T/C Hawken Stock refinish

[sgtgeorge]

Well, this was definitely a kit gun. I am, by no means, a traditionalist like others on this forum. That stock needed to be sanded in the worst way. After 4 hours, I got it smooth and all of the machine marks out of the wood. I polished the wood with progressively finer pieces of sandpaper with a final polish with 4O steel wool. The stock is ready for staining. With products from Home Depot readily available, what would anyone out there recommend as a stain. I want to apply a stain with a reddish tint on this piece of walnut. Does Home Depot carry a product that I can use? For a top coat, I plan to use (someone out there will freak when they read this) a rub on polyurethane. Rub on polyurethane is a 9:1 or 8:2 (I don't remember which is the exact ratio) of mineral spirits and polyurethane. You rub this stuff on with a rag like BLO or Tung Oil and it forms an impervious layer of protection against the elements. I have used this stuff extensively to refinish antique furniture rather than use varnish. This product is clear and it does not yellow with exposure to the air. I have used BLO to re-coat stocks on my M1 Garands, Carbines and my M1903 springfields. Frankly, I hate to use this stuff. I only use BLO on vitage arms with historic/monetary value. I want to use this Hawken for hunting, so I want the best protection I can find. :imo: Ideas for a stain? Anyone?

 

[bob1961]

just use tru-oil or tung oil and ya can even use boiled linseed oil and be fine with bout 6 coats and it will bring out the grain....using polyurethane will put on something ya just took off....on my old T/C hawken stock after going through takeing off the factory finish i didn't want to cover it back up....if ya look up roundballs posts bout his T/C's that he redone....you'll see how the grain on them look with just some kind of oil on them..................bob

 

[sgtgeorge]

Well, I stained the stock this morning. I used a reddish stain. Hardly tell on the walnut. I baked the stock in the oven (wife is at work!) at 250 degrees for a half hour to dry the stain quickly. I broke down and bought Minwax's Tung Oil Finish. It is not the same as using real Tung Oil. Formby's and Minwax mix solvents in their finishes so that they dry quickly. Real Tung Oil or BLO have no solvents and dry very slowly. When I refinish furniture, I use what I call a hotbox. Basically it is a small greenhouse that gets real hot inside and protects the finish from getting dusty while its drying. Finishes with solvents (including polyurethane) dry completely in two hours. By doing this I can get four coats of finish on over the course of a day. Neat trick.

 

[roundball]

I stained the first TC Hawken I refinished then went over it with a few costs of Tru-Oil...ended up way too dark and obscured a lot of grain...refinished it a second time...and every one since then I only used coats of Tru-Oil as it makes them pretty dark just by itself

 

[davy]

Well, I stained the stock this morning. I used a reddish stain. Hardly tell on the walnut. I baked the stock in the oven (wife is at work!) at 250 degrees for a half hour to dry the stain quickly. I broke down and bought Minwax's Tung Oil Finish. It is not the same as using real Tung Oil. Formby's and Minwax mix solvents in their finishes so that they dry quickly. Real Tung Oil or BLO have no solvents and dry very slowly. When I refinish furniture, I use what I call a hotbox. Basically it is a small greenhouse that gets real hot inside and protects the finish from getting dusty while its drying. Finishes with solvents (including polyurethane) dry completely in two hours. By doing this I can get four coats of finish on over the course of a day. Neat trick.

What does your hotbox consist of mite I ask? Are you willin to explain the building of it? Are we talkin light bulbs, etc? ::

Thanx

Davy

 

[sgtgeorge]

My hot box is a wood frame of 2X2's with a whole bunch of discarded storm door glass covering it. It is, for all intents and purposes, a greenhouse. It is heated by the sun and it gets up to around 175 degrees in the summertime. I've made it so it can come apart when not in use. In the late winter and early spring, I set it up on my deck to start tomato and eggplants for my garden. Easy to build and cost nothing because I got the wood and glass from the trash.