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Was in a good mood when I got home from work, had everything I could possibly need...so I jumped right in.

I broke down my 91/30 and decided to strip the finish off to prepare for a re-staining.

I tried paint thinner...worked like crap.

I tried turpentine...even more crap.

Found a can of paint stripper :-* ran out 2/3 of the way through, guess it wasn't as full as thought.

Found a can of Easy Off in the garage :-* :-* sprayed 3/4 of the stock and it stopped. Still plenty in the can IT JUST WON'T SPRAY! :'( Hot water rinse, a nail cleaning the nossel, air pressure...nothing!!

So I wiped and wiped, rinsed it with water, patted it down and placed it in my furnace room to dry.

I guess I'll buy another can of paint stripper (really worked great) and finish it off in the next couple of days.

Then I cleaned and re-blued the barrel, receiver and butt plate. Now that came out pretty good. All oiled up in my garage for now. Will take a look tomorrow and see what I got. There was black paint on the butt plate that I buffed off with steel wool before bluing. Slow, repetative process but it appears to be worth it, we'll see.

I cannot imagine doing this for a living, I need more instant gratification. I figured this would prep me for my MAS project.

I've got some before shots already and will post the after pics...after. ;D

carguy

paint striper won't heart the blueing or the steel

NORM

Well I really broke it down so the only metal left to get hit with the stripper are the tips on the handguard and the cross bolt that goes through the stock in front of the trigger mechanism.

The Russians must have dipped this thing in a vat of shellac just like they were preping it for storage and thought it was cosomoline...the stock is still loaded with finish. The fore stock and handguard are mostly bare wood in need of smoothing with fine grit sand paper or super fine steel wool. Is there a preference sand paper or steel wool to knock down the raised grain before staining??

oh carguy, (in reference to a post earlier in another thread) I saw a nagant the other day today that did have a painted on finish (whoever re-arsenaled it did a really bad job and it ran off the barrel onto the stock)

carguy

it depends on how rough the wood is on some I got laity I went from 00 steel wool to 0000 steel wool and didn't have to sand a thing I have done stocks that I had to start with 100 grit sand paper and work up,
but between sanding's whip off stock with denatured alcohol then go to the size up

NORM

Carguy ~ I just use my beard to sand down the finish. Hope that helps! G

the cross bolt that goes through the stock in front of the trigger mechanism.

Might want to take that guy out so your stripper and sandpaper can get in there. Gunk likes to collect in those areas, and if it's in bad shape, you can re-blue while you have it out. :-[

When I refinished my 91/30 I removed the varnish with Citristrip. It is a stripping jell that you put on and let i set for a little while and just scrape or rub the varnish off. You have to use the stripping stop made by Citristrip to stop the stripping process. ( it will remain active for 24 hrs. if you don't use this. Real easy to use and pretty clean and quick.

Okay, got more stuff and went at it tonight...

stock drying in the furnace room after the final stripping


reblued receiver...looks real nice

Hopefully tomorrow night or the weekend at worse one final "smoothing" with steel wool, staining and finishing...pictures as soon as available.

Looking Great so far Carguy ! It is worth the effort to see the end result. I went out and shot mine after repairing the cracked stock, as i figured , it is very solid and will be just fine. I may just leave it as is(holes unfinished, Kinda like having a junk car in the driveway, i guess)
It certainly is a "sleeper" looking the way it does now. My friend/neighbor fell in love with it and is online trying to find one for himself now. I have the buttplate off still, and my left (manboob)breast is killing me today! G

Don't get caught massaging that thing too much or you rwife will get jealous! ::)

And I agree, this is easy and fun, I should have done it a long time ago!! CAn't wait to seee the end result!!!

carguy

I heard of a guy using IODINE as a stain and it worked real good
but so far as I can tell looks good
I like working on guns and rifles almost as much as I do shooting them also reloading for them too

NORM

I used an oil based Min Wax stain thursday evening, (stained, wiped, dry, stain, wiped, let it dry...with a gentle sanding in between as well). Last night I put a thin coat of seni gloss poly urethane on and am still waiting for it to dry. I didn't want to attempt shellac and I liked the min wax stain so there we are.

Just seems like waiting forever for the poly to dry so I can use a littl steel wool and put another coat on.

This will take all weekend...easy.

carguy

My new M1 GARAND stock has taking 4 weeks and I still not done
and I didn't have to strip it just steel wool it

NORM

So it is normal for this stuff to take some time to dry? I've finished oak railings etc and it seems they were dry within a day and ready for a new coat...I guess I'm just anxious! Maybe I need to go shoot something...haven't done that in a couple of weeks!


Thanks


Not my day...still tacky and the range is closed. Clean up weekend...I did enough raking and cleaning up in my yard this morning, so I made a U-turn and came home. I have a feeling I am about to take my wife food shopping...wah who! Another exciting weekend begins!

Thank goodness the Red Sox are winning... :-* :-* :-*