Next projects are on deck for

[Sharps40]

Third coat of finish is in the wood. This dense hard walnut buttstock took a bit of wet sanding with very fine paper to not only level the first sealer coats but to polish out most of the 220g sanding stroaks from the burled sections near the butt. Figured wood shows even 600g sanding marks...specially when its darn hard wood. Forend is not as pretty, and still has some of its 100 years of blemishes but its saved and quite serviceable...its flaws tell of many squirrlies and bunnies in the camp pot. But, finish on, finish dry, finish knocked level with 0000 steel wool and more finish on is the rule. I use about 6 drops per side for each coating, rubbed in hard and then allowed to dry before leveling for the next coat. Couple days work, mostly waitin for stock goo to dry. Soon it'll be time to put the wood away in a dent free zone and start on the metal.

 

[loadnplenty]

Looks very good!!!

 

[Old_School]

So Sharps, when you say you wet-sanded, I assume you're using finish as your wetting agent?

 

[Sharps40]

No. That just makes mud that sticks to everything and retains the sanding grit on the stock. Wet sanded is with small amounts of water on the sealed stock useing wet/dry sand paper. Cuts smooth, wipes clean and no stickie grittie goo left on the leveled base coat.

 

[Sharps40]

Just about done with the wood. Each coat of finish is leveled with 0000 steel wool...

Leveling deglosses, thats good but even though leveling leaves the wood feeling smooth, only rubbing can make it feel soft and fff will bring up a warm satin as opposed to a garish browning shine. I can't explain the soft feel, but once you've felt it you know.

Still have to seal under the buttplate and the inletting but here's how it looks....almost good enough as is.

[Broken External Image]:

 

[loadnplenty]

That's is some beautiful wood!!! You never did say where you acquired it lol

 

[Sharps40]

Just some dude on the innnerweb that had a couple o parts. He had one stock blank and one original stock so I got the blank for $29 instead of the GPC going price of $100+

 

[Sharps40]

Just back from a marathon session of 38 Special loading and time to rust blue some small parts. I'll get em stripped and started tonight...pics comeing.

 

[edzackley]

Love this thread. Can't wait to see how it looks finished..

 

[Sharps40]

Metal prep on one this old is a matter of degrees. Short of a new barrel, it ain't gonna have a master shine. Under all that patina (rust) is a very finely frosted set of parts. So, wire brush in a drill press does a nice job blending to a satin finish for rust blueing.

Here the parts just off the wire brush, and staged for the first heavy application of pilkingtons.

About 20 minutes into the first three hour soak and even with the humidity about 50% below where it oughta be for fastest rust blackening, some color is starting to bloom evenly on these old parts. I'll likely move em inside and into a damp box for the rest of the weekend just to get the process evened out and moveing at other than a snails pace.

An the barrel? Also finely frosted with micropits so, rather than loose all the markings, a 100g jitterbug finish to blend in a satin finish, clean the metal and sharpen up the old markings. Blueing will wait for a more humid time of the spring, perhaps late march, early april when the garage is overing at least 60% humidity and 50+ degrees overnight.

But in all, a fine working finish for an old gun that will see some use and lots of Eyeball time above the mantel. The action will receive similar treatment and rust blueing as its just a bit too frosted to be worthy of a polished finish.