REfinishing a stock

07 August 2002, 04:13

bobvthunter

REfinishing a stock

I have been reading the thread about "Sealing and finishing a stock". Sounds like good information. My question is how would that procedure differ if I were to REfinish a stock. I have a Remington with the factory urethane finish on it and I want to strip the urethane and apply a finish similar to the one that was described in the other thread. Aside from any differences in the procedure, my other questions are... 1) What is the best way to strip the urethane? Will regular old hardware store stripper be good enough? I'm assuming this will be critcal as any remaining urethane would be fairly impervious to any finish I would want to apply, so removing every last bit of it will be necessary. 2) How do I work with the existing checkering on the stock (both with respect to stripping and refinishing)? It sound like there is a lot of sanding and abrasives involved and I want to make sure that I have some checkering left when I am done! [Wink]

Thanks,
Bob

07 August 2002, 07:07

GrandView

I've removed the finish from both Remington and Browning guns in the past with commercial chemical strippers.

I tape off the checkering before applying any new finish, but retouching up the checkering is likely required.....regardless how much care is taken with the new finish.

It's just the nature of the beast, Bob.

[Smile]

08 August 2002, 05:02

dan belisle

Grandview, have you found s stripper (the chemical kind) that doesn't damage the end caps? All the stuff I have tried in the past tends to frost them. - Dan

08 August 2002, 06:37

GrandView

quote:
Originally posted by dan belisle:
Grandview, have you found a stripper (the chemical kind) that doesn't damage the end caps? All the stuff I have tried in the past tends to frost them. - Dan

In truth I haven't refinished a stock with a plastic tip (I'm presuming that's what you mean....ala Remington BDL). However, I can believe the chemical reaction might damage that material.

Plastic grip caps can of course be removed prior to refinishing, but if I was going through the effort of a refinishing job I likely would replace the grip cap with steel and the tip with ebony. It's really not that difficult a task.

Sorry I can't provide a better answer.

GV

08 August 2002, 08:20

stocker

I usually mask off the forend tip so haven't particularly noticed any frosting when using chemical strippers. In any event when I sand the wood I also sand the tip down with it and use 1500 grit as a final sanding. Finish goes on wood and tip and it gives a blended finish to both rather than the artificial shiny look of the plastic. To my eyes it's an improvement. Replacing the tip and cap with ebony and steel is the best way but most guys don't want the added cost