Looking for recommendations - Pedersoli Brown Bess refinish

[Sylvanrush]

Hello there - new member.

I've challenged myself with the task of refinishing a worn Pedersoli Brown Bess stock - the musket has some wear through the finish and has dings/dents from heavy use over the years. My concern is it has so many dings and dents that I'm not sure if I should put my expectation of a gorgeous restored result all that high; I can't sand down the walnut enough to remove the dings and dents in the wood, so I'm not sure if I should really try all that hard. My main aim is to restore a consistent finish and protect the unfinished wood, and if I can have it looking a little less battered after-the-fact, great. This is an active re-enactor's musket, so I want take the opportunity to do it during the winter months so it can be returned to use before the spring.

Here are some pictures - I'm looking for recommendations on how to approach stripping & refinishing the stock; I've seen some people recommend using acetone to remove the lacquer, and others recommend sanding - any help would be most appreciated, this is a first time for me.

I can supply additional pictures if that helps, but I think these give you the gist of what I'm getting myself into..

Thanks!

-Drew

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
These two threads may help you.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...nto-a-dublin-castle-short-land-musket.138872/https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/new-reworking-a-pedersoli-brown-bess.107405/
dave

 

[Nobade]

I like to use scrapers made from old hacksaw blades to remove finish. And don't try to sand out dents, but rather steam them to make them go away. Otherwise your stock gets really small.

 

[Sylvanrush]

Thanks for the threads, Dave

scraping with the back side of a hacksaw blade, sounds good to me

how do you steam the dents exactly, Nobade?

 

[Steve Martin]

For best results you need to first strip off the clear finish then use a lightly wet (not soaking wet) towel placed over the dent, and "iron" back and forth over the towel with a hot steam iron. Works pretty well. From the looks of your stock I'm not sure I wouldn't just strip the glossy finish, buff with steel wool and then finish with some Tru Oil.

 

[sheriff john]

doing this right now on an old Dixie rifle, had great advice from this here forum. Acetone worked best, fastest, gave me a headache. Followed with citrus strip. Back to acetone. Dents gotta be raised before sanding on mine. Finished with 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Used a rough woven, non-soap cleaning pad for acetone and stripper.

Multi-day project.

 

[poker]

doing this right now on an old Dixie rifle, had great advice from this here forum. Acetone worked best, fastest, gave me a headache. Followed with citrus strip. Back to acetone. Dents gotta be raised before sanding on mine. Finished with 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Used a rough woven, non-soap cleaning pad for acetone and stripper.

Multi-day project.

2000 grit? Lol thats a good one

 

[sheriff john]

2000 grit? Lol thats a good one

Pardon me. It's 1000 grit. Starting on linseed oil today. Dark walnut stain (Minwax) really darkened up overnight. If it works, plan to keep applying linseed oil finish.

My next "project" is a T.C. Hawken. Previous owner spray-painted cracked/glued stock, lock, and buttplate with black Krylon enamel. P.O.S.? Yup. Still fun to play with.

 

[Nobade]

Thanks for the threads, Dave

scraping with the back side of a hacksaw blade, sounds good to me

how do you steam the dents exactly, Nobade?

Steve Martin beat me to it - a wet cloth steamed with a hot iron.
Modern hacksaw blades are bimetal; hard on the teeth and soft on the back. If you can find the old ones made out of high speed steel all the way through they can be ground into many useful shapes for scraping. A full length one works great on stocks since you can flex it and get it to follow curves, removing the finish without cutting the wood underneath.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
A good solution for a scraper is to buy carpet scraper blades from the local hardware store as I show below.

They are cheap and can be sharpened on stones many times.

dave

 

[Sylvanrush]

thanks much! I’ve just about got the finish stripped; I initially used a hacksaw blade and then just went out and got some scrapers in various shapes, along with a burnisher to keep the scraper edges optimal. There are some areas of the stock a scraper can’t get in, so I’m using 220 grit sandpaper to sand away the finish there - my next step after removing the finish will be using the wet towel/hot iron on MANY of the dents and dings - see what we can do reduce those. I’ll post more pics as I continue, thanks kindly for the recommendations and advice, keep it comin’!

 

[Sylvanrush]

Alright, so the stock is stripped - here are some pics of it next to another finished Bess I have.. my next step is to grab a wet towel and run a hot iron over it to try and pull done of the dings/dents.. following that, I’d like to stain it to be slightly darker than the finished one in the pictures.. to that end, I bought a tru-oil gun stock finish kit that comes with a water-based walnut stain - I’ll likely use it unless someone has a better recommendation.

Thanks,

-Drew

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
The stain and Tru-oil will work fine. The lock panel flats around your lock are too wide. Trim them down if you want to improve the authentic look of the gun.

dave

 

[Sylvanrush]

what’d you use to trim them back, Dave? a pencil to outline the desired shape and a chisel?

 

[bptactical]

To remove a finish without sanding, scraping or any other mechanical means you need to “White” it.
It is an old technique and it takes time but it is extremely effective on oil and varnish finishes.
IT WILL NOT WORK ON A POLY/SYNTHETIC FINISH!
First off you need to get “Whiting” from a pottery supply store- it’s nothing more than ground chalk that is a fine powder.
Take your solvent of choice, a lot of this depends on the finish, denatured alcohol, works well for a linseed finish, varnishes require stronger such as lacquer thinner and acetone.
Strip the weapon down to a bare stock.
Take the whiting and your solvent and mix it into a paste, just a bit thicker than cake batter- you don’t want it to run.
Slather the paste on the stock and walk away.
Give it time to work and time to dry thoroughly.
The solvent will liquify the finish and the whiting will wick it out of the wood without harming it.
Brush it off and discard it.
You need to repeat this until no more color wicks into the whiting.
This can take up to a week of twice daily applications. The last stock I did was a Yugoslavian Kalishnakov and I was rewarded with a nicely grained walnut stock once the oil, grime and cosmoline was wicked out of it.

There are some good tutorials and references online.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
I don't know what your tool kit looks like but a simple flat carpet scraper blade from the hardware store for the relatively straight sections and then you could take an old screw driver, round the end into a flat spoon shape, and sharpen the edge. That would work for the tighter recesses and curves.

Finishing:
Here I use an orange-brown mix of aniline dyes dissolved in water to give that color to the anemic Pedersoli walnut stock.

Note how I angled the baluster wrist downward into the butt stock, which gives the illusion the stock is taller.
Then I applied one coat of thinned finish to seal the wood and let that dry.

Then I burnished the wood with a polished antler tip to push down the grain. This step is not required but it helps to fill the grain on walnut faster requiring fewer coats of finish.

Finally, adding finish coats sparingly and wiping off all excess finish before drying until I have the desired look.

Notice in the last photo that the pin for the barrel in the fore stock is recessed a little leaving a shallow hole. Pins and bolts on British guns should always enter from the side plate side. Even the heads of the sling swivel screws should be on the left side (side plate) of the gun. I make the barrel pins slightly short so that when they are tapped in from the left side and are flush with the wood, they are recessed on the other side. The recess or hole is then useful for guiding your punch when tapping the pins out preventing the punch from slipping off the pin and damaging the stock.

dave

 

[Sylvanrush]

To remove a finish without sanding, scraping or any other mechanical means you need to “White” it.
It is an old technique and it takes time but it is extremely effective on oil and varnish finishes.
IT WILL NOT WORK ON A POLY/SYNTHETIC FINISH!
First off you need to get “Whiting” from a pottery supply store- it’s nothing more than ground chalk that is a fine powder.
Take your solvent of choice, a lot of this depends on the finish, denatured alcohol, works well for a linseed finish, varnishes require stronger such as lacquer thinner and acetone.
Strip the weapon down to a bare stock.
Take the whiting and your solvent and mix it into a paste, just a bit thicker than cake batter- you don’t want it to run.
Slather the paste on the stock and walk away.
Give it time to work and time to dry thoroughly.
The solvent will liquify the finish and the whiting will wick it out of the wood without harming it.
Brush it off and discard it.
You need to repeat this until no more color wicks into the whiting.
This can take up to a week of twice daily applications. The last stock I did was a Yugoslavian Kalishnakov and I was rewarded with a nicely grained walnut stock once the oil, grime and cosmoline was wicked out of it.

There are some good tutorials and references online.

Thanks! I’ll have to give this a try on a future project

 

[Sylvanrush]

Thanks for the detailed response, Dave! I sanded down the lock area in an effort to “defarb” it, as you mentioned.. the tear-drop ornamentation near the thumbplate is pretty much gone and is pulled into a point - I’d like to make the point a little more definable, but that’s ok. here are some updated pics of the lock area:

 

[sturmkatze]

To remove a finish without sanding, scraping or any other mechanical means you need to “White” it.
It is an old technique and it takes time but it is extremely effective on oil and varnish finishes.
IT WILL NOT WORK ON A POLY/SYNTHETIC FINISH!
First off you need to get “Whiting” from a pottery supply store- it’s nothing more than ground chalk that is a fine powder.
Take your solvent of choice, a lot of this depends on the finish, denatured alcohol, works well for a linseed finish, varnishes require stronger such as lacquer thinner and acetone.
Strip the weapon down to a bare stock.
Take the whiting and your solvent and mix it into a paste, just a bit thicker than cake batter- you don’t want it to run.
Slather the paste on the stock and walk away.
Give it time to work and time to dry thoroughly.
The solvent will liquify the finish and the whiting will wick it out of the wood without harming it.
Brush it off and discard it.
You need to repeat this until no more color wicks into the whiting.
This can take up to a week of twice daily applications. The last stock I did was a Yugoslavian Kalishnakov and I was rewarded with a nicely grained walnut stock once the oil, grime and cosmoline was wicked out of it.

There are some good tutorials and references online.

Aren't the pedersolis finished in poly? I thought they were anyway.

 

[rusticbob]

I just finished a strip and refinish on a Pedersoli trade gun, BLO finish sanded in, many coats. I love the chocolate brown finish.