# How are walnut rifle stocks finished?



## newwoodbutcher (Aug 6, 2010)

I'm planning to build a Greene and Greene desk and bookshelves for my home office. I have enough black walnut for the job, even though the Greene and Greene "standard" is mahogany. I did a small test with ebony plugs and think it could look great. I've been playing with dye and stain to minimize the color differences in the walnut and haven't figured out how yet. So, my question: How are rifle stocks colored/finished. My vision is to make the walnut look even like on a rifle stock. The walnut I have is probably Claro. Any advice from you gun smiths would be appreciated.


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

Not a gunsmith, but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn.
Most stocks are an oil/varnish wiping finish. Takes several coats, but I sure like the soft sheen it produces.
Practice first for best results.
Bill


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## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

I carve and finish rifle stocks every day and the way I get the color to match on a laminated walnut stock is to use wood from one tree or even better one board for each stock. If there is a lot of color variation, don't worry about it, feature it. There are several commercial finishes made for rifle stocks. They come in small expensive bottles. Linspeed & Tru-Oil are the easiest to find online. http://www.brownells.com and http://www.midwayusa.com both have them. I like to make my own finish. Walnut is porous and the pores need to be filled so the surface isn't dimpled with tiny holes. I sand to 220 or 320 grit, then wet sand with a 50/50 mixture of pure Tung oil and mineral spirits. After several sanding in several coats and letting them dry between coats, I mix the 50/50 oil and thinner with an equal amount of external spar varnish. I apply it with extra fine steel wool and rub it in as I apply it. After 10 minutes, I wipe off any excess and give the stock (or furniture) 12 to 24 hours for the finish to harden. Then I keep building up coats till I'm satisfied with the finish. It's not the hardest finish, but when it does get a scratch, a few minutes with some sandpaper and more tung oil and varnish makes the scratch disappear. One very poplar finish these days is to spray the stock with automobile clear coat. It's the ultimate tough finish, but if you do manage to scratch it, it's very hard to patch the scratch. Let me know if you have any specific questions, I'll be glad to answer them if I can.


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## HerbC (Jul 28, 2010)

The even coloration is either inherent in the particular piece of wood or created by dying or staining the wood as part of the finishing process.

If you want the walnut to have little or no variation in color, shop around and acquire lumber that does not have the strong character that is exhibited by the wood you currently have.

BTW, you can send all that UGLY varicolored claro walnut to me. We don see much of it here in the Panhandle of Florida.

Good Luck!

Be Careful!

Herb


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

Dang, Hal. Man, there's your answer! Hal, out of curiosity, do you do any blueing or coating on metal? I've got a stainless/black 1911 that's scratched/dinged on the black parts. It's a custom, so I want it to look pretty


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## ssnvet (Jan 10, 2012)

with a bang :^)


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

This discussion brings back memories of when my dad used to do a little amateur gunsmithing when I was a kid. He always got his supplies from Herter's. Anybody remember this catalog?


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

^that's a really cool catalog. Never hunted a seahorse, but cool anyhow


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## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

Charlie,

I used to look at the stuff in that catalog, and wish I had the money to buy some of it. Now, I can tell my kids that I used to get in at the local public pool for $0.15 and an ice cream cone was $0.10… Oh, and I had to walk to school and it was uphill both ways…


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