tooling.
You can always farm the job out to Keith Brown and be assured of a very good job. Maybe not cheap, but probably as well done as you could ever do yourself.
You can touch up your grips with one of the oil based products like Tru-oil thinned out as suggested above. Just remember not to glob it on, and if you don't fully strip the old finish, you'll be sealing in some dirt and grime.
A few years ago (OK, maybe 10) we spent a lot of time discussing cleaning the old grips. We explored the use of acetone to soak the old grips, with my preference being to submerge them in a pickle jar full of the stuff. Soaking wood grips in a jar is interesting. Wood floats on water, but sinks in acetone. I've experimented with different times. when I first heard of the method I was both flush with old ratty grips, and had time to experiment. So I just put the first set into a pickle jar (small size, wide mouth). Then I set them off to the side and forgot about them. The next day I was upset because I figured I'd ruined them. Nope. The originally nasty old grips were now sitting in "sun tea". An off color liquid containing all the old finish and oil and dirt which had soaked out. Much like you in a bath tub.
But the impressive part of the process was when I fished out the grips, fearing they were "acetone logged", the equivalent of being water logged, no such thing happened. They weren't dry to the touch as they came out, but after spending a few seconds in the sun, they were dry. Just like they would have been before God had applied the original finish, except for the wear and tear of a prior life.
In fact, they look so good you could really just reapply an oil finish and they'd be hard to tell they'd been refinished. Well, except for the dents and such.
We already know a steam iron and a wet cloth will often swell out dents in the wood. But remember it will also infuse the wood with moisture, so you'll need to allow it to dry before finishing.
If you're one of the mega-rich and own a paint spray system, you can apply the stain of your choice (we have different opinions on it, but most folks prefer to mix their own stains using walnut and cherry). Then you can spray or even brush on a very thinned out oil finish. Multiple coats if you want.
If you're even more energetic, browse Brownells and buy yourself a file for cleaning up checkering. Buy a hand file, power tools are cool, but they allow you to do damage more quickly. Files come in the number of lines per inch you want to work on. Which means if you are dealing with 1900 to 1920, you're probably working with around 22 lpi. Then until WWII maybe 20 lpi, and with modern stuff, maybe 16 or 14 even. Get out your handy-dandy scale and measure. Good tools last a long time if not abused.
Remember back at the start of this little novel? I gave you the easy way out. Call Keith Brown. He'll do better work than you, and you'll save the collecting community another set of grips from mindless destruction at your own hands.
Raider
SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
Forum member VM does beautiful refinish work. Member DWFAN does grip restoration that borders on the miraculous. I recommend them both. Keith Brown hand makes the most beautiful grips I have seen and if he has time to recondition your stocks then that that makes three choices. All are masters.
Charlie
Charlie
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