doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Help filling the grain....

This question is for all the gunsmith on this forum .its been a good while sense I posted here,but I have started to get back into gun smithing again.i have two projects I am working on and both are stock refinishing jobs. I have striped both of them of there spray on finishes and are going to put on a nice oil finish .my question is when I do my filling how can I tell that the grain on the stocks are full. I fill them with finish and rotten stone and then wet sand them with finish . I don't wipe off all the sanding to let it dry on the stock.then I wet sand again with water and sand all the way to a 600 grit.it looks to be fully filled at this point ,but when I went and applied my first oil coat I found that some of the grain still needed to be filled more.I would like to be able to tell before I get to far alone so I don't have to repeat my steps.

OK, here are some questions for you. How long do you allow your finish to dry before putting on the next coat? How many times do you use each grit per sanding stage? Why do you use so much finish during the sanding process? Were you aware that rottenstone has been used to fill pores but is really hard on the checkering tools? Have you considered using a commercial filler such as Birchwood Casey for the filling step?

The most common reason the pores did not fill is you wiped out part of what you put in due to the filler not being dry. The next oil coat can allow the first application to become fluid again if it is not rock hard. A good way to keep the filler material in the stock is to not wet sand you slurried stock but to dry sand it instead back to wood. If you desire to use wet sanding consider using water instead of oil in the cutting back sequence. The surface will dry and the oil finish will show up when you miss a spot. It also helps whisker the wood between coats.

When doing an oil finish I have used commercial fillers with good results. Sand the wood to 320. Fill the pores according to the directions. Wait at least 24 hours. Start applying your oil. If you decide to sand the stock further then do it dry instead of wet and then use the filler as described above. I have found the wet sanding process to be the hardest way to make sure all of the pores are filled. What we Americans have forgotten is....the craftsmen/women who did this finishing process usually were not in a hurry and took many hours to fulfill the job. Today the finishes are not traditional. The additives used to make the finish dry faster have created a lot of confusion on what a "real oil finish" is. BLO or Tung oil does not dry by itself quickly. You must "add" something to it to dry...heat, additives, whatever. Somewhere in the archives I believe Salopian has presented a great how-to on BLO finishing a gunstock.

I hope this has been helpful. If not, ask questions and I will try to give better answers.

If this dude's "gun smithing" ability is anything like his English skills...

God help the poor firearms he's got as projects.

My method is a little more labor intensive than a lot of people care for. I apply several coats of varnish and sand back down to bare wood, leaving the pores filled level with the surface. Wait a few days for the varnish to fully cure to obviate shrinkage after the fact. Sanding back down to the wood surface without sanding away what is in the pores requires a dab hand and complete concentration. Figure on going back and repeating the process where needed. After a lot of experimentation I found this to be the only sure-fire method of filling the pores and not having shrinkage, or worse yet, having the filler material loosen and wash away. Clear epoxy is an excellent substitute for varnish in this application but does require even more elbow grease. Not for the faint of heart, but like most things in life there are no magical shortcuts if one wants it done right.

Do the blocking of this varnish with hard and flexible backers to keep the surface flat and edges sharp.

After pore filling is achieved, proceed with the 'oil finish' of choice. I mix mine with pure tung oil, whatever varnish I used to fill the pores, and either turpentine or mineral spirits to alter the viscosity.

My philosophy on finishing gun stocks or pieces of fine furniture is that it'll probably take as long to finish it as it did to build it.

Pawnbroker,
You will get many opinions/methods.Here is mine, for what ever it is worth.Prepare the wood as usual and apply a finish by hand(Truoil, Linspeed, etc),brush excess out of checkering with old toothbrush,let dry fully,take it all the way back to the wood with steelwool in the large areas and fine abrasive paper(backed by hard felt,etc)to aviod rounding corners.When this is done clean residue off and you can see unfilled pores. Repeat, until all pores are filled(this type filler doesn't look like mud in the pores) and take it all the way back down to the wood.Now is the time to checker the stock (the finish in, rather than on,the stock helps the checkering)if it is not already checkered. When everything is done, rub a coat of boiled linseed oil in.This type finish can be "rubbed up"with 0000 steel wool and refreshed with another coat of "BLO" any time, with no problem.
Mike

I no longer fill grain with a third agent. I use a traditional oil finish, rub it on, let it go sticky, rub it off, let it dry, repeat as long as necessary, cut back with fine wire wool or wet & dry if required. It takes along time but I like the result better.

Per the instructions of my favorite double gun gunsmith he had me apply two coats of LinSpeed, one per day in our dry climate, and then using fine French steel wool cut it back to the wood. It did take a half dozen or more applications but the results were great. When perfectly filled I set the stock aside for a week. Then for finish coats I cut the LinSpeed about in half with mineral spirits and put a little on the palm of my hand and briskly rubbed the stock, rewetting the palm when needed. Finish sparingly, it doesn't take much. About two or three finish coated well rubbed in were enough for a perfect finish.

SmallBore;

Do you use the "Trade Secret" (made in UK) stock finish oil and drier rubbing oil?

Bv

Sorry,to much scotch ..and an ipad spell checker make for bad spelling.

Don't pay any attention to old bulbous Bob. He just likes to be a pain in the a$$ without adding anything ov value to the conversation.