Keeping the wood alive on a pre-64 Winchester 1894

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MJD

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A relative has a ~1928 Winchester 1894 that he asked me to clean up. It's been used plenty and the receiver has the majority of the blueing worn off, but no rust and the buttstock/forearm is in pretty good shape....no major dings or dents, no cracks, etc.

I'm not looking to do a complete stock restoration or refinish. The dings were come by honestly and I'm just looking to keep the wood in good shape and in the original character. With that in mind:
  • The "Winchester red" color is looking great on the stock. I'm looking to take a light enough touch here so as to not disturb the coloration, as I know from experience it is hard to replicate.
  • The laquer finish that was common on these stocks is very worn and in a lot of places, completely flaked off. The photo of the buttstock only shows this in more detail.
On the wood, my plan was to do an initial cleaning with a simple wipe-down with a light touch of mineral spirits to get the grime off. Then.....what? I'm not sure if I should lightly use a citrus-based finish remover for the lacquer, then hit it with BLO or tung oil, then lightly apply a laquer finish.....skip the lacquer and simply just hand rub with BLO....or what.

All my experience to date has been with mil-surp stocks (Garand, carbine, Mosin, etc) that didn't have this flaking lacquer finish to deal with, so I'm in uncharted waters here.
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The laquer is usually pretty thin and sands off easily. I would start with warm, soapy water rather than mineral spirits since that may actually cause any oil based crud to soak deeper into the wood. You can wet sand while it dries. Once you get it all off, clean again with mineral spirits this time and then apply 3-4 coats of BLO. I wouldnt use any laquer or varnish over the linseed oil, but a last coat of Tung will give it a more durable, moisture-resistant finish. A final rub of Feed-n-Wax will add lustre and shine if desired after the Tung has fully polymerized (1-2 weeks).
 
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0000 grade steel wool and denatured alcohol will help remove grit as long as you don’t get too aggressive with the “elbow grease” and remove the finish to the wood. I have not put lacquer over another hard finish, like tung oil or shellac so I can’t tell you what would happen. I know the steel wool and denatured alcohol will leave a slightly dull finish. That’s OK because boiled linseed oil will take away that dull appearance. Wet sanding with 600 grit or finer paper is a good way to work in additional finish. Again, easy on the elbow grease.
Tape all the metal before using abrasives so you don’t scratch the remaining metal finish.
 
jmr40 said:
I'd leave it as is.
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I hear you, and that’s why I emphasize light touch....but that half on, half off wood finish isn’t my cup of tea (or the relative’s who asked me to clean it up). The second photo should highlight the degree of finish peeling. I’m seeking a middle ground here whereby the wood will look good without a major strip, acetone bath, stain, etc.
 
BigBore44 said:
So you’re wanting to maintain the handled look with all the coloration from the oils but give it a new finish. Correct?
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Correct. Looking to simultaneously maintain the coloration and give the stock enough protection to keep trucking for another generation.
 
wiscoaster said:
If the existing laquer is flaking it's all going to have to be removed, no? That moves the project into "refinishing" which the OP said they don't want to do.
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It's a fair point. Maybe "restoration/preservation" is a better term. Semantics, perhaps.
 
MJD said:
...Semantics, perhaps.
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Maybe, but all semantics aside, I think the OP is going to be disappointed in both process and results unless it includes stripping the old laquer, and any laquer stripping method is likely to take more or less of the original color. So, IMO, he's best off by considering it to be a full "strip, refinish and restore to as close to original as possible" project. Maybe something along the lines of what he might have done with his milsurps (or rather what I'm familiar with doing with mine, which is always a "depends on the circumstances" process, methods and results).
 
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That is certainly possible. Wood finishes are one thing that if you ask 10 people, you'll get 15 opinions! Appreciate everyone's thoughts so far....I'm going to read through the responses and give them some thought. There's no rush on my side, so the answer in the short term may be "do nothing" except a very light coat of BLO to keep the exposed wood in shape.
 
Lacquer almagates. That means it combines with the previous coat of lacquer.. I don’t know if age of the previous coat has a bearing on the process. I do know that a lacquer finish is one of the easiest methods I have ever used to finish a stock. What little I know about using is from the information posted on Rimfire Central by member noremf.There was great deal of it. According to him it is the easiest finish to patch and not be able to see because it just melts into the old finish. Also it is supposed to be the hardest of the various finishes. He has passed on but he was wealth of knowledge on finishes and had the background to back it up. A search should turn it up is anyone is interested.

I followed his process for finishing a stock with lacquer and it was the easiest one I’ve ever done. No sanding at all during multiple coats.
 
Clean it first. Personally I'd just put dish soap in a sprayer with warm water, spray that lightly onto a shop towel to make it damp and keep going through the shop towels until no more grime and color comes off and reasess. If it looks decent at that point I'd just put a few good coats ro Renassaince Wax on it and call it completed. Original is original, and you can't put it back.
 
doubleh said:
Lacquer almagates. That means it combines with the previous coat of lacquer.. I don’t know if age of the previous coat has a bearing on the process. I do know that a lacquer finish is one of the easiest methods I have ever used to finish a stock. What little I know about using is from the information posted on Rimfire Central by member noremf.There was great deal of it. According to him it is the easiest finish to patch and not be able to see because it just melts into the old finish. Also it is supposed to be the hardest of the various finishes. He has passed on but he was wealth of knowledge on finishes and had the background to back it up. A search should turn it up is anyone is interested.

I followed his process for finishing a stock with lacquer and it was the easiest one I’ve ever done. No sanding at all during multiple coats.
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Great resource....thank you! Never had cause to work with lacquer before....feeling chagrined that I didn’t think of lacquer thinner (!) as a viable option.
 
Linseed oil. That's what is used on 400 year old violins. You can use rottenstone and linseed oil to clean it up. Get the linseed oil from an art supply store, not the BLO from walmart
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I was leaning towards perhaps just applying additional lacquer, but thought that might look a bit strange covering over the dings/scratches that were present......remember, was not going for a full restoration, just knocking off the (hideously) peeling lacquer and keeping things intact for years to come for my relative.

Shown side by side below with my ~1951 model 94 with original factory finish.

I ended up using a very light touch with lacquer thinner & Scotchbrite pads to get the remaining lacquer off....fortunately, with very little loss of the underlying color in the wood.
I then thinned boiled linseed oil 50:50 with mineral spirits, added just a few drops of reddish stain to keep with the original Winchester color and applied several coats over a 10 day period. I would have liked a few more coats, but I am traveling back up that way and wanted to get this back to him.

In an effort to apply as light of a touch as possible, I did not wet-sand, so the pores are perhaps not as filled as they normally would be.

In the end - the buttstock and foregrip look a heck of a lot better than they did and should last my relative for some time to come. A re-application of lacquer probably would have made the wood "pop" to a greater degree.....however, the juxtaposition of new-ish looking wood and that worn receiver would have been too visually contrasting, and inappropriate in my view.

Now, let's talk about that flip-up ladder sight with graduations over 1500 yards..... :)

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entropy said:
I just picked up a product that I intend to try on a shotgun stock, you might want to look into it:

www.howardproducts.com

Restore-a-finish. I got the neutral, but it comes with different stains in it; from what I read on a bottle with stain, it blends in with the current finish, filling spot like your 94 has.
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I like Howards Feed N Wax as well as Renaissance
 
Murphys oil soap is great for cleaning up old guns removes the crud without effecting the finish. The Howard's products are also great I just finished restoring a barristers book case with them and the bookcase looks great.
 
Nicely done - and the result of some good (and conservative) in-progress decision-making based on how the wood and the finish "talks" to you while you're working on it. :thumbup:
 
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