Water damaged stock... What to do to refinish it?

[forindooruseonly]

So a good friend of mine asked me to take a look at his childhood .22 rifle and see if I could get it working - an Iver Johnson .22 M1 carbine clone.

It was left leaning in a closet corner years ago due to jamming issues along with the rear sight falling off, and during that time there was a water leak which damaged the stock.

I've got the sight attached and the functioning cleared up, I think, but I'd like to refinish the stock and buttplate before I return it.

The buttplate is heavily rusted, deep nasty pitting, which I'll probably just blast away and have coated. The wood is what concerns me - it's got that bleached look and was a little swollen, no cracks, but it doesn't look good. The rest of the stock has gouges and scratches, so refinishing the whole thing is what the plan is.

I'm going to use dfariswheel's sticky thread for the refinishing, I suppose, but wondered if this is the best way to go about a water damaged stock.

Any advice on how to go about it? Thanks.

 

[Catpop]

Just make sure it is dry before refinishing it; moisture meter around 6-8%. Good luck, Catpop

 

[forindooruseonly]

Ok cool. Damage happened years ago, it is thoroughly dry. Thanks!

 

[627PCFan]

I'll be watching this closely. I have 1960s single shot fold in half Beretta that had water damage on it's stock. Sooner or later I'll have to fix it.

 

[Dmitri Popov]

If it were mine:
I'd steam the stock per usual method to remove scratches and such.
If any chunks were missing I'd find a piece of wood that had a similar grain, cut out where the bad spot was, and glue in a square plug with acra-glass.
To finish the stock, honestly I'd probably use boiled linseed oil.

I don't think I'd worry much about the water damage, just take it as character to the gun. I'm sure he doesn't plan on selling it, just give a nice new finish and theres no reason he shouldn't enjoy the rifle.

 

[BCRider]

Likely the wood is only discoloured due to the finish having been washed out of it. Wood without a finish always looks lighter. Or something in the water it sat in may have slightly bleached the wood.

The water will often swell the wood slightly then leave it fluffed up when it dries. It's easy to sand the raised grain back down to a smooth surface and then it'll be ready for a finish.

If there is any remaining finish I'd use a good paint and varnish remover to remove the remaining finish. And a generous washing with lacquer thinner overall would not be amiss afterwards. At this point when fully wet with the lacquer thinner the wood should have an even colour overall. If the damaged area is noticeably lighter than you might want to lightly stain that area with something like leather dye to even up the colour.

At that point you're ready to use whatever finish you want on the wood.

 

[MuffinMaster]

I like to use wood bleach to even out a wood finish that is distorted from water stains or weathering.

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