Grain filler

[bub524]

I'm working on a walnut stock & as you know it has open grain. What do you fellas use for a filler for the open grain? Birchwood Casey used to make some stuff called "walnut filler" many years ago, but I haven't seen it around lately. Suggestions?
Firewalker
TMA 137

 

[Zonie]

BC still makes the grain filler. It is called "Gun Stock Sealer and Filler". Your local gunshop should be able to order some for you, or you can buy it from Dixie Gunworks, Track of the Wolf or Muzzleloader Builders Supply.

Another approach if you saved some sandpaper dust from all of your sanding is to mix it with some linseed oil to form a paste. Apply it rubbing across the grain and let it dry for 24 hours. Then use a rough rag, again rubbing across the grain, to rub the excess off.

Another way is to apply a little linseed or tung oil to the wood and sand it some more. The dust will mix with the oil and the sanding pressure will fill the grain of the wood.
If you use this method, sand with the grain, not across it.

 

I would just use the wet-sanding method Zonie described above. Dilute tung oil about 50/50 with mineral spirits, dunk your sandpaper (320-grit is about the optimum... 400-grit is just too fine and doesn't produce enough dust fast enough) in the diluted tung oil, and sand with the grain. (Thinning the oil makes it easier to work with, and helps it soak into the wood giving you a more durable finish.)

You will end up with a slurry of dust-filled oil on the surface of the wood. Wipe that slurry very gently (we're talking no pressure here... as lightly as you can wipe it) ACROSS the grain at an angle. This will fill the pores with the dust-filled oil slurry (think along the same lines as working grout into tile joints). Let it dry for 24 hours and repeat until your grain is filled. Will probably take at least 3 or 4 wet sandings, maybe up to ten. You have to let the wood completely dry between sandings, because even though the pores will look filled after the first one or two sandings, when it dries, the stuff will shrink up and you'll see the pores again. When you don't see any more pores in the wood after the drying period, you know you're there.

When you're done, not only is your grain filled, but you have a nice durable finish on the wood, and you could literally stop there. Adding more coats on top of that to provide a surface finish is completely optional.

 

[Swampman]

Has anyone stained a stock with LMF or Dangler's prior to using this method? I can't decide wheather to use this method, or the flat black paint method.

 

[bub524]

Thanks for the advice. I like the wet sanding idea.
Swampman, what is LMF, Danglers, and the flat black paint method. I saw a couple of rifles in the past that had been painted and the builder claimed "they did that ya know", but never took this seriously.

 

[Swampman]

Laurel Mountain Forge and Dangler's are alcohol based stains. Some builders spray the stock with flat black paint after a couple of coats of finish and then sand the stock back leaving the flat black paint in the pores.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Flat black Rustoleum.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Didn't the British also paint the "Sea Service" muskets with black paing to protect the metal from salt corrosion? Seems I have seen this from various sources.

For an oil finish I don't use a filler. I take it down smooth with 0 steel wool, then apply boiled linseed oil by hand rubbing. When dry overnight, I use 00 steel wool, hard for the first two rubbings and lightly thereafter, followed by a thorough wipe off with a clean rag/towel, and repeat until it looks right ~ maybe seven coats. The wood itself becomes the pore sealer as the oil and saturated dust from the steel wool is worked in. Any filler will likely be a different color (even the "stainable" variety doesn't take it at the same rate and to the same tone as the surrounding wood).

 

Any good furniture varnish or spar varnish will fill the pores. You may need a second coat but you will never need 8 or 10 coats.