# Tip how to refinish a gun stock



## GMman (Apr 11, 2008)

Well I have received a suggestion from my brother how to refinish it; he makes them and refinishes them.
Hope it helps some of you LJs to refinish.

My suggestion to refinish it would be to strip the remaining varnish with something like Citrus Strip. The varnish shouldn't be too hard to remove since it already peeled from just being wet. After stripping sand the stock with a fine sandpaper… but don't sand the checkering! You can use a small wire brush to loosen the varnish in the checkering. You probably already know this trick but anyways after the first light sanding I wipe the stock well with methyl hydrate (gas line de-icer). This brings up all the tiny wood shards, then sand it again with a finer paper, wash it again with methyl hydrate then apply a sanding sealer. Don't put the sanding sealer in the checkering! Sand the sealer and apply as many coats until the pores a well sealed. Now I spray 2-3 light coats of semi-gloss exterior urethane, then finish spraying with a wet coat. I like the Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane, it is what boat builders use on their woodwork.

A few months ago I saw some Birchwood Casey Tru-oil in a spray can at Wal-Mart. I have never seen it in a spray before. It might be easier to work with than the bottled stuff.

Oh!... the reason you don't put anything on your checkering until you are ready for the final finish is because you don't want to fill the spaces in the checkering. That would defeat the whole purpose of having checkering on your stock


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## rtb (Mar 26, 2008)

Sand , scrape or what have you to bare smooth wood. Apply BLO and rub in it for about 4 hrs While watching tv or something as the blo is rubbed in add more. repeat 4to 5 times. Finish will protect this stock against any elements. (funny ? this is what the marines did back when they still had wooden stocks and back when stocks were high quality walnut)


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