Finishing a Kit

[Nenajungas]

Hello All,
I am getting to the point of staining and browning my kit gun. I was wondering if there are and special things that I need to do before I stain the stock or brown the barrle. Also what part need to be browned (lock, hammer, trigger, triggergaurd, butplate, ...). Thank you for any advice.
~Nenajungas :thanks:

 

What kind of kit gun?

commercial kit or builders kit?

 

[Scharfrichter]

What brand rust-brown are ya usin'?

 

[Nenajungas]

Have not picked out a rust-browned brand yet, any ideas. It is a lyman Great plains rifle 50 cal. percusion. Thinking of soaking some walnuts from the back yard for a stain.

 

[Scharfrichter]

Laurel Mtn. Forge makes a nice plum brown. I would advise against Wahkon bay though as it has a tendancy to bead up on the surface and cause an uneven finish unless you mix it with triton detergent. As for the stock, you're on your own there as I'm partial to oil finishes mebbe in combination with some aquafortis.

 

[rusty]

Laurel mountain makes a good browning solution I browned my GPR with muriatic acid it turned out fine for me with any browning solution it is a good idea to degrease the parts to be browned with rubbing alchahol.As far as the stock goes I just used boiled linseed oil hand rubbed and it turned out very well the wood that Lyman supplies is some kind of european walnut and does not need a stain in my opinion.Good luck I have had my GPR for over 20 years and it still shoot's and looks great...rusty :imo:

 

[Zonie]

To decide if the stock needs any stain, get a wet sponge.
Go outside on a clear sunny day and wet the wood with the sponge and and look at it.

The color and darkness is what the wood will look like after it is oiled without any stain.
If it is to your likeing, go ahead and finish it without staining it.
If it is too light for your liking, stain it before puting the oil finish on it.

After the water has evaporated, using new fine grit sandpaper, lightly sand the rough "whiskers" which the water raised off before doing anything else to the wood.

I kind of like your using walnut hulls to get a stain. I've never tried it but I think I heard it works best if you lightly boil them?
Any one else ever used these? ::

 

[Old40Rod]

To decide if the stock needs any stain, get a wet sponge. Go outside on a clear sunny day and wet the wood with the sponge and and look at it.

Great advice for any wood and particularly for GPR stocks as they are generally very dark to begin with... I simply used a boiled linseed mix on mine. If I had used any stain at all it would have been much too dark.

 

[cptleo1]

A couple quick easy thoughts.

I scrape my stocks instead of sanding them.

The grain then has much more pop to it and the mineral deposits or what ever the blochy stuff in their Walnut comes out lickety split.

By all means take the stock outside and THEN wet it.

This is incredible GOOD advise. You will see what you will end up with.

For stain I took some cherry and cut it 4 to 1 with alcohol, this gave it just a touch of color, which I liked.

But, the main thing is, use some color of highly diluted stain CUZ it will show you all the little scratches and stuff that normally you won't notice till you have 4-5 coats of finish on it :curse:. Then you have to figure out to keep going or start over agian ! ::

Ask me how I figured that one out ?

I love the GPR - 'bout 10-12 hand rubbed coats of truoil (Two coats a day) to fill in all those nasty little wood pores and you will smile every time you pick her up. Good luck

God Bless

Leo

 

[Nenajungas]

With this being my first gun I've never heard of just using linseed oil. What do you do to prepare it and work with it? It there any final coating after the oil? It is to dark to test the wood now but will do in the morning. Thanks for all the great advice and help.
~Nenajungas :thanks:

 

Linseed Oil is easy to use, but first off buy the smallest size you can get, as a little goes a long way. You just rub it in with your fingers, apply a couple of drops, and rub it in till it's gone, then apply a couple more, and repeat til the stock is finished. Let dry for a day or so, and repeat, until you get what you like, this could be three coats or it could be twenty-five coats. But seeing as you are a first timer. I would recommend Birchwood-Casey's Tru-oil finish. It's applied the same way, with good results. :imo: :m2c: Bill

 

[Nenajungas]

Rusty,
you said somethin about boiling the linseed oil would you do that the rub it or just use unboild from the bottle?
~Nenajungas

 

[Scharfrichter]

When I use linseed (which I did on that Jaeger I posted pics of) I generally use a multi-step process which starts with linseed and ends with tung oil.

For the portion of the process where I use linseed I'll mix a solution of about 40% linseed and 60% turpentine and about every 2-3 coats increase the amount of linseed until you reach plain linseed. If it takes longer than overnight for a coat to be absorbed then I jump straight to plain linseed and then cut back with 4-ought steel wool.

The part involving tung oil is pretty simple, just slap on a coat and let it dry, cut it back with 4-ought, rinse and repeat. The number of times you do this is totally up to you, adding a bit of japan drier for your last coat or two is also an option. So all in all it's not a "straight up" linseed oil finish but that's mainly due to the fact that linseed never dries so the tung oil is used to create something of a shell if ya wanna call it that.

On a side note... I find that this looks quite nice when used in combination with aquafortis.

 

[tg]

:Before applying any finish, the stock should be free of dirt and grime, should be "silk" smooth, and should have been stained with an oil based stain. I will assume that you know how to properly prepare the stock, including lifting the grain twice, etc., before applying the stain.

In a glass jar that has a tight lid, mix equal volumes of any marine spar varnish and boiled linseed oil. Add 1/2 volume turpentine. You don't need to mix up a lot of finish, as a small jar will finish more than one rifle. Cut a number of 10"x10" or larger squares of cloth from old 100% white tee-shirts. You'll use these to wipe down the stock. Wipe down the stock with a clean soft white cloth. All applications of the finish are thin, using just enough to cover well. The first 2 or 3 coats should include all inlet areas of the stock. The purpose is to protect it from moisture.

Apply the first coat with your fingers, firmly rubbing the finish into the wood with the grain. Let the stock set for 2 hours. Take one of the folded tee-shirt squares and with the grain, wipe down the stock gently but firmly. Let set for at least 12 hours. Repeat this with 2 more applications. All of the inlet areas of the stock should now be sealed, and application of finish in these areas is complete.

Apply a 4th coat of finish as above, except let it dry for 2 days. Continue the process until you have a smooth, deep, glossy finish. YES! Originals did have a glossy finish! Applying an additional coat of finish every 6 to 12 months will enhance and maintain its durability and beauty indefinitely. "

The above was borrowed from Fred Miller, I have used it on several gunstocks and it is a great finish if the instructions are followed. By lightly sanding/wooling between coats you can tone down the gloss to your liking,and fill the pours in Walnut stocks, I never though it was really a high gloss as per intructions.

 

[AeroE]

I wouldn't recommend you try linseed oil on the entire gun until you try a smaller piece, and if you do, get the highest quality product you can find. If it doesn't have a dryer additive (most bought in hardware stores do) you can get japan dryer at an art store to help it cure, particularly when the weather is humid.

It is not going to dry hard, and it will take several days before you can rub it out with a lint free rag (heavy emphasis on lint free), particularly if you put a thick coat on - go easy with it. Most of the folks here probably apply linseed oil with their bare hands and rub rub it in with bare hands.

The old Marine Corps way is to "apply it once a day for a week, once a week for a month, and once a month for a year".

Straight linseed oil looks great when you get finished, but it's not a particularly good finish if you plan to hunt in wet weather.

Someone's secret formula with linseed oil mixed with tung oil (plus other double secret ingredients) is a better choice, Linspeed from Brownell's is good, and Tru-Oil is great. Tru-oil may be common in gunstores, but it is a superior product and deserves more respect than it gets.

 

[rusty]

Hi you do not have to boil the oil or heat it in any way they call it boiled linseed oil because it has been purified or so I have been led to believe.you can getit at any hardware or paint store Wallmart anywhere.what
I would do is make sure your stock is dust free,mix the oil with turpentine or paint thinner 50-50 just a small amount of each put it on liberaly let it soak in then wipe any excess of with a lint free clean cloth let it set over night then after that apply oil only in small amounts with the palm of your hand rub it in real good so that you can feel the heat from the friction do this several times over a period of days and you will have a real good finish on your rifle.I hope I have not rambeled on to much .Good luck ..rusty

 

[Old40Rod]

My linseed was the store bought pre-boiled kind eace: My local gunsmithy said to use a 4:1 linseed to spar mix for the first coat. Everything went on fine and was followed up with about 10-15 hand rubbed coats of straight linseed over about a 10 day period. Linseed will darken up a bit when it dries and my stock ended up with a deep, rich walnut color without any stain... easy to touch up scratches also.

I suppose you could do without the spar but others say that linseed only finish won't waterproof the stock. So you might want to final coat with Tru-oil. I've even seen some posts that recommend a car wax final coat.


:m2c:

 

[Scharfrichter]

Geez, theres a lot more ways to do linseed than I'd imagined. Time to start testin' hehe

 

[Nenajungas]

Great Idea to wet the stock it looked great in the sun. :master:. Thanks for everyones help. When its finished I'llbe sure to post pics.
Till then,
~Nenajungas :hatsoff:

 

[AeroE]

I forgot to add in my post that you will want to cut the linseed oil with mineral spirits, at least 3 parts thinner to 1 part linseed oil, 4 parts thinner is probably better for the first coats.

Nowadays when anyone talks about linseed oil for gun stocks, they mean boiled linseed oil; on the other hand,I have no doubts that someone reading this finds raw linseed oil somewhere and cooks it himself.

Linseed oil is easy to find, but it's not all of identical quality. By the way, don't store your rags in the house or garage as they can autocombust (catch on fire without a flame present).