Trapdoor Rifles

I have an M1873 that, unfortunately, somebody sanded slightly and refinished the stock with a shiny shellac or something. Should I carefully strip the shine (without sanding) and then finish with Linseed oil or leave it alone. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

My opinion: What the OTHER person did was "refinishing", and that is too bad, as a rifle is only a virgin once. What YOU would be doing is "restoring" it to a more original state, which would be my choice, in that case. That exact scenario is the focus of my next project. Some dork "sporterized" a very rare Long Range rifle stock, and finished it with some sort of shiny modern coating. I am going to graft on a new forend and, at the same time endeavor to return the Hotchkiss-style butt portion to a matching oil finish. I have to be VERY careful because there is a very faint [SWP/1880] cartouche which I do not want to lose in the process. Fortunately, in my case I'll be able to experiment on the stub to be discarded. You'll need to be careful.

But, there are those who feel that EVERYTHING (good, bad, and in between) ever done to a gun since it was made is "part of its' story" and should be left strictly as you find it, and, if you can't live with that, buy another gun!" Of course, that only applies to the garden-variety pieces - the rarer the item, the more your viewpoint might have to change.

Ultimately, your choice, but I would back your doing it.

Thanks for the advice! That's what I was hoping to hear. Whether it's a gun, lionel train, or some other collectible, the word usually is, "leave it alone". I will forever have to live with the fact that somebody sanded the stock. At least I can get rid of that annoying shiny finish!

I’d knock down that shine with #0000 steel wool . . . .NOT the Chinese stuff readily procured, but the good stuff as sold by McMasters Carr.

The Chinese wool is mostly short strand “powder-like”, while the old-fashioned, long strand AMERICAN wool will not leave embedded steel in the wood.

Nuttin’ like an oil finish after you apply the elbow grease.

I'd use a chemical stripper which will get all the finish off, including much from the pores, and slightly raise the grain.

if you like the color (it may be lightened a little by the stripper) proceed to finish. If not, try some leather dye, like Feibings,cut with their thinner or you can cheat and use lacquer thinner. Their russet color is pretty good for U.S. martial stocks, but if you plan on doing a lot of stock work, get a couple shades in the dark brown, tan, russet, and reddish mahogany shades and you can mix to match existing color when doing repairs. Thin it and go for a lighter shade, then apply additional coats to darken a little if needed. Leather dye is solvent or alcohol base and will penetrate better than water based stains. (Wear vinyl gloves, your fingers are just poorly tanned leather and will take dye very nicely!) A q-tip is fine for small areas, and a brush, dauber or rag will work on large areas, but soak up a lot of your stain in a hurry just wetting the rag. I do whole stocks just using a Q-tip.

Boiled linseed oil is best for an overall finish job. If blending into an existing finish then you can do some filling and build up with a glossy drying type finish like Tru-Oil, Linspeed, or Formby's tung oil. Only one or two coats to fill the pores, with steel wool after each. It is easy to end up with a "glazed donut" look which you don't want. Final finish with some boiled linseed oil to blend in with an old oil finish.

Wood repair and finish is sort of an art, but take your time, and let things dry overnight or longer each time. Fiddle around with scrap pieces a little at first to get the hang of how a stain will look on any type of wood, or how a finish will look.

If you don't like the results, you can go back to stripper and start over.