milsurp refinishing

[chuwee81]

I just recently got a m91/20 MN and the stock that came with it is pretty beat up. It is a shooter though. So I am thinking of refinishing the stock. I have a vague idea of how to do it in general and that's about it. See if these steps below are correct. If not, please add or delete the step. Also details would be appreciated. As with milsurp rifles, I try to keep the cost to a minimum, it's not a 1200 bux elephant gun, so please keep that in mind:

strip cosmoline - strip old finish - sand lightly (using multiple grits) - Stain - Seal (sand) ??? times.

1. Strip cosmoline - prev owner did well, but the barrel and action channel is pretty cruddy. I got a paint thinner that i can use for this.

2. Strip old finish - the folks at box of truth, used a caustic overn cleaner. I have one at home as well. Anything else you recommend that would work for this ?

3. Sanding - i got plenty of sand paper.

4. Now here is the tough one. There's a lot of staining color at the hardware store. Are those ok ? I've heard also about boiled linseed oil and tung oil. Do i pick one of the 3 or you have to actually use the BLO or Tung oil first, then the regular stain ?

5. What kind of seal that i need to use (wax, poly spray, ??)

Also i read that you need to sand between coats of sealant. How many times is necessary.

If this has been discussed before, you can paste the link here. Thanks

EDIT: Also is the perma blue kit from academy (11 bux) good enough to touch up on the bluing ?

 

[Col. Plink]

related thread:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=456877

I chose to keep mine simple with sanding up tp 320 grit (150, 220, 320), then ployurethane spray coats with 400 grit sandings in between.

You don't need to seal with a finish if you go with an oil finish (but I have no experience with that).

Be sure to post your results and pics. I'll likely use an oil finish to do the stock on my Garand once I get it.

 

[jcwit]

A tip that is listed in the NRA Gunsmithing book is to take the stock to the local car wash and spray the stock with Easy-Off oven cleaner than use the high power wash to clean the oven cleaner off. This does work as I've done it. Also to dry the stock and to cook the oils out of the wook place the stock inside your car or trunk wrapped in cotten rags and let sit in the sun for a few days.

The above will also remove dents and dings from the wood.

Stains from the local Menards, Lowes, ect., will work well in fact Minwax packages a stain they lable as Gunstock.

 

[DougW]

Oven cleaner first, giving the stuff about 5 minutes to work, then scrubbing with ScotchBrite pad while rinsing under the garden hose. Old tooth brush for nooks and crannies. Let the stock dry, then 0000 steel wool to smooth the grain. Boiled lindseed oil only, usually2 or 3 coats, buffing with a soft clean cloth and rubbing with the 0000 if necessary. Usually takes 2 or 3 days to dry, wipping off excess oil if it doesn't dry completely. Been doing it this way for about 8 years. Of course, I am refinishing Enfields.

Either cold blue or nothing on the finish. I work more to restore to origional finish. I have painted a few with AlumaHyde II when the finish is real bad.

 

[wojownik]

While I lean towards the "do no harm" rule as much as possible, I've had some mosins who'ss stocks required a lot of attention, using orange shellac to give a finish rather close to the original.

 

[mongo4567]

I like to leave them as I found them. There are a lot of chromed Lugers, 1911s, and SAAs that would be worth a lot more money today if they had been left original. Same for all those refinished Winchesters. If you feel that you must refinish, I would recommend to stick with original finish. Use shellac to refinish the stock with only denatured alcohol and light steel wool to smooth out the edges.

 

[BunnyPuncher]

Don't use oven cleaner...

Use Dawn Power Dissolver. It smells better, is not as dangerous and works better too.

Available at Wal-Mart or wherever fine cleaning products are sold. About $3 a bottle. One bottle will do a gun.

Spray, let sit for 15 minutes, wipe the gunk off with paper towel, spray again, wipe it off, take the stock outside and wash it down with the hose. Set the stock aside for a day or two to dry (somewhere room temperature) and get to refinishing.

I've done this with Mosins fyi.

On the "staining" I like to use 1/3 Mineral Spirits to 2/3 pure Boiled Linseed Oil handrubbed for about 6 applications over a day or three. I do not apply stain. Once I get that base layer I use a mix of beeswax, BLO and turpentine for upkeep and further regular applications.

You end up with this...

This pic is from after the initial liquid applications and one beeswax mix...



This is after about 10 more and a few months of aging...



A lot of collectors hate people like me as I do this to many of my old guns. I don't look at it as "refinishing" but rather what a responsible gun owner would have done over the last 60 years to keep that gun healthy while in use.

The danger of BLO/Tung Oil is that the wood will determine how the gun looks.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Something that hasn't been mentioned is that with water / oven cleaner you run a very good risk of loosing all the stock markings, when the water pops out the dents, the same happens to the markings. You can highlight them by applying a stain then using a flexible spatula to wipe it off the stock and just leave it in the marking. Water will also raise the grain,

Another method is to the stock in paint thinner until the cosmo is soft, wipe it off, and repeat until the all the cosmoline is gone, then bury it in kitty litter and put it somewhere warm (one post mentioned the trunk of his car, it was summer in Texas) to pull the oil out, then when the stock was dry, he did a light stain (minwax has a french red that is close if you go light) and Tung oil finish.

 

[eight433]

I like to leave them as I found them. There are a lot of chromed Lugers, 1911s, and SAAs that would be worth a lot more money today if they had been left original. Same for all those refinished Winchesters. If you feel that you must refinish, I would recommend to stick with original finish. Use shellac to refinish the stock with only denatured alcohol and light steel wool to smooth out the edges.

this MAY be somewhat skewed thinking. If so many of the aforementioned guns were NOT molested, would the unmolested ones be worth as much as they are? food for thought.