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how best to restore a stock ?

J

jh-SS1944

Active member
Hello to all.
let's say you find a nice k98k but, the veteran who brought it back stained it dark Oak & added several coats of varnish to it.
what would be the "best" way to restore this closer to "as it left the factory" ?
any difference between the same, for solid wood VS. laminated ??

I do own a 1944 k98 ,which the "glue" is neither red or white but, dark brown ,almost black. no clue how it got this way or how to correct it. stock does match the action.
thank you for your time !
Jeff H.
 
One of my walnut stock sets was partly stained (dark brown/black), I tried to remove it, somehow the stain is soaked in the wood. I even tried paint stripper on this stock, but that also didn't really work

If a stock had only some clear varnish, you could use denatured alcohol and fine steel wool.

What maker is it? Maybe I have a nice walnut stock set on hand. I have some walnut WaA63's and 77's and several different laminated stock sets.

Best regards Tommy
us1945@hotmail.com
 
us1945 said:
One of my walnut stock sets was partly stained (dark brown/black), I tried to remove it, somehow the stain is soaked in the wood. I even tried paint stripper on this stock, but that also didn't really work

If a stock had only some clear varnish, you could use denatured alcohol and fine steel wool.

What maker is it? Maybe I have a nice walnut stock set on hand. I have some walnut WaA63's and 77's and several different laminated stock sets.

Best regards Tommy
us1945@hotmail.com
Click to expand...

Steel wool is not always the best thing to use, it will shine up the surface of the wood, I prefer paper towels to "wipe down" the stock.
 
restoring stock

Thanks for all the replies !!
no vet bring back paper work on any of my 98k's.
1 ) this was an in general question.
2) my "brown glue" stock is a dot 43 laminated. numbers in the channels matches the receiver.
all matching except wrong numbered bolt (but same maker).

does there seem to be any difference in working with laminated vs solid wood.... cleaning , ect. ??

I have used different "cleaners" in the past on other gun stocks with decent results, but most were lower end items. I used oven cleaner (which most freak out to hear this), used scrubbing bubbles , which seemed real good at the time. think it was on my g-43 stock (?).
my worry here for starters, is losing any stamps in the wood , due to using water , ect to wash off the chemicals used.

I recently bought this dot 43 and a dou 44 from the same guy... that stock a little dark also. that also matching except the bolt (wrong maker).

the others I own need no restoring, maybe some light cleaning on the 1934 banner K.

any one try wood bleaching ?? I recently heard about it but , know nothing about it. it's specific for wood use ,ect. no clue where to buy it.
thank you to all.
jeff H.
 
savogran wood bleach

I buy it off of ebay. Works wonders for stained stocks. But not stained as in wood stain, but stained as in black streaks or rust stains. Hot water and wood bleach. Don't breathe the fumes. Let it soak in, can scrub with a toothbrush then rinse thoroughly. But I do it last after I strip the finish and get all the cosmoline and crud out. You can also boil the stock but have to be careful about warpage. Will swell dents and remove alot of the soaked in cosmoline. 1000 ways to skin a cat
 
damiencain said:
I buy it off of ebay. Works wonders for stained stocks. But not stained as in wood stain, but stained as in black streaks or rust stains. Hot water and wood bleach. Don't breathe the fumes. Let it soak in, can scrub with a toothbrush then rinse thoroughly. But I do it last after I strip the finish and get all the cosmoline and crud out. You can also boil the stock but have to be careful about warpage. Will swell dents and remove alot of the soaked in cosmoline. 1000 ways to skin a cat
Click to expand...

More like a 1000 ways to ruin a stock.
Never use wood bleach, oven cleaner, bathroom foaming/bleach cleaners..they break down the wood fiber and you can not flush all the chemicals out of the wood so the damage continues after you think you are done.
In addition, after the wood has been bleached white as whale bone, you can never get the original wood color/stain back to where it was and you end up with a stock that would look better with pickup truck bed liner painted on it.
Seriously, step away from the caustic cleaners...please!
 
Actually

The scrubbing bubbles mentioned is NOT the bleach formula. I agree that easy off, anything with chlorine bleach, etc will ruin the stock possibly. I have restored literally hundreds of stocks in the last 10 years and never had damage from the methods I used. Now I should have offered a caveat that if stripping a stock you will have to restore it. Removing stain is bringing it back to its original state and some sort of protection will have to be added to preserve the integrity of the wood. If you are trying to remove varnish and stain, then try strip x. It is formulated to remove stain as in min wax or whatever. If you want to preserve the wood after then use tung oil or BLO. I think the OPs concept was that he wanted to remove the existing finish and bring the rifle back to as issued condition, stock wise. So safe to assume he understands that removing any finish will necessitate putting some sort of "correct" finish back on. Wood bleach when properly used does its job very well. I have used it to even out the color on stocks that were stained from water and rust. You will have a very very light stock when it thoroughly dries, but is the best way to bring back a stock if starting over with it. But at that point the wood will accept whatever finish you apply and will take it more evenly. Chemically cleaning a stock properly is 100x better than sanding everything out as I have seen in the past. You preserve the original cartouches better than just trying to sand out defects and your metal to wood fit stays true.
 
Also

Wood bleach is designed for wood. Oxalic acid. Common household bleach is not designed for wood. Chlorine. Big difference. Red glue laminates are harder to screw up but still have to be careful to not accidentally delaminate. White glue stocks tend to be more delicate. Any laminated stock will have issues if overly cleaned. Your brown laminate stock may have just soaked up years and years of grime and crud. Or maybe stained at some point. I have found that even with water, the cartouches will swell to where they become faint. But after it dries it goes back to normal. If it concerns you put some Vaseline or tape over the cartouche to preserve it. You can use Tom's mix on your cleaned stock. Really good stuff. I use it as the last coat on all of my rifle stocks. Has a weird smell because of the turpentine in it, but helps preserve the integrity of the wood.
 
Again , thanks to all for the good information; Keep it coming.
I have used boiled linseed oil on a dry looking byf laminated stock (an extra stock), the natural color did come out & the faint markings seem to look more definable / readable.
but, this was a stock that did not need anything removed from it.

years ago I bought a g-43 ,from the vets' son. they used it all the time for hunting in Texas.
it was dark stained & varnished big time. stock was great shape but , NO noticeable markings anywhere.
I believe I used scrubbing bubbles on it back then. many how saw me buy it at the local gun show were very surprised after that restoration of the wood.... looked like it just left the factory.

I'll recheck my brown glue stock , & decide what to do to attempt to correct it.

Thanks again. jeff H.
 
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