# Firearms and Shooting > Projects and Home Builds >  Removing Varnish from a stock... how?

## grunzter

Hi all,
I have my eye on an old rifle that has a very good stock but its shiny... a bit to shiny for me, even though it woill probably last a million years...
I cannot find any www pictures of the rifle with a varnished coat, so if i end up getting it I will make it a little project to make original...
Is it hard to remove varnish?

The original stock was Walnut, but this one is a much lighter coloured wood, so i assume its a replacement, or maybe a later batch who knows?
Will try and get a picture tomorrow...

I guess my next post maybe how to then refinish the wood...
Cheers in advance.

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## Frogfeatures

Paint stripper and a toothbrush to get into the checkering

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## grunzter

Thanks. It has checkering, forgot to mention that!  :Have A Nice Day:

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## jakewire

> Paint stripper and a toothbrush to get into the checkering


Yip exactly what I did with my  M-Bolt  before coating with boiled linseed, came off very well.

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## Friwi

Make a container to dip your stock into:
Take a steel, aluminium or stainless tube of 100 diameter . Weld a plates  the base.squeeze the other end so that the stock rear end fits inside .
Fill up with paint stripper or acetone,
Deep your stock inside for a few days and your stock will be " blank". You do the same for removing old oil from stock.

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## garyp

Yeah,just use paint stripper and stainless steel wool and toothbrush to clean out checkering. Then, use Scherells oil dark walnut to finish. This makes a beautiful satin finish.

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## grunzter

Back again,
See below pictures of the wood bits before they get worked on, which wont be until ~March...

I have found this oil...
Birchwood Casey Stock Stain Walnut - color, stain, sunfast, produces, clear, rich, ... - Serious Shooters
But not the 'Scherells' item mentioned above.

Out of interest does the wood need any other finishing after the oil?
I see many other stocks seem to have a slight sheen to them, but its definately not a varnish...



basically after a more original look like this (original woodwork was Dark Walnut):

not a good photo but gives the idea.

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## Shamus

Personally I have had good luck with Truoil Birchwood Casey Tru Oil Gun Stock Finish 8oz - Solvents Oils Blues Finishing - Vices Tools Cleaning - Accessories - Reloaders Supplies Ltd

Have used it on probably 20 or so stocks over the years and it gives a good durable finish IF applied correctly

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## northdude

if you don't have a container ive seen people put stripper on it and wrap it in plastic don't know what stripper they used but it worked well and it didn't attack the plastic

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## grunzter

I picked up this set from Reloaders this morning for $36.

https://www.birchwoodcasey.com/Refin...inish-Kit.aspx

I will photograph my progress and post here, as i intend to do the same with a Remington 788 stock.
As for the later i may also try bluing it, or may just get a modern coat of something on it...

Some vids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaCBHb0wDls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOhnr9AENLU

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## northdude

be good to see how it goes whats the 788 ive got one that I wouldn't mind having a darker stock

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## rambo-6mmrem

use paint stripper but the non caustic stuff use solvent based stuff as caustic stuff will bleach the wood not a worry if repainting but no good if your oiling coat well and wrap in plasic food wrap and leave a couple of hours then it should scrub off with a nylon brush may need to do a 2nd or 3rd time if its stubben  

if you use tru oil keep coats very thin just rub it in with your finger and use lots of coats till you get it where you want it

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## grunzter

Some progress.
Used polystripper to remove varnish, then washed clean.
A few small patches remain that will easily sand off.
Next is to smooth off the wood prior to staining. I am following the comments above and the birchwood casey instructions and videos so should be ok...

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## Shamus

Good idea to neutralise with methylated spirits after using paint stripper if you haven't already done so.

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## grunzter

ok, will need to get some tomorrow. thanks.

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## rambo-6mmrem

sand down your wood as far as you want to then give it a coat of meths and let dry before the 1st coat of oil or stain if you a planning to stain it 1st this opens the pores on the wood and lets the oil in better to seal the wood good and proper then a light sand between coats a tac cloth is a good idea to remove any dust before recoating be sure to leave enough time between coats tru oil can be anything upto 3 days between coats depending on conditions don't try and rush it you will fuck yourself in the eye...

also any dust will stick to the finish so be sure to coat and let dry in a very clean spot and sand etc elsewhere  even make yourself a little clean room by pinning up tarps or something to keep dust out sounds overkill but trust me dust has a way of finding wet tru oil that's why I tend to use faster drying stuff
take your time and they come out mint 

here's one I finished with Danish oil a a couple of weeks ago- im shit with wood but have a good mate who's fantastic and he's taught me lots so just passing the info on

cheers
rambo

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## grunzter

Cheers Rambo, looks good.
Yes I intend to stain it first with BC walnut stain.
Your other points noted, and I will take my time. I guess I will have to be very careful with the light sands between coats so I don't remove any of the stain.
I will just use a 400 grit sand paper or some 0000 steel wool I bought.
grant

oh, just picked up some meths a few minutes ago to give it a final clean before I start...

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## rambo-6mmrem

sounds good show us your progress

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## grunzter

Ok, a few nights ago it had a very good clean with meths!
Then I left it a few days to fully dry from the wash it had the night before.

Today I started out with sanding using 280 grit.
I found the finish pretty good to start so did not want to go to 180...
After the 280 I then went onto 400 grit which made a very nice fine finish. After the 400 grit I gave it a polish with 000 steel wool and blow down with compressed air and a wipe with a tack cloth.
I took about 1.5~2 hrs sanding and polishing...

After all that I got stuck into the staining. Using the BC walnut stain.
I ended up giving it 4 coats in total, 3 consecutively and the forth a few hours later... as I was after a dark finish.
The touch now is VERY smooth, so I don't think it will need any further sanding before the true-oil.

I will leave it at least a day for drying before the first coat of true-oil.

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## jakewire

looks good.

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## grunzter

thanks.
First coat of Tru-Oil tonight.
...will give it a rub with steel wool before the next one, but will leave that to tomorrow at the earliest if not the following night depending upon how much soaked in etc...

...crap photo... its not quite as dark as shown here...

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## grunzter

Another update,
First photo is how it looked like after drying for the night.
Second photo is after a rub down with 000 steel wool and a tack cloth. more or less the look I am after. The final birchwood casey product should accomplish this once the tru-oil is finished...
Third photo is after the second coat of Tru-oil.

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## rambo-6mmrem

looking good mate how meny coats of tru oil are you going to do will take longer to dry the more coats you do as the wood stops takeing in the oil

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## grunzter

Looking at it this morning, its looking very well covered and shiny, so I think I will give it an extra day or so to dry, and then a third coat.
then let that dry for at least 3 days before I use the BC stock sheen & conditioner (rubbing compound) to dull it down again.

I'm guessing I don't need 4 coats of the Tru-oil, but will have a good look after the third before making that decision.
Quite happy how it has come out so far.

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## grunzter

Third coat of Tru-Oil on.
I waited about 3 days and gave it a quick scuff for the next coat, I had a few small runs, and at the tail of them the oil was still soft underneath.
So lesson learnt, if you have a run let it dry longer before sanding/scuffing!

I then left it until now so more or less fully harden, then got rid of the runs, and applied the 3rd coat.
To me it looks great, just not sure if I should give it another coat before applying the final stock sheen (rubbing compound to make the finish satin), as don't want the high gloss finish.,

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## Chop3r

You will need to have quiet hands when taking the shine off or it the finish can really piss you off, i.e. if there are any high spots you will soon see the difference.

Just for shit and giggles one day, I thinned the Trueoil and used 400 grade wet and dry to sand the finish on and old stock. Had to work quite quickly but it came out OK. Not my thing but some people like it

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## grunzter

thanks for the heads up.
I'm hoping that I don't stuff it all up in the last step, that's why I am thinking about one last coat of oil, to give more depth to the finish to prevent me from making a mess.

...what can go wrong  :Omg:

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## grunzter

Ok I put a 4th coat of Tru-oil on, so will let it dry for a week before it gets a rub down with the stock sheen/conditioner.

So far happy just need to get rid of the shine.
It is shown with a 1-4x Millet scope from the spares bin, just need to get some 30mm Sako Optilocks for it,...

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## grunzter

Gave it the final 'Stock Sheen & Conditioner' tonight, and it came out great.
Still a satin finish, but looks better in real life than in the photo's I take, will try and take better pics tomorrow.
in the photo below the steel looks nearly silver...

In the end it got 4 coats of stain, and 4 coats of tru-oil, and so far one rubbing with the conditioner...


what it looked like when before I started:

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## grunzter

Some slightly better pictures... ready to eat brass  :Have A Nice Day:

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## rambo-6mmrem

well done @grunzter

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