GPMD

Hey everyone,

First time going to be refinishing any firearm and looking for advice. My dad has a TC Renagade from the early to mid 80s I believe. I was going to by a build your own kit but inquired about his Renagade since I know he doesn't hunt with it anymore and he gladly dug it out and gave it to me. He always takes fantastic care of his firearms but to his horror the outside of the barrel had a huge rust spot on the outside of the barrel. Its been in his case for years and thinks something obviously wasn't completely dry in it. Inside of the barrel is spotless though.
I want to take everything apart, refinish the stock and most likely blue the barrel, especially with this rust damage. I have the feeling that getting it off is going to really scuff the barrel.

Thanks to internet and youtube, I kinda think i know how to sand down the stock for new stain. One question is, do I need stripper for this to get started or just start with straight sandpaper right off the bat?

Suggestions on how to tackle rust on barrel? Im reading WD-40 and a brass brush?

What can i do with the other metal parts like trigger guards, hammer etc? Just reblue? Ive read about cold blue but do i just put that over whats on the metal and barrel now or do I have to remove what is currently on it somehow?

Product recommendations would be helpful as far as type of brush to remove finish, stain type, best barrel blue etc. Thanks and as soon as i get started i'll keep a thread going to hopefully help other beginners such as myself. Thanks!

Oldtimr

First of all you never and I repeat never ever store a gun for any length of time in a gun case. You have seen the result of that, it is almost a guarantee the gun will rust. Next the best thing would be to have the gun and hardware re-blued by a professional. If you want to do it yourself I recommend you remove all the old bluing. If your barrel and hardware is pitted you should do you best to remove the pits and polish the bare steel. I sporterized an 8mm Mauser a long time ago for my brother. I won't go into all the details of fitting and finishing a new stock but I will tell you how I reblued the rifle with cold blueing, Birchwood Casey. After the barreled action was stripped of old blueing and polished I got a long tin chicken feeder trough about 4 inches deep and long enough to hold the barreled action. I plugged the muzzle and the Breech with pieces of wooden dowel rods and put water in the trough and set it on my stove top and brought it to the boil. When it was hot enough to flash dry I took it out of the water and using a and continued the process until the barrel was deep black and shiney, about 20 times. That was back in 1970 and the barreled action looks as good today as it did in 1970. Here are some pictures. It can be done, it just takes time.

super_hunt54

GMPD, the person you should PM is Mountain Devil. While I don't agree with his choice of favorite manufacturer, I do believe he does solid work on finishing and beautifying muzzleloaders. He could give you every answer and advise you seek and does very nice work himself. I've seen some of the evidence of his abilities and would take his advice on refinishing sidelock muzzleloaders. He might even advise you to, instead of bluing, strip the old bluing, polish the metal and assure no pitting remains (if any) and go with browning. Drop him a PM and go from there. Those old renegades look good with a good bluing but my own personal opinion is they are REALLY set off with all the metal browned. As far as the stock goes, with some of those nicks being as deep as they are, I would just start with sandpaper to strip all finish and then use a water and glass method to swell those nicks and dents out. Take a drop or 2 of water and put it in the dent, give it a few seconds to seep in a little, then take smooth glass (I have a thick glass rod for this. Got it to remove small dents in pool cues) and rub it vigorously to create heat. This will cause the grain to swell bringing the dent up. Sand smooth. If you tried to sand out the nicks and dents, you would have to take a lot of the surrounding wood out to get it even without trying to swell the dents first. It can be a bit time consuming but it is a proven method and keeps one from changing the dimensions of the stock by removing too much wood while sanding.

super_hunt54

OT, if you ever wanna get rid of that old Mauser give me a jingle. While many disagree, I really like the old stepped contour barrels and if you can find one that's not all shot out, you can really have a good shooter. I stupidly traded one I had fit up with a Monte stock that I wasn't afraid at all to take a shot at 250 on a whitetail with. Traded it for a nice Springfield 1911 .45 in mint condition. Guy really liked my rifle, I really liked his .45. Still kick myself sometimes as that dang rifle was a hell of a good shooter.

Blackpowdersmoke

GPMD...

Oldtimr is right, don't EVER store a gun in a soft case, or any case for thar matter. I've seen a number of firearms nearly destroyed for that reason. I'd have a good Smith do the blue work but you should be able to refinish the stock yourself.
Small dents can be steamed out and small nicks or scratches can be sanded. Deeper gouges if any, may need to be filled with a compound that matches the original wood. You can gently scrape the old finish off or use a stripping agent prior to sanding. Be sure to use a sanding block so you don't round any straight edges.
As far as finish, that's up to you. I prefer a satin, oil rubbed look myself.

BPS

Oldtimr

Super, that one shoots very well. I was surprised since my brother bought the rifle in military condition out of a wooden barrel of Mausers at a Boscov's department store back in 1969 for $20.00.

super_hunt54

Just to give you an image of a PROPER browned barrel, I found this pic of an exceptionally well crafted Hawken repro (made to the exacting standards of the original Hawkin family). It is probably one of the absolute best repros I have ever seen as far as sticking to the original design. Granted, nothing wrong with the repro's other than them calling them "Hawkens" but if it aint a Hawken design, don't call it a Hawken!!

Jack Ryan

I wouldn't strip it and refinish it if it were mine. Every nick and scratch would be like testament to my family. I'd go over the wood finish with something like furniture scratch and dent cover if I did any thing and then work the wood like I'd protect any other gun wood.

On the blued metal you can make it pretty nice yourself. I've built kits and redone a couple BP guns over and over after hunting with them for 30 or 40 years. Rub the part that's not hurt too bad with Scotch Bright. A little steel wool or even work it little with sane paper just like you would a kit gun finishing with the finest grit. Kit guns come with bare metal.

The brown it or blue it. I blue every thing with the perma blue bluing kits. I'll heat the full length of the barrel with a hair drier. Heating and rubbing with scotch bright until it all feels evenly hot.

Have your alcohol and perma blue sitting there ready to go before you start warming it up. Cotton balls near buy or I use these cotton face cleaning pads my wife buys now. I wear the brown cloth garden gloves. It's hot and you don't want more prints on it as fast as you are taking them off.

First time you warm it up then right away wipe it down with the alcohol pads to remove any oils, grease, what ever down to bare metal. Then rub it down a little with scotch brite.

Heat it up again. Stop and run the scotch brite over it again, heat it up and imediately rub it down from end to end with a pad soaked in perma blue.

LIGHTLY scotch brite the whole thing and heat it up again then hit it again with a fresh pad of perma blue starting from the opposite end this time. When it has ALL BEEN WET THEN KEEP RUBBING kind of polishing it with the perma blue pad

You can repeat these as much as you want getting it blacker and blacker and blacker as you want. Ending with a gun oil wipe down. I think you'll like it, I do.

I like the Navy way. If it don't move, paint it. If it does move, blue it.

Oldtimr

Actually it is if it doesn't move paint it and if it does oil it! I would not use alcohol, it leaves an oily residue.

super_hunt54

I've found through trial and error, and boy were some of the errors DUZIES, Brake Cleaner is about the best stuff one can find for degreasing metals. Rather than using something that works "okay", use something that is actually designed for degreasing steel! I'm not talking about the Break Clean for gun cleaning. I'm talking the stuff in a can made for degreasing/cleaning the oil off disk rotors. Stuff is great for this purpose but be warned, I am NOT talking about regular gun cleaning practices here. Brake cleaners, most with the chlorine in them, will strip the finish right off ANY wood and will disintegrate a lot of plastics. It also takes the oil right out of the pores of steel, even stainless, so I am NOT recommending it for use as a regular cleaner. Just for this purpose of bluing or browning barrels.