Refinishing Savage 85

[LiquidTension]

I want to refinish the stock of my Savage 85A and was wondering how to go about it. I've been told to sand it and use Strip Ease (sp?) on it, then stain it and clear coat it. The current finish is a very dark red/brown, almost black color and is not like any other gun that I have seen (I think it may have been refinished once before by my great uncle that owned it before me). Where the finish is chipped off the stock appears to be much lighter than the finish. The finish is fairly thick, and comes off in chuncks. Suggestions please!

 

[George Stringer]

LT, use the stripper first. It will remove the majority of the old finish. The new finish will greatly depend on how far(to what grit) you take the sanding. For a hunter finish I sand to 280 then finish with pure tung oil. For a shinier finish you could use Tru-Oil. The farther you go with the sanding the better the finish will look. George