Circa 1954 or so my grandfather bought a Marlin 39A Mountie for me with the intention of giving it to me when I came of age sufficient be trusted with a "real" gun. Which he did when I was about 12 or so. Of course he used the rifle as did my dad before it came to be mine.
Somewhere along the way, actually after it was given to me, my grandfather refinished the rifle stocks for reasons I do not recall. I do not know what finish he used though it may have been Tru-Oil or similar. The finish is very glossy and fairly thick and somewhat sticky at times. And over time it has taken on an amber hue even turning the white Marlin Bullseye insert into a golden or frankly ugly yellow color.
So, yesterday, I took the rifle down for annual cleaning and decided to strip the stock to bare wood and did so using a citrus type stripper augmented with gentle scrapping of a plastic scrapper. The wood is walnut and it has some figure in it but is on the light side.
I have used Min-Wax wiping poly on some air rifle stocks with okay results. I recently used Tru-oil to redo a LC Smith Damascus steel shotgun just for wall hanging duty and I only put on two coats to achieve a semi matte finish.
I do not want a glossy finish. I do not want the finish to be thick or to yellow and turn the now once again white and black Marlin Bullseye yellow! I do not want some long, complicated weeks and months long process.
I suspect the Tru-oil (if it was Tru-oil) that my grandfather applied turned yellow due to the excessive thickness he used to get a plastic like gloss. Will two or three applications of Tru-oil yellow? What I want to achieve is a useable "factory" finish that has a very low sheen or matte appearance as did the rifle originally but which will show through the wood grain and importantly, not yellow. I did get some Birchwood Casey walnut stain to darken the wood prior to application of the (?) finish.
So, thanks for reading all that, any suggestions? Now prior to stripping:
I prefer something more like this:
Somewhere along the way, actually after it was given to me, my grandfather refinished the rifle stocks for reasons I do not recall. I do not know what finish he used though it may have been Tru-Oil or similar. The finish is very glossy and fairly thick and somewhat sticky at times. And over time it has taken on an amber hue even turning the white Marlin Bullseye insert into a golden or frankly ugly yellow color.
So, yesterday, I took the rifle down for annual cleaning and decided to strip the stock to bare wood and did so using a citrus type stripper augmented with gentle scrapping of a plastic scrapper. The wood is walnut and it has some figure in it but is on the light side.
I have used Min-Wax wiping poly on some air rifle stocks with okay results. I recently used Tru-oil to redo a LC Smith Damascus steel shotgun just for wall hanging duty and I only put on two coats to achieve a semi matte finish.
I do not want a glossy finish. I do not want the finish to be thick or to yellow and turn the now once again white and black Marlin Bullseye yellow! I do not want some long, complicated weeks and months long process.
I suspect the Tru-oil (if it was Tru-oil) that my grandfather applied turned yellow due to the excessive thickness he used to get a plastic like gloss. Will two or three applications of Tru-oil yellow? What I want to achieve is a useable "factory" finish that has a very low sheen or matte appearance as did the rifle originally but which will show through the wood grain and importantly, not yellow. I did get some Birchwood Casey walnut stain to darken the wood prior to application of the (?) finish.
So, thanks for reading all that, any suggestions? Now prior to stripping:
I prefer something more like this: