Refinishing the furniture on my Browning.

[Captain Kyle]

I would like to refinish my stock and fore-end on my first shotgun ever, my Browning Citori O/U. I have a few bumps and nicks in the wood. I want sand these down, re-stain and reseal. My only worry is the checkering. I don't wanna mess the checkering up and I want to stain the whole thing very dark, i think it will look very very nice and then it will be like no one else's. I love this gun and i still use it for all dove hunts.

Anyone have any tips for doing this? It seems strait-forward enough.

 

[rcmodel]

Try to raise the dings with a wet cloth and hot iron.
The steam will penetrate the wood and raise the dents unless the grain is actually cut across.

Sanding them out will surely remove too much wood around the inletting and checkering.

You can fill bad dents with shellac stick made for the purpose.

Or fill them with Tru-Oil as you sand between coats.

The checkering will need to be left alone, and just cleaned with a tooth-brush.
One light coat of Tru-Oil with a toothbrush, and remove it all until just a thin film remains to bring up the existing finish.

rc

 

[Steve H]

I would go along with what RC has to say. BUT if you want to get into the checkering you can buy some checkering tools (I think Brownells has them) and sharpen the cuts if you happen to sand them down.

 

[Badger Arms]

I use furniture stripper for the checkering. Get it all off of there with a tooth brush and alcohol (not rubbing). When I oil the stock, I'm careful not to soak the checkering too much. I usually cut the first few coats of tung oil (what I use) with acetone about 1 to 1 ratio. Dries a bit quicker. After the first coat, I take some 0000 steel wool to the whiskars. Second coat too, sometimes. Usually by the third, all the whiskars are gone. Two or three thinned coats then the rest just straight from the bottle. Hand-applied with one day between each coat, About one week of this then let the stock cure for another week before installing.

 

[lipadj46]

Another problem with sanding down is if you truly want a professional finish you have to fill the grain with an epoxy filler or shellac either way this can be a real pain for a novice. There was a link a while back where someone showed the steps a real woodworker takes to refinish a stock. One thing he did was to make sure not to loose the grain fill. Also you lose the aged wood color that cannot be replaced.

 

[Rshooter]

I agree with Badger, I would only add that when I am not using TungOil I use MinWax WoodFinish and apply with a rag followed by rag applied sealer, MinWax also, they have gloss, semi, and flat.

 

[jkingrph]

I have refinished several old guns, most with checkering. I just work around it being careful not to sand or scrape onto it. To clean it I use a fine brass brush with solvent, acetone or lacquer thinner, let dry and if there are any damaged areas touch those up with a small riffler file I got from Brownells for that purpose. I always use an oil type finish, so to keep it from building up in the checkering, I apply a coat of finish, let stand on the checkering then blot the excess out with paper towels, then later apply floor wax such a trewax with a toothbrush then buff with a shoeshine type brush.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I try to stay away from steel wool as you can get the steel particles embedded in the finish. Try some cloth backed sandpaper. Not as cheap as steel wool but does a nicer job.