well I am resurfacing my gun stock. and having a tough time of it. I stripped the surface and sanded it down and stained it. then I discovered I should have used a prestain conditioner as it ended up vary blochy. I am not sure what kind of wood it is made of but it is soft. so now I have been wrestling with getting the stain out of the wood. I bought some jasco stain and varnish remover. this did not work on the stain. the directions on the can said I could try white viniger and if that did not work bleach. I tried all three and the jasco 3 times. with little results. I am now going to try sanding it out. any help on this would be great. but I have another question. once I get my gun stained I need to coat it with some kind of coating to protect it. what is the best coating to use. I was going to use a minwax polyurethane but the directions say not for outdoor use. it recomends helmsmen spar urithane for outdoor use. but spar urithane says not for floors. which indicated to me it must be a softer not so durable coating. my gun sees several weeks of outdoor use a year and is exposed to some pretty sever weather in those weeks. anything from rain to snow to vary cold sub-zero temps. I am came here to see if anyone knows what the best choice to coat my stock with to stand up to some rigerous use and weather during hunting season?
resurfacing stock
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I was hoping not to have to replace the stock. so far the stock has lasted me 20 years. the only thing that has shown the worst for wear has been the finish. If I can not get the blotchy stain out of this stock I will replace it. I am pretty sure it is a soft wood as I read that it is the soft woods that tend to blotch when stained without the pre-stain conditioner. for a soft wood it sure is difficult to sand. I put in alot of hours with 100 grit and hardly taken any wood off. it is proving dificult to get that stain out of the wood. in the end I may end up getting me another stock. if I can not get this one to look half way descent. we will see. I may get me a synthetic. I like this stock as it is so light only weighs 2.2 lbs. other hard wood stocks are much heavier.
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I've never used pre stain conditioner in 20 years of finishing gunstocks and dont even know what it is.
I'd guess your stock had blotchy areas of the sealer and/or finish still in the wood grain, that didn't take the stain properly and the wood hardness had nothing to do with it. Try using Strypteez past paint remover or any other good quality remover. Steel wool the glop off following the directions on the can. I use a pressure washer but if you're not experienced it can wreck a stock real fast.
Let it dry thoroughly.
Then follow the directions in:
http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/tungoil/pdf/tungoil.pdf
And you can finish with a coat of any good exterior polyurethane from a spray can to weatherproof it instead of the final hand rubbed finishing coats of tung oil. Over the smooth tung finish it'll look pretty good.
Please dont worry about how "hard" it is as any stock wood short of hard maple is a lot softer than the poly and dents and scratches will damage the wood regardless of the finish on top of it. If the poly scratches, just clean it, sand with finest paper a little and spray more poly on top.
Another weather proofing tip - your rifle stock barrel channel and inletting may not be sealed and will soak up water. Try and finish the whole thing and you may not get the rifle back in due to finish build-up. I use rasps and files to open up the inletting and channel, wrap some duct tape around the barrel so it free floats, then use Brownells acraglass gel to glass bed, covering the entire inlet and barrel channel. Combined with the polyurethane final coat this gives 100% moisture protection. http://www.brownells.com/Default.aspx
Follow Brownells directions carefully as if you dont fill in any traps and dont remove the stock soon enough your rifle will never come out of that stock again.
there are also more modern finishes like Duracoat, also available at Brownells and can be used to paint an entire rifle, metal and wood.
I'd guess your stock had blotchy areas of the sealer and/or finish still in the wood grain, that didn't take the stain properly and the wood hardness had nothing to do with it. Try using Strypteez past paint remover or any other good quality remover. Steel wool the glop off following the directions on the can. I use a pressure washer but if you're not experienced it can wreck a stock real fast.
Let it dry thoroughly.
Then follow the directions in:
http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/tungoil/pdf/tungoil.pdf
And you can finish with a coat of any good exterior polyurethane from a spray can to weatherproof it instead of the final hand rubbed finishing coats of tung oil. Over the smooth tung finish it'll look pretty good.
Please dont worry about how "hard" it is as any stock wood short of hard maple is a lot softer than the poly and dents and scratches will damage the wood regardless of the finish on top of it. If the poly scratches, just clean it, sand with finest paper a little and spray more poly on top.
Another weather proofing tip - your rifle stock barrel channel and inletting may not be sealed and will soak up water. Try and finish the whole thing and you may not get the rifle back in due to finish build-up. I use rasps and files to open up the inletting and channel, wrap some duct tape around the barrel so it free floats, then use Brownells acraglass gel to glass bed, covering the entire inlet and barrel channel. Combined with the polyurethane final coat this gives 100% moisture protection. http://www.brownells.com/Default.aspx
Follow Brownells directions carefully as if you dont fill in any traps and dont remove the stock soon enough your rifle will never come out of that stock again.
there are also more modern finishes like Duracoat, also available at Brownells and can be used to paint an entire rifle, metal and wood.
thanks good info. but the stain & finish remover (jasco) I am using wont pull the stain out of the wood. I do have the exterior finish off just cant get the stain out of the wood. I have been sanding alot with some results. but the stain seems soaked deep into some parts of the wood.
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50,235 Posts
0ven cleaner----carefull
i dont recommend this usually,
but in in your case heat the stock with shop light a little take it outside hang it spray the stock all over in the hot sun, place plastic bag over it to catch the fumes, trap in the heat,about 2 hrs. and after the fumes have left, wipe off and take a quartz shop light and carefully heat stock again the liquids will come out, do this a few times if necessary. neuteralize the cleaner with baken soda desolved in water this will keep the next finish from not sticking, and will raise wiskers, i had this problem once. sand, polish wood burlape or blue jean materials, then add a prestain, i usually dont ,but i have and eye for staining and dont stain front of pistol grip cheekpeice front edges, or exstream front of stock, these area soak twice as fast in to wood, and you can add the alcohol stain to your oil finish on second coat, it shouldnt go deep, then on a beater hunting stock i use bowling alley past wax to seal again, and again.(but for each wood ive worked with and ive stock from blanks and refinished many stocks in 30 years, each will react to finishing differently, you just get a feel for what it needs while your working with it.), this is the last results.and only for a damaged ugly hunting stock. good luck and again remember books are methods and woods have personality and what works for one will ruin others.<>< school teacher
i dont recommend this usually,
but in in your case heat the stock with shop light a little take it outside hang it spray the stock all over in the hot sun, place plastic bag over it to catch the fumes, trap in the heat,about 2 hrs. and after the fumes have left, wipe off and take a quartz shop light and carefully heat stock again the liquids will come out, do this a few times if necessary. neuteralize the cleaner with baken soda desolved in water this will keep the next finish from not sticking, and will raise wiskers, i had this problem once. sand, polish wood burlape or blue jean materials, then add a prestain, i usually dont ,but i have and eye for staining and dont stain front of pistol grip cheekpeice front edges, or exstream front of stock, these area soak twice as fast in to wood, and you can add the alcohol stain to your oil finish on second coat, it shouldnt go deep, then on a beater hunting stock i use bowling alley past wax to seal again, and again.(but for each wood ive worked with and ive stock from blanks and refinished many stocks in 30 years, each will react to finishing differently, you just get a feel for what it needs while your working with it.), this is the last results.and only for a damaged ugly hunting stock. good luck and again remember books are methods and woods have personality and what works for one will ruin others.<>< school teacher
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1,743 Posts
If you put in a lot of hours with 100 grit, you took off a lot more wood than than you think. Put the buttplate and grip cap, if there is one, back on and check the fit. The blotchy apperance you refer to would probably have disappeared if you had let it dry long enough. You don't give much detail on how you did your sanding but sanding with very fine sandpaper will clog the pores and cause it to take stain unevenly. Don't bother sanding it with anything finer than 200-220 grit paper and with a varnish finish 180 grit is fine enough.
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