TargetTalk

I recently purchased a 1979 vintage FWB 300 S Universal. Metal and function are excellent but the stock is a little rough and should be refinished. It would be great to hear from others who have completed this project. Specifically I would like to know the best product/method to strip the old varnish off and also. how to handle or restain the stippled grip areas which aren't as dark as they should be. Thanks.

You can either use varnishstripper or sand it down. As its lacquered. After that, with iron and wet cloth, get the dents and deep scratches out.
After that, sand and sand, smaller and smaller grit, till its VERY smooth.
You can either paint the strippling black, or relacquer or oil it, depending what yr finish is.

So once the stock is smooth, what's the best way to finish? I'm not really in the mood for the weeks-long oil/rub/oil/rub routine (tho' I know that will look best). Is it reasonable to just put on a couple of coats of Minwax (or similar) polyurethane finish? Should that be put on over a couple of coats of oil or other primer?

And finally, should I put on some kind of top coat over the Minwax?

And what (except maybe for the time invested) is the difference between sanding or stripping to start out?

This is a 40+ year old gun just bought from our hosts. I'm not planning to bring it back to showroom standards, just to get the rough spots off.

Thanks for any help and advice!

-pz

Don't make us any older than we already are!!! (32 year old gun...;) ).

I refinished my 1979 Daisy/FWB 300s using Birchwood-Casey products and it turned out well.

Which Birchwood-Casey products?

Do all the stripping as mentioned in a previous post and remove dents, etc. When I've refinished stocks, I've found that the tung oil, dry, steel wool, repeat 7 times works very well. The 7 coats gives the stock the deep shine look. Staining beforehand makes even cheap wood look good. I like a mixture of 60% cherry stain and the rest light oak. It gives off a reddish appearance. If you just want to do something to look ok, put 2 coats of polyurethane on it. Don't use the high gloss. Put on light coats and do wait until the previous coat is completely dry. Like anything, the more effort you put into it, the better it looks.

peterz wrote:Which Birchwood-Casey products?

Tru-Oil gunstock finish.

Hi,

I did a full restoration on three 300s rifles.

The details are here :- http://www.cones-stuff.co.uk/Feinwerkbau%20300s.htm

I used a chemical stripper to remove the varnish. Then the wood was steamed and sanded to remove the majority of the marks. I left a few of the deepest scars as it would have required removing too much wood to level them.

The final finish was a Linseed Oil based London Gunstock finish from Napier. This is rubbed in sparingly and multiple applications will increase the shine.

HTH

Mark

Lin-Speed oil is also very good. I have used it in the past. The advantage of an oil finish over a polyurethane finish is that an oil finish can be more easily touched up.