Walnut BNZ45

pzjgr said:
I prefer acetone myself, but it has to be pure acetone, a lot of things like fingernail polish remover have additives you wouldn't want...

But in the case of shellac, alcohol is best, as it is the least harsh, and dissolves real shellac very well, in fact when you get shellac in flake form, that's what you dissolve it in to get a liquid finish...

I actually use a mix of lab grade solvents together for my secret stripper formula....

Acetone is great because it evaporates very quickly, and will also help leach out excess oils from the wood...
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+1 on both points. Least aggressive/toxic is always preferred as a first choice IMHO no matter the task. Acetone is relatively inexpensive, easily obtained (except maybe in Kommifornia? :)) and as you said is excellent at leaching substances out of wood and other porous materials too. :thumbsup:
 
Using the theory that it's best to use the least hottest method of removing a finish off of old wood I prefer lacquer thinner to remove varnish. Doesn't evaporate quite as quick as acetone yet still leaves very little residue. To be sure there's no residue give it a final wipe down when you believe all traces of varnish have been removed. Mauser 99 said to avoid mineral spirits, to be technical both acetone and lacquer thinner are considered to be a form of mineral spirits as in refined from petroleum products.

For shellac we are talking about using denatured alcohol which is available at hardware and paint stores.
 
Some guns can even have the wood re/ finished to almost appear like the orig finish (no, I don't have the skill). IIRC, there is even one in the reference section with non orig finish, imo.
 
Caesar1 said:
That one came to me varnished. I used mineral spirits and a rag to get rid of the varnish.....hope it wasn't me that washed away history but I wasn't aggressive and my thought is it was like that before the varnish went on.
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that's a nice gun. best news is that the stock doesn't look sanded. you should be able to darken the wood a little. get expert advice though.
 
ac4142 said:
what kind of alcohol?
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Drop this 'denatured alcohol or acetone' in your favorite search engine and enjoy. :laugh: Seriously though I've used several brands but Klean-Strip and Sunnyside seem to be available all over the place.
 
sheepdog said:
..To be sure there's no residue give it a final wipe down when you believe all traces of varnish have been removed..
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White cotton cloth tells the tale. I mostly use old Hanes or Fruit of the Loom white cotton t-shirts but they will even sell you 'no lint' cloth if you're that anal. I've never had a problem with the shirts or wash clothes I've used.
 
To me, the biggest issue is people try to remove ALL of the shellac (or whatever). Therein lies the problem in my opinion, stripping to bare wood is what makes guns look stripped. Just soften the shellac and reduce the amount on the stock rather than try to remove it all. Laminate stocks are the worst to strip, walnut the easiest. Anyway, there really is no right or wrong way to do this job, just many different techniques.
 
If your good with colors in oil there are ways of using those, usually raw umber, in heavily turpentine thinned BLO to recreate a little age, my father was a master at this.

I probably shouldn't mention the extremely thinned, dirty motor oil trick since I always get lit up for even thinking it but it does work.

As stated there are many ways to skin a cat.
 
heavy_mech said:
If you really want to make your head explode add Toluene and Xylene to that mix. Controlled evaporation speeds and very low residue. The huffers made getting Toluene a pain.
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I use a mix of acetone, methylene chloride and toluene....I get it typically in ultra resi-analyzed grade, since we use it at work a lot...super pure and clean...works great for me...use it in a well ventilated area....:biggrin1:
 
I give up. I'm just going to sand it and pop some quick deaths heads on it. Seriously, what would you all suggest to darken it. Pm me if you don't want to create a **it storm!
 
Caesar1 said:
I give up. I'm just going to sand it and pop some quick deaths heads on it. Seriously, what would you all suggest to darken it. Pm me if you don't want to create a **it storm!
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Don’t forget some runes!!!


I think that you can make it look better. Handle it a bunch with some greasy dirty hands, like after working on a car. Haha I’ve seen stocks that have been brought back and they look decent.
 
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