My grandfather is soon going to let me have his 308 model 70 winchester featherweight (1980's i think) the stock is in horiible shape and i was looking to redo it, i have never done anything gunsmitthing, can i fairly easily redo the stock or should i take it to a gunsmith, how much would a gunsmith be (just an est.)

thanks

mthunter,
Not sure of the 80's- era featherweight stock; does it have whiteline spacers anywhere in the stock, like at the pistol grip cam, buttplate, or fore-end? My 80's mod 70 XTR has whiteline spacers at the pistol grip, and at the fore-end. The buttplate is likely plastic.

If you refinish the stock yourself, you do not want to get any stripper on any of the plastic pieces - the whiteline spacers or the buttplate. The stripper will eat these up. Just keep the stripper away from these areas, and remove the finish with sanding here.

You do not want to sand down the checkering. You can cover the checkering with masking tape and carefully sand around the masking. Alternately, you don't have to mask, but after you knock down the checkering with the sanding, you'll want to rechecker and sharpen it up. If the existing checkering is buggered up, maybe you want to rechecker anyway?

Once you've gotten all the finish removed and sanded down to where you're ready to refinish, time to choose a finish. Tru-Oil is a good product. You will want to put 10-15 coats on, and you do not want to fill in the checkering with the finish. I've either left on the masking tape on the checkering from the sanding operation, or put new masking tape on. When you've completed the main stock finish, you want to put at least one coat of oil seal on the checkering.

I've used "African Express" finishing from Brownells, but it's fairly intensive, and I ended up with 20 or so coats on my stock. I thought Tru-Oil was a simpler product to use.

Bob Faucett was a gunsmith for quite awhile, and probably has some good finishing advice for you. If you take the stock to a gunsmith, you're likely looking at 100+ $$, just for finishing. If there's any recheckering req'd, you can easily double this.

Don't be scared by the refinishing; if you're handy at all in woodworking, it's not too difficult...I wouldn't be concerned about "devaluing" a post-'64 stock.

Refinishing a stock is not too difficult and the previous post gave sound advice. My preference would be to strip off the old finish and steam out any dents with a wet cloth and a hot clothes iron. I never sand a finished stock because there is no excess wood and things might not fit after sanding. I apply a coat of boiled linseed oil inside and out to the stock, under the buttplate and pistol grip cap. Tru-Oil does a great job and usually 4 or 5 coats seems to work well, just follow the directions.

A gunsmith can give you opinions on the costs and time required to refinish a stock.
Take care...
Oberndorf

Shawn gave you good advice. I've pretty much settled on Tru-oil as my finish of choice both for the ease of use and the end results.

The big job is getting the old finish off. Most of the modern finishes are some sort of epoxy sprayed on a stock and the only thing that will remove them is an epoxy rated stripper. You can get this at a local hardware store or order the one made for gunstocks from Brownell's.

It's really good to to get all the furniture (buttpads, grip caps and such) off the wood before stripping. Sanding is probably the worst way to take an old finish off simply because not only does it remove to much wood it has a tendency to to remove checkering and checking is expensive to replace.

Like Shawn says steaming will raise dents and minor finish sanding will restore any rough places. There are several stains offered by Brownell's to get that "Winchester Red" finish they originally used, but often the wood will finish up beautifully with just the Tru-oil.

If you check in Brownell's Tech section under the how-to section there are several good articles on refinishing. If you have buggered up checkering a couple of inexpensive checkering tools and a viener will clean that up to look like new.

Here's a link to Brownell's tech section. Check the how to articles on stock refinishing and cleaning up old checkering.

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/GunTech/guntech.aspx

Here's a pix of a Ruger #1 that was refinished with Tru-Oil.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/faucettb/Preditor%20masters/Rugerstock1-1.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/faucettb/Preditor%20masters/Rugerstock1.jpg

To have a gunsmith refinish your stock here's a place to check, they do complete finishing and checkering, but cost will probably start around 150 bucks and go up from there.

http://www.gunstocks.com/

I don't recommend sanding unless the stock is almost a total loss. Sanding can remove too much wood very easily, ruining the original lines of the stock, obliterating checkering, and destroying the stain. Instead, I always begin by rubbing with fine steel wool and mineral spirits to remove the old finish -- not the stain, just the finish. Checkered areas can be scrubbed out using the mineral spirits and an old toothbrush. Let the stock dry, then steam out any dings that may be there -- at least, steam them out as much as you can. Some may be too deep to eliminate completely, but steaming can improve them to a great degree. If the checkering need touching up, it's pretty easy to freshen using either a simple hand checkering tool or, lacking that, a fine-edge file. Then refinish using any one of many good stock finishing products. My favorite is TruOil, which is very easy to use and gives great results. What you end up with does not look like a brand-new stock stuck on an old gun, but a stock that looks like it's been well-cared-for for the life of the gun. There's something about that "patina" that just looks right on an old gun.

I have to say I'm surprised about the multiple recommendations for not sanding, but I'm always willing to learn a better way. When stripping, there is always some bit of "goo" left, which I thought the best way to remove was to let dry, then sand it out. Plus, I was always concerned that any residual goo would hinder the wood from absorbing the finish if some of the wood surface was not taken off, but that belief falls short on the checkering. But the wiping and scrubbing with mineral spirits removes all of this effectively? Thx guys, good info.

Stain is a different matter. I'm not much of a fan of the red-ish and yellowish stains that were used in the past and prefer just plain virgin walnut, whatever hue. I've only refinished two stocks (one of them twice, however) and after sanding/refinishing, the coloring was much different, and more like virgin walnut, so did the sanding remove all of the stain? And if sanding isn't used, are you stuck with the coloring that was there before?

Obendorf,
The first time I finished my Win 70 XTR stock, I did end up with (can't remember) 4-6 coats of TruOil on it. It looked fine, but at the carry point at the magazine, it wore through down to unprotected wood, rather quickly (6 years or so) I thought. That's while wearing wool gloves sometimes, which can be abrasive. So, I bumped up the coats to 10-15 when using TruOil.

It can take a bit of elbow grease but, yes, mineral spirits and steel wool will remove most finishes, unless they happen to be the poly-whatever, plastic-looking shiny stuff like Browning and Remington have used. The plus is that you remove the old gunk without creating a situation where you have to refill the pores, and usually just one or two light applications of the new finish will complete the job handily.

you could get a boyds for about $175 www.boydboys.com (http://www.boydboys.com) if you were interested in going that way

thanks all for your suggestions, like i said i am a novice and was wondering what u mean and how to "Steam out" the dents like was said??

thanks all for your suggestions, like i said i am a novice and was wondering what u mean and how to "Steam out" the dents like was said??

A dent is little more than compressed wood. By applying wet heat with an iron and a damp cloth, the dented/compressed wood returns. It won't cure cuts, but most dents will recover nicely. It's easy, and I've never seen a dent get worse.

Works on floors and furniture too ;)

I have done it lots of times and you can get out some really bads dents. The key is to use a really wet cloth, high heat and avoid scorching the wood. It may require a number of applications of heat, but it really works well. All the best...
Gil

The key is to use a really wet cloth, high heat and avoid scorching the wood. It may require a number of applications of heat, but it really works well. All the best...
Gil


Read that two times and remember it.

Cheezywan

just a regular steam iron will work, as long as you keep it off the wood and the dent isn't too deep

I've used Minwax satin polyurethane varnish on a couple gunstocks and it's a nice tough finish. Care in application is imporant as it sets up pretty fast. You dont want to leave any globs as you'll have to wait till it sets up hard to sand it down. I use foam brushes from Ace Hardware to apply the finish.