I've been out of work for several months now due to a bad back, and I'm having some major surgery on November 2nd. I'm not able to do very many things so I've been going over my guns one at a time.
It all started with refinishing a Remington 700 BDL, I love the gun but I always hated the plastic coated look of the stock. I got my courage up and bought polyurethane stripper and within a couple of days I was down to bare wood. I have to say, Remington uses a clear and shiny polyurethane finish but it sure hid the true beauty of the wood. I'm new to stock finishing so I read up on all the different types of finishes that are available, and after visiting all of my local stores to see what was on the shelves, I decided to try Formsby's Tung oil finish in low gloss. I protected the checkering and sanded all the way down to 500 grit, I even wet it so the grain would raise then sanded it again. I diluted the first two coats 50/50 with mineral spirits, then put about ten more coats. Between each coat I sanded with 0000 steel wool, I let each coat dry a full day between layers. The only thing I can say is WOW!!!! It looks like a custom gun now, The wood is absolutely gorgeous.
I quickly moved on th my second project, Mossberg 500C 20 gauge. I got this gun new in 1971 and I have to admit, it's been a workhorse. I was actually suprised to find real walnut under the camo paint job I did back around 1980. This stock stripped much easier than the 700BDL. I even tried the iron trick on two dents and it worked, after a little sanding you cant even tel the dents were ever there. Sanded, yada yada yada, steel wool-tack cloth-rub oil, repeat repeat repeat. I then touch up blued any bare metal, now I'm just waiting for the receiver to get a layer of Duracoat and this gun will look better than when it was new.
Hopefully by now everyone is still reading this post, my wife says that I have a knack for making a long story endless. Guess what's next? You guessed right, my 10-22 stock. I'm going to do some reshaping, I'm leaving the barrel band but I want to round the forearn so it feels better in my hand. I also want to round off the top of the stock between the pistol grip and the buttplate. I also want to make the palm swell more pronounced. Now since this is going to be my first non-walnut stock I've been reading about dyeing the wood, and I have an idea.
Has anyone ever dyed using two different colors? I'm looking at all of these laminated stocks and it has me thinking. I'm thinking about using black and dark red. When you finish wood the grain usually takes on two different colors. What if I were to dye the stock black, then lightly sand using a sanding block and 500 grit sandpaper. I'm hoping that doing this will lighten the lighter parts of the grain, Then dye the stock with a very dark red that is mixed with some black.
Has anyone ever tried anything like this, am I crazy for trying?