June, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
261 
out thoroughly is to look at the stock 
from all angles in a bright light be- 
cause otherwise quite a few scratches 
will be visible as soon as the oil finish 
is applied- 
The stock should then be wet with 
warm water and allowed to dry. This 
will raise the grain of the wood. This 
should be immediately sandpapered 
down with sandpaper or steel wool and 
the process repeated two or three times 
until no more pores show up. If the 
gun will not be used in wet weather this 
is not necessary except with a very 
coarse piece of wood, especially if shel- 
lac will be used in the finish. 
In setting 'a stock away to dry be sure 
that it is not placed b'ehind a hot stove 
or in front of a very hot radiator be- 
cause if the wood is not thoroughly dry 
it will crack badly, especially at any 
places that might be under strain from 
screws such as the tang. 
After the pores have been rubbed 
down for the last time and all the 
scratches have been removed we are 
ready to apply the final finish. 
Dull Finish. 
I F it is desired to have the dull London 
oil finish, 
which is the 
most attractive 
type to apply to 
most of the stocks 
that are well 
grained, all we 
need to do is to 
mix up our solu- 
tions and then rub 
them on with the 
hand or with a 
piece of felt or 
some other soft 
cloth. 
The best solu- 
tion for this pro- 
cess is two parts 
of raw linseed 
oil and one part 
of turpentine, as the addition of 
the turpentine will make the oil dry 
faster, and it is possible to apply a large 
number of coats and rub them in well 
in a much shorter length of time. The 
number of coats to apply depend alto- 
gether upon the patience of the oper- 
ator, and the actual value of the piece 
of wood that is being refinished 1 , because, 
as you can readily see, a very fine piece 
of walnut is worth much more effort 
than a comparatively plain piece. 
If the wood is open-pored in texture 
many people get better results by using 
wood filler, but I have never been suc- 
cessful with it because the stock always 
gets streaked, and so if I have a piece 
of walnut that is open-pored I apply the 
shellac finish and then dull it off later. 
The Glossy Shellac Finish. 
A FTER all the scratches have been 
removed, after raising and remov- 
ing the grain, obtain a supply of 
orange shellac and pure linseed oil, 
placing a small quantity of the shellac 
in one receptacle and an equal quantity 
of linseed oil in another. Make a pad 
of cheesecloth or any other soft mate- 
rial and rub oil well into the stock. 
Dip it into the linseed oil again, then 
into the shellac and then rub this into 
the stock and keep on repeating it untii 
the wood absorbs the mixture. Friction 
has a great deal to do with the quality 
of finish secured. Keep on applying the 
mixture in this manner until the stock 
has taken up all that it will hold, and 
let it dry for a day or two. Then take 
fine steel wool and rub it down to a dull 
finish. 
If there are bright spots on the wood 
where the grain is not filled, repeat the 
operation. Let it stand until dry and 
then rub it lightly with the fine steel 
wool until the spots have disappeared. 
To obtain the glossy finish the final 
rubbing of oil and shellac is applied until 
the glossy finish desired appears. Some 
times the mixture on the pad will get 
gummy and stringy, which makes a very 
messy looking job. This is because you 
are using too much shellac. If the pores 
do not fill up properly the operator is 
not using enough shellac and should; use 
less oil. 
To obtain a dull shellac finish after 
the bright finish is secured the stock 
should be rubbed down with Pumice- 
stone and oil. This makes a very beau- 
tiful job. 
Which finish to select depends upon 
your personal preference and the ap- 
pearance of the wood in the first place. 
The dull glossy oil finish is the best one 
for a real fine grained piece of walnut. 
The glossy shellac finish is the show- 
iest, while the dull shellac finish is prob- 
ably the best one to use on a stock that 
must 'b'e subjected to a great deal of wet 
weather. This last mentioned finish 
is very beautiful and brings out the 
grain splendidly. The dull oil finish 
mentioned in the forepart of the article 
can be improved considerably by apply- 
ing several Coats of paraffin oil. This is 
just rubbed in by the hand and seems to 
improve the richness of the color of the 
wood. I have used it on wood that was 
a brilliant red and very finely grained, 
and it brought out the color very nicely. 
Paraffin oil does not dry into the wood 
very well and it will require considera- 
ble rubbing and quite a number of ap- 
plications to get the desired amount of 
oil into the stock. One of the best ways 
to apply this is to rub in a coat of lin- 
seed oil and then apply a coat of paraf- 
fin oil and repeat in this manner. 
About the only secret connected with 
refinishing is the number of applications 
required. A good many persons who are 
expert at applying a finish of this kind 
will try to make it apparent that it does 
not take much work but the actual truth 
of the matter is that an oil finished stock 
made in the dull London oil finish, in 
which no shellac is used, takes quite a 
number of applications, but these can be 
applied at any time — every time you 
look at a gun, for instance, and the more 
the stock is rubbed the more beautiful 
it will appear. 
T HE matter of stock refinishing can 
be attended to at odd moments, and 
the cost is so little that it would 
pay sportsmen to refinish their own 
stocks either for their own pleasure or, 
in case they wish to sell a good grade 
gun, because nothing detracts more from 
the appearance of a fine weapon than a 
badly scratched stock, especially if it 
contained any varnish in the first place. 
In dull stock refinishing it is always 
a good plan to remove the butt plate, es- 
pecially if quite 
an amount of 
wood must be re- 
moved from the 
stock because 
otherwise the 
fibre, rubber or 
steel surface will 
become badly 
scratched and de- 
tract considera- 
bly from the ap- 
pearance of the 
finished job. 
If it is neces- 
sary to pare down 
the edges of the 
butt plate slight- 
ly to make it fit, 
this should be 
done and then it should be polished be- 
fore it is replaced. 
In all stock refinishing operations on 
stocks which are milled out consider- 
ably to fit the frames of shotguns or 
of bolt action rifles it is necessary to 
exercise considerable care to see that 
a well grained piece of wood does not 
warp while it is removed from the 
action or otherwise there will be con- 
siderable trouble to fit the action prop- 
erly when it is replaced, and for this 
reason it is b'est to replace the stock 
when the scratches have been removed 
except when a shellac finish is being 
applied. A very light stock can be 
darkened by applying wood stain be- 
fore oil or shellac is applied in the fin- 
ishing process. 
A refinishing job of this kind may 
look like quite an intricate proposition 
until you have tried it but it is prac- 
tically impossible to spoil a stock that 
is badly scratched and therefore any- 
one can undertake anything of this 
kind with confidence in the fact that 
he will surely improve matters, and 
cannot possibly make them worse. 
