doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stock finishing - refresh my memory

I'm in the process of refinishing a stock. I removed all the finish in acetone, steamed all the dents, sanded with 400 (dry) to flatten all the grain and remove the minor defects. I've sanded in a coat of Pro-Custom Oil with 600 then wiped with a dry cloth. It's hanging to dry tonight. Any tips/recommendations to help me along? It's been years since I refinished a stock with PCO. The PCO was pretty thin and mineral spirits are outlawed in CA...unbelievable! So I just used it out of the can. The new PCO seems thinner than I remember. I was going to use some of the mineral spirit replacement solvent they sell, but chickened out and went with it straight.

Beautiful wood. You need to set up the tree and hang it there. Since you already filled the grain I would rub in five coats of PCO and then wet sand with 400 or 500 grit lightly to even it out followed by 800 to 1000 grit to get a sheen. sometimes I use the PCO as the sanding oil. I have seen a lot of variation in the sandpaper between the different suppliers so be careful. Some people tape over the checkering but I prefer to be careful and then lightly cut the checkering. If you want more coats I would add them after the light sanding with the rougher paper.

This has worked well for me however I think someone who does this professionally will chime in and tell me I am doing it all wrong.

Hey Milt,
I think I need to fill the grain more. I seem to recall sanding in 3-4 coats in the past. Using 600 for the wet sand-grain fill doesn't make a lot of slurry.

This gun is Ferlib 410 that a friend and I re-blued the barrels on. The gun came to me needing barrel blue and stock refinishing, as well as a POI adjustment for me.

We built this pipe burner and struggled thru bluing them.


They came out great.

She's coming along nicely, Chuck. I think you need to fill the pores more thoroughly, too, but have no experience with Pro-Custom.

What type of holes did you end up getting to work on your pipe burner? Hacksaw slits? The flames look elongated.

SRH

Stan,
Those holes in the pipe burner are sawed with a porta-band saw. They are spaced 1" apart and are deep enough to have about 1/4" long slot open at the bottom of the cut. Seems like we drilled the orifice about a #54 drill.

Again, I am not a professional but I have had many compliments on my work. They usually say: Hey you did this yourself?

I should have looked more closely at the picture. I see it now.

Since it is easy to put on a coat per day, I would simply add a few extra coats. the pores will fill with the PCO and when you sand back they will disappear. It is easier to sand the coats than the original sanding with the slurry.

When filling the grain when wet sanding I always make only one wipe "across the grain" with a tissue paper...I read that years ago in a book on stock finishing.

Reason being was to push the slurry into the pores with care not to make a slurry and wipe it all off. The key is to make a fast slurry give it one wipe across the grain.

Here's a new twist I learned from a fellow at the local woodworking store.

Instead of using steel wool or powdered pumice stone to rub between coats.

After the grain is filled I rub between coats with a 4000 grit Abralon pad wet with a few drops of mineral oil. (store the pad in a zip lock bag)

Dry any mineral oil from the stock with a paper towel then apply the next coat of oil finish....repeat.

Builder you'll never fill the pores with finish alone.

It is not hard to fill the pores with finish but it can take forever. I have been using garnet shelac on late 1800 -1920's
Parker and LC Smiths and to get the right color and full pores can take many coats and sand back to wood cycles before it is right.
bill

When you rub the finish in, more goes into the pores than on the surface. I don't like to do the slurry finish more than the initial time. I recall ten coats will fill the pores but if the finish is very thin it might take more. Not a lot of work, just days passing.