Folks,

Help a novice with your experience. I have no training as a gunsmith, but want to undertake my first project. I have a old Browning that has the high gloss stock and I want to refinish it as a flat oil finish. Any suggestions on kits, maybe from Brownells, or any simple directions for refinishing? How do you strip the high gloss finish? Sandpaper or steel wool of varying grades? Suggestions please. Thanks in advance. Hugh

- First, only thing I found that will reliably remove that finsh is JASCO paint and epoxy stripper. Get it at Home Depot; wear gloves and eye protection as this stuff will burn you.
- Apply stripper and let sit as directed, then use a scrapper to scrape off the bubbled finish. Once it's all scrapped, rinse with water and let dry.
- Sand using progressively finer grits of good paper (I like garnet paper). I start with 150 or 220 depending on how deep the marks are that I'm trying to sand out. Sometimes I use a hot soldering iron and a wet towel to swell out dents. Finish sand with 320 or 400 grit paper.
- Fill the grain. Using wet/dry sandpaper of 320 or 400 grit, wet the paper with some of your oil finish that's been thinned about 1:1. Work up a "paste" of oil finish and sanding dust and wipe that into the open grain. Stock will look like hell at this point but once it's seems all grain is filled with paste let it dry hard, maybe a week or more, before you finish sand it.
- Finish sand using 400 grit paper making sure you don't go too deep and open up the grain again or you go back to previous step. Go with the grain so you don't leave scratches.
- Final finish using thin coats of oil or whatever you want. I sometimes like to use spray satin finish polyurethane as I find it very durable and just the right sheen for me.

Good luck.

TooManyTools has good advice, but if the stock has checkered panels, you need to cover them with duct tape after you remove the finish so you won't sand the diamonds off. Easy to do--apply the duct tape, press it down with your fingers, and then use an Xacto knife to cut around the edge of each panel. Peel the excess tape off leaving the checkered portion covered. The tape tends to release as the adhesive accumulates sanding dust too--

I use the same wet sanding technique, but wipe the excess off with kleenex once I've sanded a bit. Keep on sanding and all you do is pull the filler out of the pores that you just worked so hard to fill. His advice may work better-I'll give it a try after this season as my 7 Mag's stock needs refreshing.

#1 iece of advice is to take you time - have patience. It's easy to sand off to much or to little if you get in a hurry. also give your oil plenty of time to harder up before the next coat. I usually give it at least 48 hrs between coats After the first 2 coats which are sanded down just about to the nothing stage, the pores will be filled. then try to see how much you can finish with how little oil. A little must go a long ways

quote:

I have a old Browning that has the high gloss stock and I want to refinish it as a flat oil finish.

You may have a big surprize on your hands. Some of the "old Brownings" used a faux grain technique. Fancy grain was painted on cheap wood. The bowling pin finish was applied over it. If you strip it you may find stark white grainless wood looking back at you. No amount of staining or oiling makes that wood look good. Do some more research before you decide to proceed.