doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Refinishing Beech

Does anyone have any hints or tips on refinishing beech wood stocks? I have a Husqvarna .22 single shot (model 165 for those in the know) I'm currently stripping because the former owner looks to have applied a coat of polyurethane with a banana. The wood appears to have been dyed in the past too, so hopefully when the stripping is complete, I won't have to re-color. I'm hoping to use oil to topcoat. Anyone know how beech reacts with oil finishes?

Cut it off and replace with Walnut?

Thanks Brent, but even though I'm refinishing it, I would still like to keep as original as possible.

Husqvarna and beech go hand in hand. Not that they did not use walnut, but they certainly liked to use beech. I believe it had something to do with the war years and not being able to import walnut for an extended period.

Yes, I was only kidding.

On the only Huskie that I have refinished I used some Minwax stain, I believe it was simply walnut stain, and a shot of cherry red dye from track of the Wolf. It came out quite nice. However, I am not sure what the wood was. I did not think it was beach but rather a light walnut as it had some figure to its grain.

Beech can be notoriously blotchy when using penetrating stains and sometimes aniline dyes, so I figured I would ask ahead of time if I need to color it.

It sounds as if you already know a lot more about staining, refinishing, and the characteristics of beech than BrentD, the guy who is running a campaign to financially damage this forum. Why, you even know how to spell beech.

Minwax, and other finish manufacturers make a Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner that partially seals very porous wood to prevent the problem of uneven stain absorption.

https://www.minwax.com/wood-products/preparation/minwax-prestain-wood-conditioner

Watco Danish Oil might give a nice tone to your stock without any additional stain, but I like to try a test piece on a scrap of the same wood before I commit to doing the entire stock. If you try six different neutral wood finishes on the same wood, you will get six different appearances. If you can't come up with a scrap, you might do a test in a small area in the barrel channel.

Thanks Keith... great suggestions!

The only test area you have is the barrel channel. Use it to get a feel for how stains will look. Might find a combination of them works best.

Go to your local Woodcraft store, and buy a piece of Birch.
Then go over to their wood finish department look at all the little bottles of dye that they have. They�ll have sample pieces of each one of the dyes on maple in every color.

Depending on what you�re attempting to do, you may build a finishing sequence of up to eight steps.

An example would be trying to get an entire bank of cabinets made from different pieces of wood, to all have the same color and tone when you get done.

So, I�d prolly dye it ebony, then sand that off irregularly
Then a wash of cherry dye for red over black, not black over red.
Then a spit coat of garnet shellac. That will give you a mottled reddish overall look with some dark under color. And enough tooth to get your final layers where you want them.
Then a scuff sand.
Then awash of med walnut gel stain over that, then a coat of oil over top.

You build your color in layers, even it out with the toner in the top coat.

Or do something else entirely.
Figure free dense hardwoods are not easy to make look like something else.
You can add just enough mystery with layered toning to get the next guy to wonder what�s under it.

OMG!