Anyone dabble in gun restoration/refinishing?

[TheMoneyPit]

EDIT: I decided to ditch the dark stain and go with a lighter finish, See updated pics below. I am very happy with how it turned out!


Nothing crazy here but I had an old single-shot 16g shotgun in the safe (dated between 1938-1943) which was in desperate need of attention. The gun itself is not valuable ($125 max), more sentimental since it belonged to my grandfather....long story short I took it all apart and refinished the stock.

Before

Version 1


Version 2


Anyone else have recent or past gun project to share?

Side note: I used to have a side business restoring briar tobacco pipes, here is a quick look at some of my other projects

 

[Robin]

Your buttstock is up side down.
Robin

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Your buttstock is up side down.
Robin

Hahaha that’s amazing, totally didn’t notice that...amateur hour over here . It’s not reassembled, I slid the stock on just for a quick picture before it went back to the bench to be stripped again.

 

[ArmedCorgi]

Oh boy.

 

[Robin]

Thats pretty cool Money!!! Wish I had some of my Dad's old pipes. Do you sell them?
Robby

 

[Carlos Hathcock]

Your buttstock is up side down.
Robin

Thought something looked a little odd.

 

[Pedro]

TheMoneyPit, You probably know this, but make sure to have the but plate on the stock through the entire process, otherwise you'll have a rounded edge on the wood/but plate interface.
Pedro.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Thats pretty cool Money!!! Wish I had some of my Dad's old pipes. Do you sell them?
Robby

I used to sell them, just haven’t had time to restore anything recently. I’m a collector too though, I have a bunch of $300+ handcrafted pipes from US pipemakers which I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment out of. Surprisingly though some of the best smoking pipes I have had have been estate pipes I picked up cheap and restored. The briar wood that was available 50-100 years ago was better quality imho.

 

[HighlandLofts]

I did a old Ithaca 16 gauge model 37 about thirty years ago. Had the barrel rebluedn the reciever drilled & tapped for a scope and sanded the wood down and finished it with linseed oil.
I used that shotgun for deer hunting back there in New Yorkistan. I killed a ton of deer with that shotgun. I have it at my sons house back there to use occasionally when I want to use a shotgun back there.

 

[Saltwater60]

I did a old Ithaca 16 gauge model 37 about thirty years ago. Had the barrel rebluedn the reciever drilled & tapped for a scope and sanded the wood down and finished it with linseed oil.
I used that shotgun for deer hunting back there in New Yorkistan. I killed a ton of deer with that shotgun. I have it at my sons house back there to use occasionally when I want to use a shotgun back there.

I’ve got a 20 gauge Ithaca and I love it. Mine needs a little loving. I just touched up the blueing since it was getting very thin.

 

[HighlandLofts]

The next old 20 gauge Ithaca model 37 i see for sale with the rat tail forend with a vent rib barrel in good shape has my name on it.

 

[kev74]

Here are a couple I refinished.

 

[Saltwater60]

Here are a couple I refinished.

View attachment 37608 View attachment 37609 View attachment 37610

That double barrel is sweet. I’ve always loved double barrel shotguns.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Very nice!

Definitely wish I had a double barrel

Here are a couple I refinished.

 

[thegatman]

Very nice. Make sure you fill the grain for a smooth finish. Tune oil works great.

 

[MoMan]

WOW nice work guys!!

 

[GOYABEAN]

Anyone ever tried this method of reblue

 

[kev74]

Anyone ever tried this method of reblue

I can't wait for the follow up video where his wife beats the crap out of him for making her stove a rusty mess.

 

[Glenn B]

I refinished the stock on a Voere semi-auto in 22LR (imported by KDF, fired from an open bolt). I did the job in 2018. It had a very dark finish (darker than seen in this image, it shows grain here only because I used a flash otherwise it looked horrendously brown). The finish was damaged in a few places as seen here:



This is what it came out like:




I also refinished a Mossberg 395 SA bolt action shotgun's stock (another 2018 job) It looked like this when I got it:



I don't know if you can make them out but there are lots of surface scratches and small dings, the other side was similar. I bought it on a whim for $60 at a live auction and had not really looked it over much before buying it; the whim was that I would buy it and refinish its stock for fun. This is how it turned out:



That is one of my favorites as to stocks I ever have refinished. I also had to replace part of the safety but the parts were readily available. It's a nice shooter.

By the way, I used only Formby's Tung Oil on the above two jobs. There are, as I recall, at least 6 coats of tung oil on each.

I just completed a refinish job on the stock of a Mosin Nagant 91/30 last week. It belongs to my son and the stock looked terrible with Worn, flaked & scraped off finish, scratches and dings. I don't think I have any before pics but just imagine a run of the mill fair to good condition Mosin Nagant stock. I think it came out pretty nice for a rush job. I started it well over two months ago, put it aside and forgot all about it until I was about to head down to AR to visit my son for Christmas. He reminded me to bring it. All I could get done before heading his way was to sand it after having previously removed the old finish. In the last few days while down his way, I put on a new walnut colored finish and clear gloss top coat (water based polyurethane that my son had on hand - I hate the stuff but it worked). I got it done the day before I left to return to NY. It came out pretty nice, a least I think so and so did he:



Only have the one pretty lousy picture, the one of the other side came out pretty blurry. Even this pc is a bit blurry and it was taken under lousy lighting. My guess is the lens also was a bit dirty. Anyway, it gives a pretty good idea of how it looks especially if you consider the glossier looking part of the forestock (that is much more how it looks overall under decent light).

 

[camper4lyfe]

I want/need to refinish the stock on my 870. The OE finish just sucks (it's an express, so there's that). The barrels and receiver need some love, too. Cerakote for those someday.

 

[TheMoneyPit]

Check out the original post for updated pictures of version 2!

 

[MadScientist]

Refinished the stock on my sks last summer. Had a blast working on it. Was pretty dinged up and absolutely soaked in grime, maybe a little cosmo too.


Was a lot of fun. Ironed out some of the dings but not all the way to keep the character. Restained a slightly lighter shade to let the wood grains pop more, used progressively finer grains of sandpaper for a nice texture than finished it off with a bunch of coats of Johnson’s paste wax

 

[NY Leatherneck]

Refinished and deep cleaned this '54 Remington 512 a few years back. No sanding...just citrus stripper and a BLO finish.

 

[Glenn B]

Boiled linseed oil is a lot of rubbing but it surely does look nice when done. Nice job.