I recently acquired a Savage 110E wood stock that had been painted OD Green. I sanded it down to the wood and discovered some decent wood (unknown species).

Now...do I stain it or do I paint it? I'm open to suggestions as I can't decide.

Stain it and see if you like it. If it doesn't turn out to your liking, paint it.

I think that the grain looks pretty nice. I would get some dark walnut stain, then finish it with satin finish.

Paint will hide that nice grain and will look like crap when you start to get scratches.

I completely spaced that I could stain first and paint if it doesn't turn out. I have a lot of sanding to do to remove the green paint completely.

So I hear Dark Walnut...Satin finish. Any favorite brand of firearm stain?

Do you deal with Brownell's ?.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx...cts/All/search=Stain

I would suggest an Aniline type dye stain rather than an oily pigmented stain .

Aniline or solvent soluble types of stains may be put on three ways two of which are practical .

One dissolve in Lacquer ,alcohol or even paint thinner although I prefer the first solvent .

It will carry the stain deep into the wood lint free wiping rag or spray with small detail spray set up .

You may also add that type of dye stain too a drying oil type finish , the nice thing about using a solvent

carrier is it's CLEAN and you can add more stain for darker appearances easily . Remember your finial

finishing coat of either Oil, Urethane, Lacquer may be used as a carrier also for tinting , the final

finish will also slightly darken the wood . FYI if you just use Lacquer thinner and stain and don't like

the wood grain , you can paint over it with little prep immediately . BOL ...

I agree with Doc224/375 and suggest you also use a wood conditioner prior to staining. That wood appears to be birch. Savage commonly used it in their stocks. It is a good stock wood, but has a nasty habit of becoming splotchy when you apply stain. Often in large blotches or streaks that are not apparent in the wood grain before you apply the stain. Birch has millions of tiny pores, that when cut through, act like pipettes and suck up stain like a sponge. I know that you have probably been in a home or business that had stained birch plywood cabinets or trim work that showed these ugly blotches.

Savage got around it by mixing the stain into the finish and just spraying the wood with a number of tint coats. That is also what a lot of furniture makers do. The heavy finish keeps the color from soaking in. The problem is when you scratch or chip the finish, it leaves a glaring spot of the light-colored wood underneath.

You can condition the wood by applying a thinned clear sealer to it. This will partially fill the most porous areas and allow the stain to be absorbed evenly. You can use sanding sealer, lacquer or shellac thinned 50:50 with their respective solvents. There are also commercial products like Minwax Wood Conditioner. Clear shellac is what I use. Brush or spray on a thinned coat, wipe off excess and let dry for an hour. Then lightly sand with fine paper to knock the finish off the dense areas. Then test apply some stain in the barrel channel. If it doesn't soak in well, sand a bit more and re-apply. You can brush or spray the stain. If you find you don't like the stain, it can be bleached out with oxalic acid wood bleach and you can start over.

When you get the color where you want it, lock it down with a coat of lacquer or shellac. Then topcoat with your choice of finish.

You may also want to use a coat or two of Citri-strip and a toothbrush to get at those embedded spots of paint and finish. Otherwise you may have to sand too much wood off.

The grain isn't that pretty, paint it!

quote:

Bobster

Excellent suggestions !. Stain Controller I E Sealer , as I some times neglect obvious details !.

Thanks for the info guys. I'll check out Brownells to see what they have.

Bobster: you are exactly right. I raised a couple dings and I noticed all of the pores.

Bill, having seen your refinish work on other rifles, I would say stain it and see how it turns out. After all, this is not a high dollar projevt. If it is not to your liking, get a can of Krylon.

Keith