Refinishing a Checkered Stock

[nixdorf]

I own an older 1979-era Ruger M77. I'd like to refinish the stock as the original finish is showing its age. It has minor cracks and bubbles in the sealant, but not major gouges.

My concern is the checkering. I've refinished old long gun stocks before, but none of them had checkering like this one. Previously, I simply sanded the stock down and rubbed it with 15-20 coats of tung oil, buffing it with fine grit sand paper between coats. I'm concerned that sanding the whole stock will mean I make the checkering look bad. Masking off the checkering and sanding everything else will make the checkering a totally different color from the rest of the stock.

Should I be looking into chemical strippers? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dagger dog]

Test an area to find out what chemical is needed to remove the original finish, once you have found that, use a very stiff nylon bristle brush, to remove the finish from the checkering.

Once it is dry mask the checkered area and sand the rest as you usually do.

You may have some color difference but after the stock is handled awhile it should blend.

The only other alternative is to have the checkering recut after the sanding operation.

I have used some of the newer "enviromental friendly" paint strippers, the stuff that smells of oranges worked well, on a ureathane finished Remington 870 stock.

 

[rbernie]

Should I be looking into chemical strippers?

Yup.

Any recommendations?

As noted above, just about any 'eco-friendly' wood stripper will do the job for you just fine.

 

[Evans]

Citristrip works really good

 

[nixdorf]

Ok, so I've started with the stripper and its removing the previous sealer pretty easily--except for in the checkered areas. Nothing is coming off from those. I can't tell if the checkered areas are even sealed to begin with, but the stripper I'm using is working really well on the stock. I've tried hitting the checkered areas with some fine steel wool, but still nothing is coming off.

Should I be concerned at all?

 

[rbernie]

Spray the checkered areas, soak 'em good, and use an old toothbrush to clean the grooves in the checkering.