Wanting to refurbish an old rifle

H

HALLAUSTIN

New member
But this is my first attempt at any refurbishment work. I want to blue the barrel and somehow get a gash out of the wood stock. How would I go about this? It is an old savage.
PS- I did not google this because I trust TFL members alot more than google. Thanks for reading my post and please help!!! I want to keep this rifle forever.
 
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I cant post pictures because I am using a smart phone... No computer :( but it is a gash about six inches long and 2-2.5mm deep. One small patch of surface rust on barrel, but its a great shooter, just want it to look that way.
 
If the gash is actually more of a scrape (No wood removed from the area), you can try to steam the area with a wet towel and hot iron. This will cause the wood fiber to swell and fill the indentation.

Just a thought
 
If it comes down to it, you could find a replacement stock. It would give you a chance to freshen up an old favorite. Re-blueing a gun isn't too hard either, you can find tutorials online, but as you said, the guys on the forum would probably be better suited to tell you what to do.
 
The rust is light, so I will try to brush it out... As soon as I learn how to blue this puppy. And I'm just going to buy a new stock. But can I just sand and restain the whole stock as a project? Will it look decend or will it look like a 2 tone wanna be, half butt operation? And how do i take out the stain/wood sealant without sanding? Dont want to deatroy the checkering.
 
Will it look decend or will it look like a 2 tone wanna be, half butt operation?
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That depends on what kind of finish is on it.

Some are easier to strip than others, but sanding is about the hardest way there is to strip a finish.

I thought cell phones are the new answer?
 
Stripping stain... Go to your local hardware guy and ask him for something to remove stain. The problem: stain is exactly that, a stain. You aren't going to remove the "stain" which is the coloration of the wood introduced by the stain. What you are going to remove is the _finish_ of the wood with a stripper. Many finishes include a protectant (i.e. polyurethane) and a stain all in-one which you can remove most of the stain.

So once you strip the finish, sand it smooth, fix the scrape (the steam & sand method mentioned earlier, or with some wood putty), re-finish. This whole process will take you all day, partly because you need to wait for the wood to dry before finishing, then wait for the finish to dry before applying another coat.

It is time consuming, but worth the effort to know that you have a shiny new stock. :)
 
Hall, I have to ask how much hands on around the house work do you have or what kind of work have you done?
Stripping the finish on a gun stock would be the same as stripping wood furniture and as far as bluing a barrel you will just be doing a spot cold blue. To do a complete re blue of the barrel you will need equipment (expensive) equipment to do a professional job. My opinion is that firearms with the usage wear that you are describing means just that A firearm that has been used patina is a wonderful thing. Just my view point.
 
Stripping stain... Go to your local hardware guy and ask him for something to remove stain. The problem: stain is exactly that, a stain.
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Stain is actually a rather vague term in woodworking.

There are pigment 'stains' and they are nothing more than thin paint and can be stripped.
It can be hard to get the pigment out of recesses and pores in the wood though.

Other 'stains' are actually dyes, and can usually be bleached out, at some sacrifice in any color the wood itself had.

If you are willing to color the wood darker you can normally hide any minor 'stain' that cannot be removed.
 
Hall,

I refinished an old Stevens last month (stock and blue). I'll try to post some picks later. This was the first and only rifle I've every refinished and it came out pretty well. It did take me a lot time though.

Regarding what to use to strip the stain/sealer from the stock, I used oven cleaner and that worked absolutely great! I simply sprayed it on, let it soak for about 10 mins and then rinsed. After that, I would let it sit over-night and dry only to repeat the process the next day. Before restarting though, I would sand lightly with 250 grit sand paper. After two or three times, I had clean unstained wood.

The dents within the stock I steamed out as suggested above. Steaming will not work if the dent caused tears or breakage within the wood's fiber. For smooth dents, a wet wash cloth in conjunction with a steam iron will get the smooth (rounded) dents out. Just keep the wash cloth wet and give it 15-25 minutes for each dent. It's a slow process but does work (on the right type of dent).

While not perfect, I think it looks a little better...
 

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Regarding blueing, I'll post some pics later along with some of what I went threw if you're interested. If so, I'll grab some stills out of a few video clips I took during the process.
 
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