I'll start off by saying that this has been a long time coming. I inherited this gun from my grandfather who bought it new right after WWII. The gun has seen lots of use, but it had also seen better days. Years of being put away dirty, and no attention to the woodwork, and it was in pretty rough shape.
First thing I found out last year, was that the action needed to be rebuilt, and the firing pin was in three pieces. Well, I took it to Peterson's in Mount Dora, and he repaired the action and machined a new firing pin. Mounted a bbl band and swivel set to put on a sling, since it had never had one, and cleaned the barrel and breach for over 8 hours, and finally got the shine back in the barrel and the grime out of the breach.
Now (with the help of M12Gunboy) the gun is disassembled down to bare parts. I have stripped and sanded the stock and fore end down to 400 grit. Note. The fore end "varnish" was completely gummy, and there were some serious dents and dings. The finish on the stock was fair to poor to say the least. There were some large dents in the side of the stock, the clearcoat (whatever it was) had lots of runs and sags, especially around the grip, and the front end of the stock where it meets the receiver was almost black with all the years of gun oil that it had absorbed. So, after sanding the stock and fore end, I proceeded to steam the hell out of the stock to get out as many of the dents and dings that I could, as well as "sweat" the oil from the stock. Took several hours, but when I was done, I had "sweat" nearly 2 teaspoons of old gun oil from the stock.
After another round of sanding with 120, 220, and 400 grit, I started the staining process with the Tru-Oil stain. The original walnut was in remarkable shape and has some beautiful grain, especially in the fore end. So, I mixed the Tru-Oil stain 50/50 with filtered water, and applied the first coat of stain. It ended up taking 2 good coats on the fore end and three on the stock to match the color I was looking for.
Next up was the wet sand with 400 grit and the Tru-Oil finish. Soaked the stock down good applying the oil with my bare fingers. Then, I started sanding, reapplying the Tru-Oil to keep the stock wet. Following the directions, I sanded the stock until the finish was more of a brown slime than the clear finish. After letting the finish set for a few minutes, I wiped the excess off across the grain as instructed and hung up the stock with a coat hanger before repeating the process on the fore end.
Make sure you get some pic's. of it as you go.
After letting both set overnight, I just finished the first round of 0000 Steel Wool rubdown and another coat of hand rubbed Tru-Oil finish. Pics of the progress tomorrow. 29 more rounds of finishing and buffing to go. In the meantime, I'm gonna start the process of tearing down the trigger mech (or at least a serious cleaning with a toothbrush, q-tips, and lots of Rem oil.
On the pics, you can be sure. Wish I'd taken some before we broke her down, and even more right after I finished stripping and sanding the stock and fore end.
it may be too late now but did you use a wood filler to fill in the pores? if not you will never be able to completely sand them all out and end up taking off too much wood, and having to use alot more coats of oil or whatever type of finish your using. nice project to undertake, should be a beauty when youre done. whats the bbl lenght on that puppy? great gun for southpaws also.
