16ga.com ~ View topic - ...looking for painless, easy, stock finish touch up.....

........currently messing with Howard Restor-A-Finish (mahogany), put a couple coats on my guns, looks pretty good, by that meaning natural, not shiny glossy or such, and it really soaked in and brought back the original look.....but how long will it last? Will it protect from the elements? Has anybody else ever tried this stuff on their guns? It was quick, easy, painless, like no steel wool, etc, (just wipe on, then wipe off) but should I put something over it now, to seal it up? if so, looking for the easiest, most user friendly thing available. I have used gunky old Tru-oil (too much work), have used Tung Oil (same), and Linseed (the worst for labor intensivity)..... any secrets out there for a low-maintenence kind of guy? I don't need every pore filled, etc, just want protection, a satin look (hate shiny, glaring, pimped out finish), no fuss/no mess..... thanks, Confused

Duncan

If you're pleased with the appearance, just protect it with Johnson Paste Wax or, since you're a classy guy, Very Happy

Renaissance Wax

Duncan: The Renaissance Wax is great stuff but expensive. I've got the Johnson Wax on 2 LCs now and will get back to you after a trip to Ben Avery this summer when it's 115 here in 'Furnace, AZ' Rolling Eyes

The application I made before the bird season has lasted 2 trips to KS and several shooting sessions.

Member Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 602 Location: western pa

Wax works real well, but I avoid it on the grip areas, unless you've recut the checkering.You are right in assuming that a nice glowing oil finish comes at a price. That being patientce.

Assuming you are talking about guns with an oil finish, and just rejuvinating an existing one, I find pure tung oil very, very thinly applied with palm of the hand until warmed from the effort the best. I pop the stock and forend into a small dust proof wooden dry box with a baffled 75 watt light bulb for heat. Let it sit until completely dry, usually a day or two. Tung oil does not darken the stock like linseed. Then wax once the finish has cured for a week or two.

Once a good tung oil finish is applied, it is by far the easiest one to restore even from dings and light scratches. Putting varnish, polyurethane, or acrylic enhanced or fortified oil like tru-oil or Linspeed is a hurry up shortcut seems to just ruin a good oil finish over time

However, the dust proof dry box is the key and takes all the mess out. Its easy to construct out of cheap pine stock too. But once you make one, it will last you for life. Just make it tall enough and roomy enough to hang a rifle stock or a butt stock and foreend from a dowel without banging them together. A simple piece of translucent polyethylene plastic sheet with a few randomly spaced 3/4 inch holes cut in it and put at an a 60 degree angle across the top below the bulb by a 1/2 foot from side to side will set up a vertical convection current that will dry the finish evenly without any hot spots. You can line the very top with foil as a reflector if you wish. Use a regular simple ceiling fixture with an on off switch attached to the top of the box for the bulb. It took me a couple of hours to draw up, lay out, and fabricate mine. I've had it for years now and it works for any type of oil or varnish finish.

Most of the actual work will be repairing any accumulated dings by exposing the wood just at that spot then steaming them out with a very dampened piece of flannel and a very hot old 1 inch chisel blade. You then match the repaired area with a color matched pore filler, alchohol based stains of the right tint and spot applications of tung oil to bring the repaired surface back to uniform condition. If you've never done this before, let me know. I can take you through it step by step. It is well worth the effort.

The beauty of a good tung oil finish is that you do not need to strip it all off to repair a small damaged area like you must with varnish, epoxy, or plastic finishes. You can repair dings after several seasons, match the color, and follow up with one or two very thinly applied rejuvinating coats of oil applied like you were trying to stretch the oil like putty with your palms as thinly as possible.

That is how oil finished guns stay so nice. they are carefully cleaned down of wax and crud with achohol and a bit of very fine steel wool, wiped off, tack ragged squeaky clean, repaired, then recoated with a thin application or two of a good quality drying oil like tung oil. If done every half decade or ten years, the guns stay like new and the wood will last forever.

A good tung oil finish is in the wood, not on it. The oil rejuvinates the wood and keeps the cell structure supple and resilient below the surface. The Chinese used to soak the wood timbers of their sailing junks and temples in pits lined with carefully sealed skins or any impervious membrane, then buried for many years so the oil soaked deeply into the wood. They also applied tung oil as needed to preserve the wood. Some of these old junks and wooden temples were well over 5 centuries old and the timbers were still good in them. Unfortunately, the dumb assed communists destroyed all these treasures of anchient arcitecture and history in their "Great Leap Forward" Good leaping there. What a bunch of shit for brains lunatics. Rolling Eyes

Too much wax build up will ruin a good oil finish over a long period. It will colloid and become like plastic trapping the accumulated crud and dirt in it. Over time the finish darkens and gets brittle. The wood underneath also dries and gets brittle. When this happens, the only way to fix the problem is strip the wood and refinish by soaking the wood with oil, then reapplying a good, well filled oil finish.

Wax is a good temporary protectant, that should be removed and reapplied once or twice a year. Don't put new wax over old wax on an oil finish. That is a mistake. Clean off the gun with a rag and a bit of rubbing alchohol which is partly water. don't soak the stock, but just dampen the rag and buff off the old wax thoroughly. Any crud and dirt will come with it. Once you can't soil the rag anymore, the gunstock is clean. Re-oil if needed, then rewax the clean surface. Its really easy to do.

With sealed surface plastic or varnish finishes, cleaning off the old wax is not as important, because it won't cling well to these ultra slick, hard sealed surface finishes. It never gets to the wood surface. Wax only hides any very slightly dulled areas here. However, if not properly treated with a preservative first, the wood underneath will eventually dry and get brittle. Oil is better in the long run.

Do you need to remove the wood from the receiver?

PGG, It depends on what you are attempting to do. For removing and reapplying wax--no. A cotton flannel rag with ruybbing alchohol will not hurt anything. Just avoid the metal as much as possible if using 0000 steel wool. Fine steeol wool will not hurt modern hot blued steel but will strip, rust or brown, cold blue touchups, and rust blue gone to patina (browned over rust blue or charcoal blue.)

For applying oil, I like to either remove the stock or carefully mask off the metal to avoid leaving a skim of collioded oil over the finish if stock removal is not easily done. Most modern double guns and O/U stocks come off easily. Same for forends. Just avoid sanding off any edges on the wood. leave the contours alone too. Many professional gun restoring shops use a steel dummy action or a cast-off block from a ruined gun to help avoid this. They just sand right up and over the metal.