Thread: Filling open grain on stock on the cheap

As you can see my poor old No.1 MkIII* has terrible open grain pores on the buttstock. Who knows what this thing has seen in the past.
As well as being ugly they are also open enough to catch facial hair when getting a cheek weld.
The gun was $70 so name of the game is low budget.
All I used was boiled linseed oil and some 400 grit sandpaper, method is as follows:
Coat in a stupidly thick layer of oil and let it go all sticky approx 24 hours.
Apply a fresh coat and start 'wet' sanding with a little square of the 400 grit sandpaper.
You'll see a bunch of black muck forming around the sandpaper edges, this is a mix of oil, wood dust and old finishes that were on the wood, and it's what is being used to fill the pores.
Sand until the paper is totally gums up, it stops sanding and acts more like a burnishing pad, and the stock will have a hazy finish and the pores should be visibly filled with the black muck.
Set aside to dry for another 24 hours.
After a quick wipe with a cloth I found the pores were only shallowly filled, I suppose the filling had shrunk while drying, so I repeated the process several times.
I'm a little concerned that future oiling may dissolve the filler material and remove it all over again but it seems pretty hard.

I've used coloured wood filler before, water based so it can be thinned out to get into fine pores. Available in various wood colours as well as some primary colours. Depends where you are I could drop off some for you to try out. I use to hide or highlight defects depending on my mood at the time.

Epoxy, troweled over cracks and pits then smoothed off to the level of the wood also works a treat and doesn't shrink

At the end of the day - the stock on a military SMLE was never a masterpiece - it was a functional handle for a foot soldier to use to point his rifle away from his mates. The finish was never in the same league as a Rigby sporter , and to make it super smooth takes away from the history of the piece.

Having said that , i have made a slurry of wood dust and Danish oil , and done just that on a .22 sporter stock. It wasnt as open-pored though .

the oil,any oil will help.....drying out over the years will have shrunk wit hwood,allowing cracks to open. sounds like your on to it.

Get a bottle of Artists Linseed Oil (Paper Plus, Warehouse Stationery, etc), apply and allow to dry (1-2 days) polish off across the grain with coarse cloth, repeat a couple of times and rub the last light coat well-in by hand; voila! an authentic oil finish.

Plus 1 for clear epoxy.
Then sand right back and oil.

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/threa...photos.331108/

This is what you need. Amazing results on wood. 2C.

PM Nimrod and ask him for his recipe.

Originally Posted by TeRei

PM Nimrod and ask him for his recipe.

It will be a mix of sika blood, then add sweat and tears

Originally Posted by gundoc

Get a bottle of Artists Linseed Oil (Paper Plus, Warehouse Stationery, etc), apply and allow to dry (1-2 days) polish off across the grain with coarse cloth, repeat a couple of times and rub the last light coat well-in by hand; voila! an authentic oil finish.

The (real) old-timers used to say that a stock should be oiled once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, then once a year forever.

Linseed oil oxidizes, rather than dries by volatilisation. As such, a dry, warm space is a must - avoid humid spaces like the plague. And watch where you throw the rags - they can and do spontaneously start smouldering!!

Originally Posted by Bol Tackshin

The (real) old-timers used to say that a stock should be oiled once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, then once a year forever.
!

And many of them did it with tung oil which has a natural drying element to it and is one of the best oils to use to sand into the pores to fill the grain and as @gundoc says wiping the surplus across the grain although I use a paper towel now. There are quicker way to finish rifle stocks now although I have done them with straight tung oil for myself.

Im still trying to see any issue here......