Finish remover question

[S.Kenton]

So anyhow, I done a search and couldn’t find too much of anything. I have a cva that I’m redoing, it has the factory finish on a wood stock, I’m wondering what’s the best finish remover to take the stock down to the bare wood? I was thinking of sanding it to the bare wood, but don’t want to remove too much material. I also considered scraping it, but again don’t want to remove material. Any ideas?

 

[Grimord]

Citrus strip has worked well for me. No real nasty chemicals.

 

[Erwan]

Moderns rifles have a varnish with polyurethane, so I use that type of produce : Robot or human?
You can find much other of this sort...

 

[Nobade]

I'm in the scraper camp. Done right you can remove the finish and not take much if any wood off. Long flexible scrapers made from hacksaw blades do the job quickly and you don't get any chemicals into the wood that might mess with you later.

 

[bptactical]

Some good info here:
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...dations-pedersoli-brown-bess-refinish.141114/

 

[user 48679]

FWIW, I've long (25+ years) used Formby's Furniture Refinisher (Amazon, Lowe's, etc), following the directions on the can, successfully.

 

[doubleset]

This really depends on (at least) a couple of things: the wood itself, and the finish currently on/in it.

Scraping may work, but is very error-prone -- particularly for the inexpert or impatient among us. Also, depending on the specific type of wood and the "openness" of the grain, you might have to take a LOT off by scraping in order to really get down to bare wood. A chemical remover and a stiff-ish brush should go a long way toward removing the finish without removing wood (though it will likely raise the grain, but you'll want to finish sand it anyway).

On the other hand, you may not need/want to get down to REALLY bare wood, but just get the surface clear of finish and leave the existing finish in the pores as "filler" over which you can apply new finish. How well that may work, of course, depends in part on what sort of new finish you'd like to apply. Also, do you plan on staining it?

To pick the correct remover, you really need to know what the current finish is -- or do some trials on some small unobtrusive parts of the wood.

 

[S.Kenton]

Thanks all, I’ll try the formsbys, it seems I’ve used that before. It’s been a while since I’ve refinished a factory built rifle… I honestly couldn’t remember what I used in the past.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I did a TC last week, I used a stripper from Lowe's, I picked it because it was cheaper then the others, It did the job well.

It was only 45 degrees out and it said the stripper worked the best above 65 so I covered the sprayed down stock with black plastic to get some heat. Three spray and soak sessions got almost all the finish off except in the barrel inlet.

 

[Nobade]

OK, I have to admit that most of my refinish work has been on stocks with modern "bowling alley" finishes. Epoxy or urethane based, and no stripper that I am aware of will remove that stuff. Obviously it works on some others. Thanks for the education, I do have a TC I want to do at some point and I'll try the spray stuff again.

 

[barracudadave67]

I use "Aircraft Paint Remover" in a spray can. It works great. I also use a stiff bristle brush after it soaks a while, scrubing it briskly. I then rinse it with cold water very well, and let it dry good.
If you use chemical based paint removers, you are not loosing any wood.

Dave

 

[SDSmlf]

I use KrudKutter for my first pass unless it’s a obviously modern poly type finish. Have also used it on Milsurp stocks, many being Tung or Linseed oil finished, and in addition to removing the old finish, it helps pull out any oil gun oil or grease from the wood. Manufacture claims ‘Earth Friendly’ and ‘Safe: No Harsh Solvents’, but I guess that is all relative to what you are comparing it to, and you sure don’t want to take a bath in the stuff, but it quickly strips most finishes off of a stock.

 

[S.Kenton]

Thanks guys, I’ll give the Lowe’s stuff a try, spray and brush… repeat. I’ll report back.

 

[Cherrybow]

I have refinished several CVA rifles and have yet to see one that didn’t need some wood removed. Don’t be afraid of scrapers and sand paper, you really have to try hard to remove too much wood.

 

[duca]

I’m just finishing up a cva big bore I picked up from a local gun shop, had way too much wood on it so I sanded away…

anthony

 

[Eric Krewson]

The stuff I used is "Kleen Strip", after the finish bubbled up I went over the stock with a putty knife to get the big hunks off. Between each session I washed the stock free of all the stripper in a laundry sink with very hot water and a stiff bristle brush.

 

[Col. Batguano]

For my short stocked milsurps (like M1 Garand or Carbines) I put them in the dishwasher for a couple of cycles. It draws out the finish, and raises the dents.