On the few stocks I have stripped and refinished the stain was in the sealing coat. It darkens the wood but hides a lot of color and detail. It's not the surface appearance that is the problem....you can always shine that up or buff it down. It's the muddy layer of color over the wood and under the top coat.
When you strip the old stain/sealer off and get down to bare wood the character of the wood is much more vivid and whatever finish you use looks better. Unless you really grind off a lot of wood the sealer remains in the very surface and refinishing is easy. You build a finish rapidly and it does not take so many coats.
If you use chemical strippers it often removes the sealer alltogether and the wood needs stain (on the wood and left to set) and then a clear sealer (I like lacquer based sealers) and a good fine sanding. After that you can build a finish rapidly with whatever oil or hard finish you like.
Back in the day we used "paste wood filler" to fill the grain before the stain. You can still get it but it's not on the shelves. If you ask for "paste wood filler" they show you wood dough to fill holes.
I've used deft lacquer based sanding sealer and elbow grease to get the same results on open grained wood and it works pretty good. The "paste wood filler" was quicker and easier but it does not have a very long shelf life and often dries out between refinishing jobs. You wind up ordering a new can every job and wasting most of it. So sanding sealer is how I seal up the pores before finishing.
I saw an old cabinet maker use powdered lac and denatured alcohol to seal and fill on mahogany furniture. His work was RADIANT. The lac bugs are ground up fine into powder and mixed with alcohol to make shellac and spread over the wood like paste wood filler. Then sanded off. I see you can actually buy the powdered lac bugs at the woodworkers supply. I've never used them. I understand this was the method they used to finish violins, guns, and fine woods for centuries. It was used under oils like BLO and provided an excellent base for sealing and finishing.
I suppose a guy could just use shellac instead of starting with powdered bugs. It's the traditional sealer though and I would love to see a stock done this way. I've never used it and opted for lacquer sanding sealer instead. I've seen some very old violins finished in lac and oil and they are stunning. A rifle finished in this traditional way would be really special.
When you strip the old stain/sealer off and get down to bare wood the character of the wood is much more vivid and whatever finish you use looks better. Unless you really grind off a lot of wood the sealer remains in the very surface and refinishing is easy. You build a finish rapidly and it does not take so many coats.
If you use chemical strippers it often removes the sealer alltogether and the wood needs stain (on the wood and left to set) and then a clear sealer (I like lacquer based sealers) and a good fine sanding. After that you can build a finish rapidly with whatever oil or hard finish you like.
Back in the day we used "paste wood filler" to fill the grain before the stain. You can still get it but it's not on the shelves. If you ask for "paste wood filler" they show you wood dough to fill holes.
I've used deft lacquer based sanding sealer and elbow grease to get the same results on open grained wood and it works pretty good. The "paste wood filler" was quicker and easier but it does not have a very long shelf life and often dries out between refinishing jobs. You wind up ordering a new can every job and wasting most of it. So sanding sealer is how I seal up the pores before finishing.
I saw an old cabinet maker use powdered lac and denatured alcohol to seal and fill on mahogany furniture. His work was RADIANT. The lac bugs are ground up fine into powder and mixed with alcohol to make shellac and spread over the wood like paste wood filler. Then sanded off. I see you can actually buy the powdered lac bugs at the woodworkers supply. I've never used them. I understand this was the method they used to finish violins, guns, and fine woods for centuries. It was used under oils like BLO and provided an excellent base for sealing and finishing.
I suppose a guy could just use shellac instead of starting with powdered bugs. It's the traditional sealer though and I would love to see a stock done this way. I've never used it and opted for lacquer sanding sealer instead. I've seen some very old violins finished in lac and oil and they are stunning. A rifle finished in this traditional way would be really special.
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