Sledgecrowbar
Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2012
- Messages
- 13
I finished a month-long refinish on a Mosin Nagant 91/30 (stop laughing, it looked really nice) and the first day I took it to the range, all the cosmoline I thought was gone bubbled my great finish.
The first time I stripped the stock, I used brake cleaner to get the original shellac off and it couldn't leave fast enough, but my refinish was considerably thicker. I did use real shellac.
I heat gunned it a little to see if I could get the cosmoline to start and it showed right up. I tried denatured alcohol first to strip it (used to dissolve the new shellac flakes), but the finish was being stubborn. I skipped the brake cleaner and went right to easy-off as I had seen it mentioned for stripping wood stocks. Even the oven cleaner took several applications. I don't know if shellac has gotten better, or 1936 Russian shellac is terrible, or my finish was just that thick. Probably all of the above.
I put the heat gun back on it, but no more cosmoline bubbled out. Does the lye suck it out as well as taking the finish off? Since it bleached the wood so bad, I just tried boiling it in water as a safer method, enough cosmoline still came out to give the water a good tint so I'll try another run of that.
Since the wood has been so dried out, would it be better for me to put some boiled linseed oil in it before I do the shellac again? The shellac sits on the surface, which helped the cosmoline push it out into bubbles I'm sure, but I want the wood to be healthy when I put this finish over it. Right now it looks kind of like a bone. Will shellac even stick to a BLO-treated stock?
I'm also wondering if giving up on shellac and going back to wood stain and polyurethane is the solution, I read that the cosmoline will actually sweat right through poly. I was really having a good time putting shellac on, it looks really, really good and it's the proper finish for the gun.
The first time I stripped the stock, I used brake cleaner to get the original shellac off and it couldn't leave fast enough, but my refinish was considerably thicker. I did use real shellac.
I heat gunned it a little to see if I could get the cosmoline to start and it showed right up. I tried denatured alcohol first to strip it (used to dissolve the new shellac flakes), but the finish was being stubborn. I skipped the brake cleaner and went right to easy-off as I had seen it mentioned for stripping wood stocks. Even the oven cleaner took several applications. I don't know if shellac has gotten better, or 1936 Russian shellac is terrible, or my finish was just that thick. Probably all of the above.
I put the heat gun back on it, but no more cosmoline bubbled out. Does the lye suck it out as well as taking the finish off? Since it bleached the wood so bad, I just tried boiling it in water as a safer method, enough cosmoline still came out to give the water a good tint so I'll try another run of that.
Since the wood has been so dried out, would it be better for me to put some boiled linseed oil in it before I do the shellac again? The shellac sits on the surface, which helped the cosmoline push it out into bubbles I'm sure, but I want the wood to be healthy when I put this finish over it. Right now it looks kind of like a bone. Will shellac even stick to a BLO-treated stock?
I'm also wondering if giving up on shellac and going back to wood stain and polyurethane is the solution, I read that the cosmoline will actually sweat right through poly. I was really having a good time putting shellac on, it looks really, really good and it's the proper finish for the gun.