Refinished (stock and forend)

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Well, I obviously didn't do much on the weekend back in April!  I did, however, remove the recoil pad and grip cap.  Then, I started removing the finish on the stock and forend the other day, and finished up last night.  It was very slow going- I started with 220 grit to break through the hard finish, which gave it a very flat, satin appearance before.  Once I broke through, things went faster, and using the same 220 grit I was able to smooth out the dings and scratches in the wood, then using a finer grit paper I gave a final smoothing and was left with a clean, unfinished, very pale stock and forend set.  I went very slow and checked my progress frequently by wiping it all down with a damp rag every now and then.  The damp rag didn't harm the wood due to the heat from the sand paper induced friction as well as being outside on my back porch on a hot Texas evening...it just removed the dust and then evaporated quickly.

I was in a zone, and I immediately wiped down and dusted off the stock and forend so I could get a coat of oil onto it...AND I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE of what the bare wood looked like.  I'm sorry.

But, here is what it looked like after applying just one coat of boiled linseed oil.  As you can see, it pops much better than before with that horrible varnished finish...it should start to look even better as I add a few more coats over the next few days. 



I once heard that, with a new stock, you should apply oil once a day for a week, then once a week for a month, then once a month for a year.  After that, apply as needed or whenever you give the shotgun a good cleaning.

That's what I plan to do...and I'm hoping to strip the rust and original bluing off of the metal this week and get started on the new rust-blue process.  Fingers crossed!