Finishing your own rifle stock.

[MOUNTAINORACLE]

Beautiful stock, I can only guess at the amount of time and work that was needed to complete that stock.
Great work.


oracle

[st.marys]

Thanks for inviting us into your world Lycanthrope. Your timing is impeccable since I was up last night cleaning up a scorched stock from my Dad's A-bolt micro what was in my mom's fire. I was going to replace the stock, but after messing with it a bit I wanted to re-finish it, even with the black scorching on it. All of my really special rifles have a story to tell, and the fire is just another chapter in this rifles book. Thanks for the post, you verified that the effort so far was the right direction to go. ps. getting the poly off that stock was like trying to get grafitti paint off of concrete. I got the last of it off (i think at around 2:30AM last night). Once I start working on a stock, I get obsessed about it.

[Lycanthrope]

Update.....

Here is the kind of instant feedback you get when you progress to the hand rubbing part. I really enjoy this piece of the process. The wood takes on an entirely different life. You can simulate it on the raw wood, with a quick rubdown with mineral spirits. I use that to clean the raw wood after sanding.

This is after just three coats. I'm laying it on thick, because after every coat I'm rubbing most of it back off with either paper or 0000 steel wool. The grain still isn't filled in these pics and the wood hasn't gotten much transluscence yet, but that will come later.





Lycanimstartingtolookforwardtothisonethrope

[markheck1]

Damn! those are really really nice!

[deth502]

Originally Posted by Lycanthrope

This is after just three coats. I'm laying it on thick, because after every coat I'm rubbing most of it back off with either paper or 0000 steel wool. The grain still isn't filled in these pics and the wood hasn't gotten much transluscence yet, but that will come later.

have you ever though to try grain filler??

i dont know how it would work with the "translucence" your looking for, but ive used walnut grain filler on my walnut stocks, and they do have a "clear" filler that i use in inlay stuff i do because i dont want to use any colored filler, as there are many diff kinds/nat. colors of wood and i dont want to detract from anything, but it goes over tiger maple and dosent affect the shimmer of that.

now that i read that back it sounds pretty jumbled, but i think i got my point across enough for you to understand.

[Lycanthrope]

Yes, I've used filler in the past and found it more difficult to work with that the Tru Oil. There may be other brands, but I've had such nice results with this method, I hate to change. Last time, I ended up sanding out the filler and starting over. Using a sawdust slurry to fill the pores was also a fiasco on a colored laminate.

[Lucas]

Looks beautiful Lycan. You do some damn fine work.

[Lycanthrope]

Bad indoor lighting, but I did get it finished for bear and deer seasons.

[markheck1]

that is one sharp piece of hardware there, Nice Job

[Dave D.]

Dang, that thing is just gorgeous. Beautiful job, Lycanthrope!