260 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June, 1921 
HOW TO REFINISH GUN STOCKS 
EVEN A BADLY SCRATCHED PIECE OF WOOD, IF IT IS NOT CHIPPED 
TOO DEEPLY, CAN BE MADE TO APPEAR AS GOOD AS NEW 
By C. S. LANDIS 
I T is practically certain that nearly 
every reader of this magazine is 
what is usually called a “gun crank” 
and being afflicted in this manner most 
of us take more pride in the appear- 
ance of our firearms than in almost 
any other form of personal 'property 
that we own. 
Since childhood I have been an ad- 
mirer of beautifully grained walnut. 
Few things give me greater pleasure 
than to examine a superb piece of this 
beautiful wood, especially if it is in 
the form of a gun stock. 
As is quite natural in a lifetime of 
shooting, I have collected a few choice 
weapons, every one of which, except 
one, is equipped with a very beautiful 
stock. Others that I have owned have 
passed on their 
way. For some 
reason or other I 
never seem to be 
able to get up 
courage enough 
to sell one of the 
old favorites. It 
is true that I 
nave tried to do 
it time and time 
again but every 
time I get out 
one of the fine 
looking speci- 
mens I cannot 
help but feel that 
it would be a 
mean trick to sell 
a gun with a 
stock like that 
varnished stock at this time, especially 
if it is to be used for field shooting, and 
so we will not take the time nor space 
to describe this method of stock finish. 
If there are several guns that need 
refinishing it is much the better plan 
to refinish all of them at one time be- 
cause by doing the work in that manner 
it will entail considerably less expense 
and the work can be put through much 
faster because the same operation can 
be performed on each gun at about the 
same time, and this saves mixing up 
of solutions. 
I 
I N finishing a new stock the first thing 
to do, of course, is to buff down the 
surface of the wood to the desired 
contour and then remove all of the 
Right side of author’s Sporting Springfield Rifle stock. A fine example of fancy 
American Walnut having dull oiled finish. 
surface will remove nearly all of the 
scratches. 
After each cut and scratch is buffed 
out so thoroughly that you cannot trace 
the outlines when the stock is examined 
in a strong light it is time to think 
about applying the fine finish, but not 
before. Never try to buff out bad 
scratches with fine grades of steel wool 
and sandpaper. It takes too much time 
and a great deal of hard work, and this 
method of procedure gains nothing. In 
removing the scratches it is very nec- 
essary to be careful to keep the emery 
paper off the checkering on the stock 
and fore-end because it will ruin it. 
Cuts on the checkering had better be 
left alone or else filled up because it 
is impossible to remove them by buf- 
fing them off 
without destroy- 
ing the appear- 
ance of the re- 
mainder of the 
checkering. 
It is possible to 
cut a block of 
fancy shape out 
of the checkering 
and get rid of a 
bad cut in that 
manner, but the 
surface exposed 
will always be be- 
low the surface 
of the checkering 
and blocks of this 
kind should al- 
ways be equal 
with or above the 
and so it goes back into the gun closet, scratches by the finest grade of steel tops of the diamonds of the checkering. 
Unfortunately in time all the old wool, but in finishing an old stock if it It is also important to keep the emery 
favorites that are used for field shoot- has been varnished or shellaced the first paper off the steel parts of the weapon 
ing or big "game hunting and sometimes 
also those that are used for target 
shooting take on a weather-beaten and 
battle-scarred appearance. The pass- 
ing of the old worm fence was as hard 
on gun stocks as it was on quail because 
nothing can equal barbed wire fences 
for ruining the appearance of a piece of 
choice walnut. Many hunters are al- 
most convinced that they were de- 
signed for that particular purpose. 
Very fortunately a badly scarred stock 
if it is not cut or chipped too deeply can 
nearly always be refinished to as good 
or better than new, and the work, ex- 
cept possibly for the first part of the 
job, is neither difficult nor very tire- 
some, and the total expense of refinish- 
ing a half dozen gun stocks is not over 
one or two dollars. 
In refinishing stocks the first thing to 
decide upon is whether a dull oil finish 
or a glossy oil finish is desired, because 
it makes considerable difference in the 
method of procedure. It is also possible 
to have one form of a glossy finish with 
a dulled surface. Few persons desire a 
thing to do is to remove the varnish because the blueing will be badly 
or the shellac. It is almost impossible scratched. It is always better to re- 
to get this off with emery, sandpaper move all metal parts such as the re- 
or steel wool because the abrasive will ceiver and action, because nearly always 
not bite fast to the varnish, but it can they will be the worse for wear. This 
be dissolved and rubbed off easily by the 
aid of varnish remover. After the var- 
nish remover has been applied and all 
of the hard, glossy surface has been 
removed, the next step is to take the 
coarsest emery paper that can be se- 
cured and buff off all the scratches. Do 
not spare the deep cuts unless so much 
wood must be removed that it will 
destroy the contour of the stock at that 
point because as soon as the stock is 
again oiled all of the scratches that 
remain will show up as distinctly as 
before. 
Sometimes part of the opening in 
very deep cuts can be filled up with red 
putty, fibre, wood filler or other mate- 
rial of this kind without showing a very 
brilliant contrast to the remainder of 
the stock. Such cuts are seldom en- 
countered as the removal of a thirty- 
second to a sixteenth of an inch of the 
is particularly true if shellac is used in 
the finishing process because the shellac 
will stick to the fingers of the operator 
and will be transferred from the hands 
to the steel, and once it gets on the 
steel it is almost impossible to remove it, 
especially if it has dried on. At any 
rate it cannot be removed without var- 
nish remover or something of that kind 
and if you have a stock that has not 
previously been varnished you will not 
require the varnish remover. 
A 1 
FTER the scratches have all been 
removed and the contour of the 
stock is all evened up, take the 
finest grade of steel wool or sand 
paper obtainable and finish the job. 
This will be 00 Steel Wool. Keep at it 
until every visible scratch is removed, 
including those made by the coarse 
emery paper. The only way to test this 
