How to Finish Wood on New Rossi Lever Gun

[JohnnyFlake]

I received a new Rossi M92 .454 Casull Lever Gun yesterday. I love the gun but I am a little disappointed in the wood. The wood is okay, nice grain but nothing special. The finish, or lack there of, leaves the wood looking very dull.

What can I do to give it a nice finish?

Should I consider a few coats of varnish or similar or should I consider many, many coats of a quality wood oil, Old English or similar?

You thoughts are appreciated.

[Norbrat]

I rubbed back the finish of my old Rossi with some steel wool and very fine sandpaper (4oo grit) then hand rubbed about 20 coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-oil, rubbed between each coat with steel wool.

Made an amazing difference to the woodwork!

[725]

If the factory finish isn't poly or spar type varnish, I'd go ahead and rub many coats of tung oil or Danish watco oil, with steel wool in between. All depends on what you want out of it. If you prefer the "Remington" type gloss, I'd look for some Helmsmen Spar varnish and spray several coats with very light sanding in between.

[Dogg]

Johnny, I have 8 rossi's take the furniture off, lightly sand and steel wool, then atleast 4 coats birghwood casey, they all look really nice now, some way better than my marlins.
Little elbow grease is all you need. I do note that the new Rossi's have walnut instead of mahogany.

My 454 is scheduled to arrive at the dealer this tuesday.
Have you shot yours? Does everything look to fit and function ok? I haven't bought one since Brazetec took over so don't know what to expect.

And as said before, if you see a 16" barrel version for sale please let me know.
Dogg

[JohnnyFlake]

Johnny, I have 8 rossi's take the furniture off, lightly sand and steel wool, then atleast 4 coats birghwood casey, they all look really nice now, some way better than my marlins.
Little elbow grease is all you need. I do note that the new Rossi's have walnut instead of mahogany.

My 454 is scheduled to arrive at the dealer this tuesday.
Have you shot yours? Does everything look to fit and function ok? I haven't bought one since Brazetec took over so don't know what to expect.

And as said before, if you see a 16" barrel version for sale please let me know.
Dogg

Hey Dogg,

Thanks for the suggestion on finishing the wood. There were a few other suggestions as well. I have to think about them a little. I have never done that before so I am not really sure what will work best for me.

The gun really looks nice and feels real nice as well. I do not have any other levers to compare with so I cannot say much about the fit and function as a comparison. Mine seems real tight with respect to fit. Function seems a tad stiff but I expect that working the action a few hundred times will smooth it up.

I only received it two days ago and I do not have any .454 ammo, so I have not shot it yet. I plan on loading up some .45 Colt +P loads this coming week and hopefully I can get out to the range over the next few weeks to try it out.

I have a 16" on my search list, for you, if one pops up somewhere.

Will you be using .454 ammo only, or will you be shooting .45 Colt as well? Do you have any favorite .45 Colt +P/Ruger loads?

In my searches over the past week I have found a few hot loads listed. John Taffin in an article about .45 Colt Loads for rifle lists two as his favorites. One being 10.0gn Unique under an Oregon Trail 250gn Cast RNFP Bullet for about 1290fps out of a 24" barrel. His second is 18.5gn of 2400 under the same bullet for about 1357fps.

John Limbaugh lists, among others, for .45 Colt +P loads, a 260gn SWC over 20.5gn of 2400 out of a 7 1/2" SA for about 1294fps and 12.0gn of Unique with the same bullet for about 1200fps

[flounderman]

the helmsman spar-urethane makes a better finish than most of the socalled stock finishes. I never use anything but the spray on polyurethane or the spar urethane. I just took a can of ace polyurethane back because it didn't harden. the spar urethane resists sandpaper. durable finish. the quality of the finish is in the preparation of the wood. get it smooth and all the marks out, polish it with steel wool before you put finish on, and don't put the finish on too thick. remove the wood from the gun and mask the recoil pad if there is one.

[gwpercle]

Lately I've been using a product called Minwax Tung Oil Finish instead of the Tru-oil and found I like it better. I used the Minwax to refinish a table, it looked so nice and was easy to apply and easy to touch up. I have refinished 3 rifle stocks and 4 sets of pistol grips. You can leave the finish a somewhat high gloss or buff it with rotten stone or 0000 steel wool for a low gloss finish.

gary

[JohnnyFlake]

Thanks guys! All the responses are appreciated. Now I have the problem of deciding which of the great ideas I want to try.

Once I do and get the job done I post back here with the results.

Thanks again!

[Wayne Smith]

The Minwax is a misnomer - it is a varnish, not Tung oil in spite of what it says. If you want Tung oil, and I use a lot of it, go to Woodcraft and buy it raw, thin it with mineral spirits. For the first few sealing coats cut it 50/50 or thinner, keep adding more tung oil until you are at about an 80% oil cut. Hand rub this in until you have the finish you want. You can go from a regular oil (BLO) finish look to a full glossy depending on how much you use.

[gwpercle]

What Wayne Smith says about Minwax Tung Oil Finish not being raw tung oil is true and in fact it might not contain any tung oil at all, the can does not list ingredients. But reguardless of what's in it I like the finish it produces, it's easy to apply, it dries in 24 hours, 4 or 5 coats builds up a nice finish and it fully cures in a week.

I have used raw tung oil to refinish a table and 6 chairs but the depth of finish I wanted required many coatings with the thin oil and took me a long time to complete. the Minwax finish was quicker to build up the finish . I wanted a finish that was thinner than spar varnish but thicker than raw tung oil and the Minwax worked well for that. If there is tung oil in it it is definitly modified with something

What I don't know is how it's going to hold up under use. But time will answer that question.

gary

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have two Rossi leverguns with very plain wood. In the end i decided to 'sleeve' the woodwork, i.e, 'sleeve it alone.' :D