Refinishing a Pedersoli stock?

[Artificer]

Come on now, you must be a Yankee . I probably have at least 50 lbs vacuum sealed in 1/2 gallon Mason jars in the event of a Biden collapse. Of course, I have a couple of cases of Luzianne Red Bag with Chicory to satisfy my coffee needs. I love the scene in the John Wayne movie "The Undefeated" where during the fight scene, Dub Taylor (Yankee) is hiding beneath the picnic table during the fight, and reaches above thinking he is going to grab a hand full of fried chicken, but it is a bowl of grits, "damn grits".

Yep, and shortly after that, he would up with the rest of the bowl of grits in his face. I always called that Ironic Justice.

In April of 1982, I was going through the Smith & Wesson Revolver Armorer's Course. Unknowingly, I made the almost criminal mistake of ordering grits as part of my breakfast meal at an IHOP in Springfield, MA. That got a might ugly......

Gus

 

[deerstalkert]

married a scot. grits and haggis. mmmmmmmmmmm!

 

[Calarmory]

I just bought a Pedersoli Frontier last week, hate the Remington 700 finish. knew I was going to stain and oil finish it as they were done in the day. I have done over 9 or 10 Springfield Trapdoors, real Brown Bess, a Kentucky ,etc.will do this gun the same way.
If it were a customer gun I would use scrapers, but I used 220/320 , because I had to remove a fair amt of wood to finish the forestock conture to the barrel and ram rod channel, and a "adjustment" of the cheek rest and wrist. you know the architecture of the gun,you understand the reason. sorry, long winded, sooo..lite sanding was easy, very little stain areas that needed more work.
no stripper(citistrip) required. good luck on your build.

 

[John Spartan]

Thats my only area where these things are always an adventure: stain.
I claim no vast expertise or experience but, when using BLO, it’s always kind of a surprise how much the wood will darken with linseed oil. And sometimes not darken.
Had to replace a 1903 stock and ordered one (walnut) and when it arrived I was a quite surprised how very light in color it was. Like new balsa wood. Ordered a new handguard figuring I would never match the color and it arrived very dark. Almost mixed stain in the BLO for the stock but didn’t - and lucky I didn’t.
Anyway, trying not to make a Wall of Text, the very light stock darkened immediately with the very first BLO coat. Surprisingly so. In the end, when all done, both pieces of wood - clearly different out the box - ended up the same shade.
Raw wood always surprises.

 

[Compressorguy]

Anyone ever take factory finish off and redo a Pedersoli stock? Were you happy with the results? Any horror stories or pitfalls?

Recently refinished/customized a 1994 Pedersoli Kentucky Frontier flintlock rifle. Didn’t need to strip it as most of the finished got sanded/rasped off when re-contouring the stock and greatly slimming the forend. I don’t think mine was as “plasticy” as yours though and was easily sanded off with 80 grit. I burnished the stock several times with a 1/2 dowel rod before and after staining to remove the whiskers and harden it against dents. I then finished with several coats of Rusty Walnut stain, several coats of BLO and several coats of Tru-oil cut back with 0000 steel wool for a rich satin finish, then finished off with paste wax. Really happy with the way it turned out. There was some beautiful grain and figure under the original finish. Good luck with your project, love to see some finished pics.

 

[John Spartan]

I shall when I dig them out again. Got all 4 of them “put away”’for a few weeks (and going through withdrawals) to give the BLO a chance to really harden up and dry.
First coats were a BLO and Mineral Spirit mix (highly recommended very easy to work with) with a final straight BLO coat (that I rubbed for about 45 minutes before wiping) a few days ago.
So far, visually, I have been very happy with the results. Hell. Pistols easy to dig out. Lemme grab a pic.

 

[John Spartan]

Eh. Terrible lighting but here are the results with just BLO.

 

[Compressorguy]

Very nice and so much better than the plastic finish! Beautiful pistol!

 

[maillemaker]

Both the pistol and the rifle look great! I think I'm going to take the plunge and do my Brown Bess before too long. The lock mortise needs to be set in deeper anyway so this will be a great time to do it all.

 

[dave951]

Own several Pedersolis - one a pistol.
Love them all. Metal work and fit/finish are all great as is stock fit. Great guns but...
My only peeve is the weird Italian plastic varnish they use on the stock wood as it looks like...plastic varnish. Having rebuilt and refinished stocks on “modern” guns I know how nice oiled wood can be - and in this case historical per my reading. Kicking around using the pistol as a test.

Anyone ever take factory finish off and redo a Pedersoli stock? Were you happy with the results? Any horror stories or pitfalls?

Yup. I used a piece of broken glass as a scraper to get the worst off, then sanded with 120 and 220. Then hand rubbed BLO tinted with some brown stain. Turned out looking quite authentic.