Tips for refinishing Birch stocks?

[zubrato]

Have a Marlin 60 from 1988 with the LSHO and 17rd tube.

While the original finish isn't terrible, it's not up to my standards (uneven, brush strokes, too glossy)
and I'd like to refinish the stock.

I've refinished a few walnut stocks using tung oil quite beautifully, and would prefer to stay with an tung oil finish, but perhaps stain it a bit darker so it isn't a blonde rifle stock.
Have never worked with Birch before but have read that it stains unevenly, and looking at the grain variation it makes sense.
Would I be right in thinking I should apply one layer of tung oil cut with MS after sanding, let dry, and stain only then to prevent uneven coloration, then continuing with tung oil layers once I'm satisfied?

I would highly appreciate any tips and advice for working with birch gunstocks. Not a big fan of polyurethanes, but I would try them if birch doesn't take well to oil finishes.

Thank you gents!

[bedbugbilly]

sBirch . . regardless of if it is Red Birch, White Birch, etc. . . does not stain well. Because of the nature of the wood, it will stain "muddy" and "blotchy". Normally, one of the ways it is "blended in" to match color wise (in the furniture industry" is through the use of a "toner". i.e. it is sealed, sprayed with a "toner" (which is basically a stain/sealer mix) and then top coated with clear finish. This is also how cabinets such as red oak are finished due to the variations in the wood and how they take stain.

Many years ago I had a custom woodwork/cabinet/mill work shop and birch was my least favorite species to work with primarily because of the way it accepted stain. The "white woods" (i.e. Tulip, Basswood, Poplar, etc. also will stain "muddy" and "blotchy".)

If you try staining it, just be aware of that fact of how it may accept stains. You may be on the right track as far as you description of how you are thinking of doing it. I prefer to use BLO thinned with real turpentine - but if I were going to do a stock with the BLO, I'd first rub in several applications, let it absorb well and then probably add some stain to the BLO and apply several coats until I reached the shade I wanted.

If you can . . . try and see if you can find a piece of birch or birch veneer plywood and try your method to see what the results would give you. It will of course absorb differently than your stock (different piece of wood) but it should give you an indication of what the results would be.

[pietro]

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I've gotten consistently good results when refinishing Birchwood stocks, over the years.

I first strip off the paint job, sand & de-whisker the wood before applying a pre-stain sealer (I use Johnson & Johnson's ) to the wood as a 1st step.
After at least a full day's drying, the Birch will usually then be able take a medium/dark stain w/o blotching.

At that point, I will also usually add some "woodgrain" figure to the plain Birch via dipping the tip of a toothpick into the settled colorant at the bottom of an unstirred/settled dark stain, and using the toothpick as a paintbrush to lay on some thin woodgrain lines (prior practice on scrap wood is highly recommended).
When finished with my Michaelangelo, I lightly burnish the dried faux "woodgrain" with a light pass of 0000 steel wool before starting the oil finish (although I prefer TruOil, YMMV).

The last coat (of at least 6) of the oil finish can either be left slightly glossy, or have the gloss cut back with a very light pass with (again) a new pad of the 0000 steel wool.

I'll then let the finish set/dry for a week or so, before applying some paste wax as a topcoat.


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[Char-Gar]

OK...I have refinished beech and birch stocks and have stained them with uniform good results. Now, here is the trick: Get a can of Min-Wax Pre Stain and after the wood prep apply it as per instructions on the can. If you want to stain the stock, don't use an oil base wood stain, but an alcohol stain i.e. a leather dye. There are brown leather dies that work quite well. You can then finish with your finish of choice. I have used both BLO and Tru-Oil with good results.

Here is a cut down Japanese Type I with such a stock. I prepped the wood, used Min-Wax Pre-Stain, followed by Fiebings (medium brown) Leather Dye. The finish is about 10 coats of BLO. The dovetail joint on this stock had parted, so I used Acra-Glas and clamped until cured. The finish is a uniform color, but the light for the pic is not uniform making the forend of the stock look darker, which it is not.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Yes, Bedbugbilly describes the sitation very well. Birch is almost always treated with a colored varnish rather than stained. I am facing just the same situation with some glass-fronted pine cabinets which I have converted into gun cabinets. They have a very pleasant sherry-coloured finish which I can't duplicate on some parts I have sanded, even by mixing stains - and some brands won't mix. It seems to be the varnish, and the next stage will be tinting varnish with some spirit-based leather dye I have.

There are a couple of other methods I haven't tried with birch, but which might be worth testing. Fuming works particularly well with oak, but to a lesser extent with some other woods, and it might produce useful darkening with birch. You just suspend the article in a closed chamber (taped polythene sheeting will do) over a wide, shallow vessel of strong ammonia. I don't believe ordinary household ammonia, at about 3½%, would do it in a reasonable timespan. The worst that could happen is nothing, and you are left with slightly wekened cleaning fluid, better than many companies patent and advertise on TV.

Another possibility, though you need to try this on scrap wood, is the use of heat. This can be done in successive quick passes of a blowtorch, or by spooning extremely hot sand over it. They say gunsmiths used to fake tiger-striping on the old long rifles by binding them with tarry string, and then burning it off. Others say it doesn't work, but I believe I would put more confidence in ironing it with a hot iron - preferably one that will never see domestic use, and domestic dispute, again.

I once made a walnut stock and didn't smooth it off quite deep enough where a heavy rasp mark had scarred the wood. It was entirely smooth but the grain of the wood took a dip, invisible until finishing revealed a single tiger-stripe - if that isn't a contradiction in terms. So I wrapped a piece of scrap walnut with a long, tight spring of about ¼in, diameter, used for hanging a light curtain, pounded it into the wood with a mallet, and smoothed out the indentations before finishing. It gave some rather nice striping, which unlike the string fakery is formed by grain ondulations like the real thing.

For a mild colouring effect my favourite on walnut is red alkanet root chips (which you can buy on eBay). The conventional method is to soak about as much of the chips as you can get into a given volume of boiled linseed oil, for several months. But when I raised some to the verge of boiling (outdoors, since it smells and is flammable), it seemed pretty good after half an hour. If you add this process to grain intensified by flaming, it might look rather good in birch.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Attachment 170046Here's a Swedish Mauser with a birch stock. When the original muddy brown color was removed it was white. It has been my experience that oil based stains will do poorly on birch and beech wood. You can get good results using alcohol based leather dye, as noted above by Char-Gar. In this case brown Lincoln Leather Dye was used, and when applied it became reddish. Test a spot in the barrel channel or on the butt beneath the butt plate so that if you don't like the results it won't show when the rifle is assembled. As for the rest of the finishing process, I used three coating of Tru-Oil applied sparingly with finger dunks and circular rubbing to fill the pores. Pore filling is usually much easier on birch than on walnut; walnut would take additional coats. When the surface was dry and glossy I rubbed it back a bit with 4-0 steel wool to a satin sheen, then applied a light coating of carnauba wax (Trewax brand) and lightly polished with a soft cloth. That is pretty much my standard finish for birch stocks. The problem is becoming one of finding leather dye, as most shoes are made of synthetic materials now days. One's best bet is to find a shoe repair place, also becoming dinosaurs, and to buy several bottles of different shades for future reference. They'll keep well as long as unopened, but once used replace the cap tightly or it will evaporate away. About the grain, birch grain tends to be less spectacular than other woods, but some of it does have nice grain and it just depends on how the blank was sawn. If it is just dense and plain it can be artificially streaked in interesting patterns, but it's usually obvious to close inspection, and I prefer to leave them the way they come. The example in the photo looks pretty good (my biased opinion).

[Ballistics in Scotland]

There may not be a leathercraft shop near you, but there are plenty of leather dyes on eBay.

[Frank46]

Have a M1 Garand that came with a birch stock from Korea. Oil based stains just looked muddy. Resanded the stock and used a water based stain. Used 4/0 steel wool to remove the whiskers raised by the stain. Gave it about 6 coats of tru oil. Sure wish I could do pics as you would not believe how it looked. Birch when sanded looks almost an even color and almost no grain pattern. The water based stain shows off the high lights and when you shift the stock in the light you can see the light and dark sections reflect the light. Frank

[gnoahhh]

Try SolarLux dyes. They behave like aniline dyes (alcohol based), come in more hues than you could want, are dilute-able for further adjusting the color, and are positively resistant to UV light denigration (which a heckuva lot of stains and dyes are not, which means they fade over time). Just google "Behlen's SolarLux". Since I discovered them 20 years ago I haven't used anything else whenever I felt the pressing need to color-change a piece of wood.

[zubrato]

huge thank you to everyone who wrote replies and pms with great ideas and suggestions. I had considered every one and I ended up doing a lot of research into finishes for a 22 rifle I paid 100$ for

I looked into wood dyes, aniline dyes, leather dyes, RIT dyes with denatured alcohol, but the results are highly variable depending on the amount of soft wood,penetration into wood, wood type, and aging. Birch seems to love taking up red preferentially over the browns and others. To be honest, there were so many shades and varieties, and colors of dye that I knew were totally non representative of its ACTUAL color until applied to the actual wood... for this reason I started looking into alternatives not to mention prices start climbing and no one sells these in small quantities.

One birch specific finish is the Finnish mosin pine tar finish: equal parts pine tar, turpentine, and BLO. This makes for an extremely durable finish and also highlights the grain. Having not worked with pine tar, and the different grades of it (veterinary, open kiln, closed kiln) Not to mention it was around the same price as the leather dyes. I almost went this route, to be honest except I forgot about one thing which I still kick myself for overlooking..

The Real Milk Paint company (excellent prices and customer service) where I purchased my first 32 oz of pure tung oil, also sell pure DARK tung oil. The color is perfect, the price is right (12$ for 8oz) and I love working with real tung oil. (32 oz has lasted me 3 rifle stocks with 10+ coats each, random wooden knick knacks like my shaving stand and I STILL have 40% of the bottle knowing I wasted a LOT of it when I was learning how to use the stuff)

Currently the finish has been stripped w/ citristrip twice, poly and stain scraped off with a wooden mixing stick, and gently took off what I couldn't get to with 220 grit.

Not sure how much it will help, but I will try raising the grain a little with a damp rag, and after letting it dry hitting it again with 220 before applying 1:1 dark tung/MS
I'll keep you guys updated with pictures Before, During, and after 1st/2nd coats.

Thank you again to everyone who posted and sent PM's for your excellent ideas and inspiration.We are genuinely blessed here at CB to have knowledgeable folks with real world experience and skilled hands. (Char-gar & Der those are beautifully done and show the love and time you've poured into them. bravo! )

[Don Fischer]

This is interesting. I've done several 788 stocks, I think they might be maple. Anyway after getting the ugly finish off with a stripper, I whisker and rub out with 0000 steel wool. No stain because every time I did try it it was blotchy. so left them bare and sprayed with an exterior spray finish. they came out light but actually looked pretty good. still have one of them but no photo's. I did a Marlin bolt 22 LR years ago and the only thing that would have made it other than while was spray paint. Other stock's I've done have all been walnut of one grade or another and the finish rubbed in with wet/dry sandpaper. Never seen stain to make a difference on them.

[TXGunNut]

Good old Birchwood Casey three part kit has served me well a time or two. Stain, finish and wax all in one kit. It doesn't look like an old school oil finish when I get done but it's a huge improvement over the original finish.

[Blackwater]

One suggestion here. If you have a facility to heat up the stock to a bit above the boiling point of water, say 250 degrees or so (up to 325 or so should be OK as well), it tends to thin the natural oils in it and let stains penetrate deeper, more evenly and better.

Also, a friend of mine once used iodine on a birch stock, and as it aged and browned, it actually looked passable! I'd have never thought of that!

[LAGS]

I have found with Birch and even some Maple, that your finger oil keeps the stain from penetrating.
Try sanding with wearing cotton gloves on to prevent Blotchy finishes.
That might be why people have had good results with Alcohol Based stains or Dyes

[nicholst55]

This basic subject was discussed in another thread a bit earlier. My contribution was post #4, where I posted links to discussion of refinishing hardwood socks. I refinished a 'mystery-wood' Korean M1 Garand stock set using this method, and it turned out very well. I used Rit brown liquid fabric dye and Chestnut Ridge Military Stock Stain, and finished with Teak Oil.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...d-CVA-ML-stock

[floydboy]

Google a search for - How to do a three step stain finish. I found this a few years ago when wanting to refinish an ugly birch Savage stock. It turned out surprisingly good. The thread takes you through all the processes.

[blixen]

OK...I have refinished beech and birch stocks and have stained them with uniform good results. Now, here is the trick: Get a can of Min-Wax Pre Stain and after the wood prep apply it as per instructions on the can. If you want to stain the stock, don't use an oil base wood stain, but an alcohol stain i.e. a leather dye. There are brown leather dies that work quite well.

+1 on leather stain--I rebuilt a Marlin 60 out of a $20 box of parts. For the heck of it, used DARK RED leather die on the birch stock. Believe it or not, it looked fantastic! I finished it with hand-rubbed tung oil. A guy at the range, bought it from me for his daughter. Still miss it.

I have another m60 that i just tung oiled with no stain, the color came out a very light amber, which isn't bad at all. in fact, i like the look of birch, probably because of the fun i've had with that old marlin--which I've pretty much worn out.

I usually don't try to conceal the wood's identity or repairs. Just a taste thing.

[Geezer in NH]

Wrinkle paint make it tactical!

[FergusonTO35]

I refinished the birch furniture on my Glenfield 30 with Tru-Oil. I just followed the instructions and it turned out nice, definitely darker and more protective than the molecular thin non-finish that Marlin originally applied to these guns.

[Whiterabbit]

I used straight BLO on a stripped birch stock. I am happy with the results, but the color is BLONDE. zero staining. so if you like the look of raw wood, BLO. Otherwise, avoid.