[leserz]

i have a muzzle loader stock i am refinishing. i have 99%of the stock stripped. i use a single edge razor blade to strip finishes off things. sounds weird if you have not tried it saves lots if $ on sand paper. so like i said i have it all scraped down to the bare wood. but the remaining finish that has penetrated deeper in the stock what do i use to bleach out the remaining finish in the wood. i cant sand much there is lots of brass on the stock it was a dark brown on the wood i want to refinish it in a honey maple finish that's a lot lighter finish think mineral spirits or denatured alcohol will work to remove all traces of the finish ?

 

[flintknapper]

Before folks had sandpaper, scraping wood was the way to produce a smooth finish, so that doesn't sound weird at all. As for the deep stain you want to remove, I don't know about that. Try the mineral spirits, denatured alchy or maybe even bleach in a hidden area to test how it will do. Be sure to let us know how it turns out, and maybe somebody else will be more help than me :smack:

 

[ArkArcher]

Mineral spirits and steel wool is the way to go. Also, the best and easiest way to strip wood is by applying the stripper, then using steel wool (coarse). I just did my 30-30 and used one pad of steel wool to strip the whole thing...and I could use it again if I needed to. Anyway, just get you some mineral spirits and some medium grade steel wool and give it a good bath and rub. Then let that dry for a few hours (until you can smell the wood and it does not have any smell of mineral spirits) and you will be ready to go with the staining. Well, be sure to take an old rag or t-shirt and wipe down the stock really well to get rid of any remaining steel wool particles. Then you will be ready to go. :up:

 

[leserz]

cool ! thanks

 

[ArkArcher]

cool ! thanks

You bet. And as far as saving money…I had 0 supplies for doing the stripping and restraining and here is what I had to get. (I'm going off of memory here so I could be off a couple $$, but not much at all.)

Klean Strip (Strip-X Stripper) - $5 something
Klean Strip (Mineral Spirits) - $7 something
Package Steel Wool (3 pads coarse, 3 medium, and 3 fine grade) - $3
Minwax Polyshades (small can) - $5
Package Latex Gloves - $3

So total I spent approximately $23 bucks and I could do many, many guns with this amount of stuff. Oh, and it can all be purchased at Wal-Mart. :up:

 

[flintknapper]

On a hysterical, er, historical note, next time you're in the same room as a really old smokepole, look closely at the stock. Often you'll be able to see little ripples or waves in the surface as a result of it being scraped smooth instead of being sanded. That's just one little way we have of telling the real old guns from the new fake ones.

All this modern stuff confuses me...

 

[leserz]

was told the old guns did not use brass screws. they used steel screws. he said they did not have the know how at the time.
that's interesting on the scrapping .

 

[flintknapper]

Imagine MAKING YOUR OWN SCREWS with a file! I get tired just thinking about it. Some of the really early guns had smithy made hardware throughout, and some even made their own barrels and locks (!)

Without the outdoor channel to watch, they had more time, I reckon.