refinish rem stock

[mainiac]

I have a old 700 bdl that the plastic finish is flaking off. Would like to refinish it with an oil finish, to get rid of the flashy poly look thats on it. Will a paint stripper take this heavy coating off my stock? As thick as the finish looks, i think id be forever sanding it off! Any thoughts? thanks,mark If the paint stripper will work,than will it eat up the foreend cap and the grip cap? dont know what there made out of. Remington must have just dunked these stocks in a vat or something.

[twoworms]

I tryed to redo a older 700 ADL. Its a ton of work, I should have just painted it camo and been done with it.

Good luck,

Tim

[rmb721]

I scrape off the finish with a knife. On the checkering, I use stripper.

[Scrounger]

I scrape off the finish with a knife. On the checkering, I use stripper.

Forty some years ago, the first time I tried to refinish a stock, my dad got me started with broken glass. I don't remember the source of the glass, it may well have been from a broken Mason jar (if any of you young people know what that is). Worked real good, much smoother than a knife blade and doesn't have a tendency to dig into the grain, it just scrapes off the finish.

[cherok9878]

If you have a old hacksaw blade, bevel the back side of it, aprox 45degree, with a grinder. Blade is flexable and easy to use, gently scrape the old finish off. use paint remover for the checkering. Clean checkering with an old tooth brush and Laquer thinner. I have used glass as Scrounger suggested but hack saw blade worked better for me. Finishing a stock is not hard work, just go slowly, don't rush. I use Trueoil for the finish. Several, as many as you like coats, applied very thin. Stain before finish is a personal like or dislike, the old opinions and elbows thing. Dont to forget to seal the inner surfaces of the stock. Very important....larry

when using blade, hold bevel away from your body and pull gently toward your body, with the grain.

[Johnch]

A old window pane is my sourse of scrapers .
I salvaged 100's from old houses and barns
Lay it in a cardboard box , tap with a hammer .
Instant scrapers . just use gloves

Never tryed a hacksaw blade

Probely work just as well and easyer on the hands

BTW 100% DEET bug juice softens up the plastic Rem finish quite nicly
I know because I have a shotgun stock with my cheek print .
It needs a redo ..........................I guess I will put it on the list

Johnch

[versifier]

Regular cabinet makes scrapers are very inexpensive and available wherever they sell woodworking tools. You can get them straight or curved, and there are also handles/holders available for them that make using them easier. I don't bother to burnish them, just sharpen in a jig that holds a mill bastard file at 90*. (The same jig also sharpens metal ski edges.) They work much better than sand paper and are far superior especially when working on figured woods. Carbide edged scrapers also work, but extreme care must be taken using them as they really cut.
Ditto on the 100% DEET. I know two people who damaged stocks with it and ended up using it as a stripper - it works as well or better than commercial products on Remington stocks - I don't know about others.

[uscra112]

I've done this - not a Remington, but stripped that awful plastic off. more than once. You have to scrape it. Do not SAND it, because the sanding tends to press the plastic swarf into the pores of the wood. If any remains, the oiled surface will have blotches. So SCRAPE until you have it all off. Sanding it takes forever, anyway. That stuff is tough! And you will be far too much tempted to use real coarse, aggressive paper, and that will cut deep scratches in your wood, which then have to be sanded out, or they will show in the final finish.

For the tools, look into woodworkers' supply catalogs for "cabinet scrapers". They come in various shapes, which make the job easier, and the shapes will help you avoid gouging. You can make your own, but the steel needs to be fairly hard. I have done it by grinding down old industrial hacksaw blades, but it's a chore. If you can find one of those old "hook" paint scrapers with the carbide blade, use it, but be REAL careful not to gouge your wood with it! Another set of tools that you might already have are the scrapers that stockers use for working in barrel channels. Getting into concave areas requires tools that just about fit the contour, and these often work very well for that task.

Scraping wood is a skill worth knowing. All that beautiful 18th century antique furniture with the polished-looking surfaces? That's how it was done - scraped. They didn't have sandpaper!

Once you have it scraped, you have to clear out the pores of the wood, and the best I way I've found is to run it through a dishwasher. Yup! I've restored I dunno how many old stocks now, and this is the way, without a doubt. Use a hefty dose of the powdered kind of dishwasher detergent, set the thing to the hottest water and the longest wash settings it has, and let it run all the way through the dry cycle.

This process will also show up any of the plastic that you missed - everything else comes off, but not that G.D. plastic! It will show up very clearly. Scrape some more, and wash it again.

The oldtime gunsmiths who wrote about their craft told you to wet the wood, then hold it in heat to make the grain stand up. Well, what does the dishwasher do? Sprays it with water, then dries it for you. No mess, no fuss, all automatic, and using water far hotter than your hands could stand, with a strong solution of trisodium phosphate, which does wonders for making old oil and dirt leave for good.

No, it doesn't saturate the wood - it's not in there long enough. Though it might be a good idea to let the wood dry for a week or two before you start oiling, more often than not I haven't, and it doesn't seem to matter.

BTW if you are repairing a stock that has an oil finish - this will take it all out.

If you need to glue a crack, this will give you a clean surface inside for the glue to grab.

Have fun!

[Parson]

What the others have written is OK if you have all the time in the world and want to spend it on a stock. When refinishing for a customer I have to be much faster to make any money. The best I have found is to strip it with Certastrip (spl?), unlike many strippers it can be used indoors, smells like citrus. After soaking and softening I take it off under hot running water and a 3M scub pad. May take more than one application but when done the finish is gone, the hot water has lifted most dents and with no sanding the demensions have not changed. Put two or three coats of your favorit finish, very lightly sand or steel wool the whiskers off and continue applying finish to desired finish

[uscra112]

Gee, will that Certastrip stuff actually get the plastic coating too? I could see where it might do for polyurethane varnishes, but I never thought it would touch the stuff that Browning used on my Winchester replica. And it doesn't leave any residue in the wood pores? No MEK?

[Parson]

I have never had it fail to remove any stock finish I have ever tried it on from Weatherby on down, do not specifically remember if I ever did a newer Browning. Buy an airasol can of it and give it a try