I just spent about three weeks cleaning and refinishing the stock on a M1 and an -03 I got from CMP.

I used the method outlined here using Teak Oil and wet sanding with progressively finer wet sandpaper. My last two coats were a mix of Teak, Tung Oil and paint thinner.

This finish was very glossy; very beautiful like a Browning shotgun stock. (Really nice wood in those old rifles!) Finish dried hard to the touch, and I finished it off with the pure tung oil mixture right out of the can.

Went to the range today, and just sitting it in the rifle rack put an awful "ding" on the forearm of both rifles. The clip ejected back on to the stock and really scratched it. In sum, it is very, very soft.

What did I do wrong? What do I do to fix it?

Thanks for your comments. Kudude

Pure Tung oil will never dry without a hardener added. Consult the manufacturer of the tung oil you used and see which hardener they recommend and then apply another coat with the proper hardener....................DJ

iron out the stock dents.

wet a cloth in japan drier, wip down... might do a couple times

let sit a week

buff with steel wool

spray with "pro cutom gun oil satin finish"

jeffe

At the risk of starting another battle on here () I would not suggest using steel wool on your rifle stock.

The material sheds and gets embedded in the wood and/or finish as you rub and is a mother to get out.

Rick,
sure enough... a little compressed air and the steel wool is gone... and beats the color of scotch bright pads

and sand paper fills up too fast...

and, if you let it dry, it doesn't stick in the finish... it comes off with the dust... if it's sticking, the finish is too wet, need to wait another 2 days and try again

jeffe

Yep, a blow job and a tack rag works wonders.

A finish that I have used on milsurps and others that works pretty good and looks nice consists of equal parts of boiled linseed oil, spar varnish, and mineral spirits. It's nothing magic, but it's easy to work with and the end results are usually pleasing.

I don't know and really don't care how weather proof it is, or that BLO sucks as a stock finish. If you're all that worried about your rifle getting wet, don't hunt or shoot in the rain, or use a stainless synthetic.

kudude,

Also a tip I received from AR members and it may be particularly true due to the high Florida humidity is to ensure every coat is completely dry prior to adding the next.

If there is a coat underneath that is not dry the remaining coats on top will never set (dry) and remain either mushy or soft, even to the point of rubbing off.

Sounds to me like you need an epoxy finish. The strength should be in the wood, not the finish but if that's what you want, oil finishes are never going to hold up to steel clips and the like.

Brent

If you used pure tung oil to start with your best bet is a finish remover and start over. Was the product one that had tung oil in it or pure?

Brent, nor would an epoxy finish hold up to a ding from a piece of metal, it is way too thin to be effective.

And japan drier does not work "after the fact".

You did nothing wrong - that softness is a characteristic of the old oil finishes. You have your choice of the finish being soft and easily repaired, or hard and very difficult to repair.

I've decided to use oil whenever I refinished a blued steel rifle. It's nice to be able to steam out dents and give them a quick rub with more oil at the end of the season so that they look almost new again. I simply use stainless steel and plastic when the weather requires.

I don't know if anyone else has used this but I use a couple of coats of pure tung oil, letting it dry in between coats.

Then I use a few coats (4-6) of Minwax tung oil finish, sanding with 400+ in between coats.

I always coat ther inletted areas with this finish too.

Works for me. I get a harder finish.

quote:

Originally posted by Riodot:
I don't know if anyone else has used this but I use a couple of coats of pure tung oil, letting it dry in between coats.

Then I use a few coats (4-6) of Minwax tung oil finish, sanding with 400+ in between coats.

I always coat ther inletted areas with this finish too.

Works for me. I get a harder finish.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Tung Oil...but pure Tung Oil by itself is not a good finish for a rifle stock. It’s much better than most other straight oils, but you are far better off using a Tung-Oil based product with additives and driers as part of the mix.

I use Sutherland Wells polymerized Tung Oil sealer to start and then use their polymerized Tung-Oil Marine Spar Varnish for the finish. It has a built in UV guard and a mildewcide (yes, that actually is a word!)

I finish off my stocks with Butcher’s brand Bowling Alley wax or one of the other good paste waxes with Carnuba as one of the ingredients.

Rick,

I bet the wax you mentioned is good stuff, I wax the insides of my stocks and etc. I have been known to wax gun metal also.

quote:

Originally posted by Gringo Cazador:
Rick,

I bet the wax you mentioned is good stuff, I wax the insides of my stocks and etc. I have been known to wax gun metal also.

It’s good stuff. I saw it in a Woodworkers catalog years ago and bought a big can, that I still have! Company has been in business since the 1880’s. I use it on all my wood stuff, and put it on metal also.

I took a tip from someone on here, can’t remember who it was, and I heat it up and brush it on the steel as a release agent when I do bedding jobs.

I’m sure most of the other paste waxes work just as well, but I can’t imagine any of them working any better so I’ll stick with this stuff till I run out...if I live that long!

I once waxed poetic! But the rubout about killed me.

I use Johnson's on all my metal after I rust blue it or before a several day hunt (especially under the wood), stocks just to shine 'em up and also as a release agent for glass bedding. I bought my only can in 82-83 and still have barely made a dent. I'll be long dead 'afore it's gone.

First, let me thank all of you for your replies.

The tung oil product that I used is Minwax Tung Oil Finish, which I assume is not pure tung oil; however, the can does not indicate what is in it or in what proportions.

The "rack" it was placed in was a wooden rack, and it was placed in the rack gently. This finish is really soft.

I let the underlying teak oil dry pretty thoroughly before putting on the Tung Oil Finish. I think I may have messed up the application of the Tung Oil Finish, having applied it in accordance with the directions on the can (wipe on, let dry 15 mins, wipe off) as opposed to "slathering" it on, sanding and letting it dry.

Comments??

Would it be possible to apply a polyurethane over the existing oil bases?

I look forward to your responses. Kudude

I would guess three things.

1. You didn’t seal the wood with anything

2. The teak oil wasn’t as dry as you thought it was.

3. The “finish†coat of the Minwax tung oil stuff didn’t do diddley squat for you because all you did was wipe it on and wipe it off.

“Oil†finishes need to be built up by repeated wet sandings and dryings and that ain’t gonna happen with a wipe on wipe off procedure.

Both rifles are old milsurps. I'll bet the stocks are laden with cosmoline and linseed oil and you just don't know it. If theres cosmo under your finish it's not good, the stuff never dries. What I would do, is strip off the finish you applied. Get down to bare wood and then wash the stock down with laquer thinner. Then get the stock warm. I've used hot sunshine, woodstove, or heat gun (careful, they get real hot pretty quick). If that stock is cosmo soaked, the heat will cause it literally to "sweat grease". If that turns out to be the case, that's most likely why you're having the finish problems you describe. Trust me on this one, been there, done that.

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:
Both rifles are old milsurps. I'll bet the stocks are laden with cosmoline and linseed oil and you just don't know it. If theres cosmo under your finish it's not good, the stuff never dries. What I would do, is strip off the finish you applied. Get down to bare wood and then wash the stock down with laquer thinner. Then get the stock warm. I've used hot sunshine, woodstove, or heat gun (careful, they get real hot pretty quick). If that stock is cosmo soaked, the heat will cause it literally to "sweat grease". If that turns out to be the case, that's most likely why you're having the finish problems you describe. Trust me on this one, been there, done that.

craigster,

I see I’m not the only idiot that didn’t realize how fast and how hot those damned heat guns got!

Easy-Off oven cleaner also woks really well for getting oil and grease out of/off of old military stocks. I recently did a Lee Enfield that came with a stock that at first glance looked like it had been painted dark brown. One application of Easy Off and a good washing in hot water and TCP had it down to nice bare almost white wood.

Rick,

I've used the oven cleaner trick on a couple of stocks and they came out pretty good. One caveat, oven cleaner can give certain pieces of wood a greenish tint. I've seen this on stocks before and it's pretty obvious (and not very attractive). When asked how the stocked was cleaned, "oven cleaner" was the owners' answer. I don't use it any more for this reason.

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:
Rick,

I've used the oven cleaner trick on a couple of stocks and they came out pretty good. One caveat, oven cleaner can give certain pieces of wood a greenish tint. I've seen this on stocks before and it's pretty obvious (and not very attractive). When asked how the stocked was cleaned, "oven cleaner" was the owners' answer. I don't use it any more for this reason.

Good tip craigster, I’ll keep that in mind. The Lee Enfield I have is a US Property marked model made by Savage and they supposedly used American Black walnut and it came out nice without any weird tint to it at all. Maybe I used a better brand of oven cleaner.

One other thing, I'm pretty sure the tint is permanent.

Again, thanks to all of you.

I think that Rick and Craigster summarized the possibilities.

I washed both stocks with very hot water and TSP twice, and let the 03 stock sit in the attic for a week in kitty litter. But it still would "bleed" grease if it sat in the sun, although not like it did at first.

Before I strip 'em, I will try a heavier, unwiped coat of the Tung Finish. If it toughens up the finish to the extent that it resists general handling, I can live with it. After all, that is what an oil finish is about.

If it stays soft, I'll strip it and try a polyurethane finish.

Again, thanks to you all for your input. What a forum and what people. Kudude

let me say this again.

wipe it down with japan drier

might need a couple times

sand, and finish coat

jeffe

Jeffeosso,

What's a Japan Drier??? Never heard of one before.

jeffe, let me say this again. Wipe it down it may dry the outside a bit but just traps the rest inside. fisnishes have to dry from the inside out. Bad idea

kudude, whitening will take the old oils out.

Chic,
i agree.. though he's stuck, right now. Put it under heat lamps?

Japan Drier is sold at home depot/leow/etc .. it is generally in the acetone/paint thinner section

jeffe

take it off, and without the stripper song music, lol

quote:

Originally posted by Customstox:
take it off, and without the stripper song music, lol

quote:

Originally posted by tdobesh:
Jeffeosso,

What's a Japan Drier??? Never heard of one before.

Japan dryer is not a “thing†it’s a solution of mineral spirits, lead and cobalt that is added into some wood finishes and paints to hasten drying.

Here’s what Don Newell says about it in his book “Gunstock Finishing and Care.â€

“ Such driers have their place and do a fine job, but the big problem to their use is that the average man has no idea how much to use and he usually uses a great deal too much.....a little bit goes a long way and can do considerable damage to the finish if used in excess.“

Rick,
Japan drier is a thing, (like most oher chemicals, it's made up of several things. like gasoline is) sold as a product. There's no lead, in today's version. the can is the way I am used to buying it. And it makes all pil based coatings dry faster


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http://www.misterart.com/store/view.cfm?store=001&group..._id=nextag&WT.srch=1

jeffe,

The poster that asked the question said: What is Japan Dryer?...I have never seen “ONE.â€

The primary use is to renew old paint or finishes that have been sitting around in the can and had the driers in them deactivate over time. Secondary use to to add a dryer to a finish that didn’t have one added in to start with.

The guy that started this thread already has a finish (not a good one, but a finish) on his stock, and painting Japan Dryer over that and sanding/buffing it off after it dries ain’t gonna do shit.

Just my opinion!

Rick,
LMAO -- didn't read it that way.. never seen one"... I am getting the mental image of something crossed with bamboo, rice paper, and a sweat lodge!!!



the japan drier will actually dry the surface a bit, and probably harden it up some.

But chic is right, it should be stripped and brought back

jeffe

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
Rick,
LMAO -- didn't read it that way.. never seen one"... I am getting the mental image of something crossed with bamboo, rice paper, and a sweat lodge!!!



the japan drier will actually dry the surface a bit, and probably harden it up some.

But chic is right, it should be stripped and brought back

jeffe

I got the same sort of image in my mind when I read it and that’s why I said it wasn’t a “thing.â€

Ya might just as well strip it off and start over. I think you will spend more time trying to fix the current finish than if you completely redid the stock. JMPO.