The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > The Skunkworks > The Smithy

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old July 21, 2010, 06:33 AM   #1
blkmoon
Registration in progress
 
Join Date: July 21, 2010
Location: CDA, Idaho, USA!!!
Posts: 43
Refinishing a wood stock on my Remington 700.

Currently I am trying to finish up my refinishing job on my Remington 700. When I got the rifle from my dad, he had painted it with Rustoleum Gray. When it started to flake off, I decided to attempt to make it look like a rifle again. I have it sanded smooth. The last sand paper I used on it was 2000 grit, so I think it is smooth enough. What I am having trouble with is color. I would like to go with a colored stain to give it some uniqueness, but I haven't been able to find any colors beyond normal wood grain colors. I would appreciate ANY advice anyone has!
__________________
Why run?You'll only die tired!
blkmoon is offline  
Old July 21, 2010, 06:36 AM   #2
DiscoRacing
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 19, 2008
Location: milton, wv
Posts: 3,640
I use oak and cherry on these

__________________
Desert Eagle Alliance Group Launcher Extraordinaire ______
----Get Busy Live'n.....Or....Get Busy Die'n......Red
-------They call me Dr. Bob,,,, I have a PhD in S&W
DiscoRacing is offline  
Old July 21, 2010, 06:47 AM   #3
blkmoon
Registration in progress
 
Join Date: July 21, 2010
Location: CDA, Idaho, USA!!!
Posts: 43
Those are very cool!

I do like those, they look like pro work. The stains I am looking for are colored blue, green, red as examples. My wife saw some in a unfinished wood furniture store about 10 years ago. Needless to say the store is no longer in business and I have no idea how to find the stains. I was also wondering if anyone has ever tried staining thier stock in this manner?
__________________
Why run?You'll only die tired!
blkmoon is offline  
Old July 21, 2010, 06:49 AM   #4
DiscoRacing
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 19, 2008
Location: milton, wv
Posts: 3,640
I got this one from Boyds two yrs ago... but I have no idea what they use for stain.

__________________
Desert Eagle Alliance Group Launcher Extraordinaire ______
----Get Busy Live'n.....Or....Get Busy Die'n......Red
-------They call me Dr. Bob,,,, I have a PhD in S&W
DiscoRacing is offline  
Old July 21, 2010, 07:10 AM   #5
blkmoon
Registration in progress
 
Join Date: July 21, 2010
Location: CDA, Idaho, USA!!!
Posts: 43
That's cool blue!

That blue is very cool. They must have used something that changed that type of wood the different shades of blue. Now that I have seen how good it looks, I really want to get mine done! Thanks again for the cool pictures!
__________________
Why run?You'll only die tired!
blkmoon is offline  
Old July 25, 2010, 12:40 AM   #6
publius
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 25, 2005
Location: Mississippi/Texas
Posts: 2,505
Discoracing's stock is laminated. You cannot get those effects by staining a walnut M700 stock blue.
__________________
"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
publius is offline  
Old July 25, 2010, 12:57 AM   #7
Bill DeShivs
Senior Member
 
Join Date: April 7, 2006
Posts: 10,967
www.grizzlyindustrial.com has quite a few colored wood stains-usually used for musical instrument making.
__________________
Bill DeShivs, Master Cutler
www.billdeshivs.com
Bill DeShivs is offline  
Old July 30, 2010, 03:41 PM   #8
blkmoon
Registration in progress
 
Join Date: July 21, 2010
Location: CDA, Idaho, USA!!!
Posts: 43
Musical huh?

I did not know that musical insturments had colored stains! Thanks alot to everyone. Has anyone ever tried to use colored stains on hardwood stocks? I know the blue one above is a laminate. As cool as it looks, that kind of stock isn't for me. I am hoping the colored stain will give it a unique look as well as helping the rifle to blend in while hunting. I know that's alot to ask, but what the hay'!
__________________
Why run?You'll only die tired!
blkmoon is offline  
Old July 31, 2010, 05:07 PM   #9
hooligan1
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 18, 2010
Location: Independence Missouri
Posts: 4,582
Special walnut is pretty cool, Danish oil finish is nice too, and it sounds like you have it smooth enough. Post pics of the finished product dude!!!

Thanks for coming!
hooligan1 is offline  
Old July 31, 2010, 05:50 PM   #10
jimbob86
Junior member
 
Join Date: October 4, 2007
Location: All the way to NEBRASKA
Posts: 8,722
2000 grit?

Overkill.

Sanding wood that smooth will also make stain "take" less ..... If you want any of the "grain" to show, you'll have to "pop" the grain open again with alcohol or water .....

Have a look at Minwax "Red Oak" (Very red) or "Red Mahogany" (Red-brown) .....
jimbob86 is offline  
Old August 1, 2010, 11:33 AM   #11
Blue Monster
Member
 
Join Date: December 29, 2009
Location: 45th Parallel
Posts: 37
Consider wood tint instead of stain. I find stain is basically a fluid with tiny bits of color suspended in it, those tiny bits tend to fill the pores and decrease the pop (3D).

Tint is like food coloring, I mix it with 50/50 water and denatured alcohol and a drop or two of tint. I dries very quickly and lifts the grain at the same time. I goes on so thin you paint it the color you like and if you are unhappy it sand off very easily, try that with stain.

It comes in all colors.



Quote:
2000 grit?

Overkill.
+1, 400 is fine enough, then go up to 600-800 when sanding between coats if you like. If you make the wood too smooth it becomes like wax and it's very hard to get color or finish to stick to it. Definitively wet it and open the pores as mentioned.
Blue Monster is offline  
Old August 2, 2010, 04:38 PM   #12
Evan Thomas
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 7, 2008
Location: Upper midwest
Posts: 5,631
Yes... "tints."

What you want is an aniline dye, either water- or alcohol-soluble. The alcohol-soluble dyes dry very fast and don't raise the grain of the wood, but they're a bit harder to control. They also will lift if you put shellac over them as a clear coat.

To use a water-soluble dye, sand to your final grit, dampen the wood with water to raise the grain, let dry overnight, then sand again, lightly, with the same grit to level the surface.

If you want to get a pure color, and the wood you're dying has a lot of color on its own -- if it's anything but unstained birch, pretty much -- you'll need to bleach it first with a two-part wood bleach. Otherwise, if, for example, you start with wood that has a lot of yellow in it and try to dye it blue, it's going to come out.... green. (The bleach is also water-based, so use it after the grain-raising step above -- then sand again, very lightly so as not to cut through the bleached wood.)

Transfast, by Homestead, is a good brand. It comes in powder form, in all the colors of the rainbow and some the rainbow never thought of... buy it at Rockler, or order it from them online.

Another option is the line of dyes from TransTint, which are soluble in either water or alcohol. They're less fussy to mix than the Transfast dyes. (Note that with these, shellac may lift them even if you've mixed them with water.) These are also available from Rockler.

Do some samples to get a sense of how the dye behaves, and of how the final finish affects the color. You may want to use a clear acrylic or epoxy finish, which have no color -- other finishes will add some yellow to whatever color you put them over.
__________________
Never let anything mechanical know you're in a hurry.

Last edited by Evan Thomas; August 2, 2010 at 04:44 PM.
Evan Thomas is offline  
Old August 2, 2010, 05:53 PM   #13
smoakingun
Senior Member
 
Join Date: April 12, 2009
Location: melrose, fl
Posts: 634
aniline dyes work very well, but a little experimentation on something other than your gut stock will be in order to ensure you can apply the color without getting splotches, and they like synthetic finishes. polys work well.

I've used the transtint products, easy to use, but the transfast, to my eye, gives richer color
__________________
Hundreds of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.
smoakingun is offline  
Old August 2, 2010, 11:10 PM   #14
blkmoon
Registration in progress
 
Join Date: July 21, 2010
Location: CDA, Idaho, USA!!!
Posts: 43
Great Ideas

These are all great ideas everyone. As you can all tell I know just enough to be really dangerous! Most of my experience is with pool cues. I hunt in northern Idaho, so I need to seal the wood from moisture. Thanks to all of you for your ideas!
__________________
Why run?You'll only die tired!
blkmoon is offline  
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:59 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.07168 seconds with 10 queries