Refinish R92 furniture

[Blind Hawg]

I was tired of the colored varnish peeling off the wood. I stripped it, stained it with Birchwood Casey’s walnut stain and applied several coats of Renaissance wax polish. The color is about the same but it has more of a hand rubbed look. I’ll remove the wax one day and apply a proper BLO finish: 1 application a day for a week, 1 per week for a month and 1 per month for a year.

[Conman]

Without photographs this post is useless.

[Blind Hawg]

It looks like the original finish without the bare spots but I'll post a picture tomorrow. BTW, RENAISSANCE wax streaked in the rain today! BLO process starts tomorrow.

[mr surveyor]

I typed a reply a few hours ago ... then lost it before I hit the reply button (my fault) ... so I'll try again with a more condensed version...

A bit over 10 years ago I had a friend to loan me an old gallon can of Watco Danish oil. I decided to refinish the wood on a 1973 Marlin that had decent wood, but the original owner had burned his name and the 1973 date in the buttstock. I spent several days with various grits of sand paper (as well as paint stripper initially) to get that wood looking good. Then from some "old man" instructions given me I started working that Danish Oil into the wood by hand rubbing with 600 grit sand paper. He said that the sand paper with the oil would tend to work the "filings" into the pores of the wood. Over the course of about 12 applications of the Danish Oil and ever decreasing grit on the sand paper (down to 1200 and 1500 for the last 3 apps), that wood was sealed and smooth as glass. I actually finished by using very light application with coffee filters, and still occasionally dress it up with a coffee filter and dab of Old English furniture polish.

I didn't do my .44 mag R92 with the Danish oil - just washed off the Rossi shoe paste, lightly sanded, then just started adding the Old English furniture polish. It worked o.k. - just no where as good as the Danish Oil. Then when I traded for a lightly used (2012 model I think) .357 mag R92, it got detail stripped and had the whole Danish Oil treatment. Major difference.

I'm a true believer in complete oil finishes on firearms furniture, as well as proper care afterwards.

I've never used BLO, but I won't argue with a bunch of decades of successful use.

jd

[Blind Hawg]

I used an oil finish years ago that called for fine wet sanding to fill the pores. Got it at a gun show where seller was finishing the top of a stump looking like glass. I've used the BLO on my Ruger 77RSI a Winchester 100 recently. Its time consuming: One application a day for a week, once a week for a month and once a month for a year, followed by once a year there after.

[GasGuzzler]

When a vintage (read: "made with real wood") gun comes home with me it usually gets a wood cleaning followed by wet sanding with oil...left soaking wet for as long as it takes to develop splotches, then rubbed down with an old t-shirt.

[Deleted User 327]

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[Mad Trapper]

That has got to be one of the best refinish jobs I have seen.

[Archer]

I've used WATCO Danish Oil, Medium Walnut for decades to repair scratches on the woodwork in my home so when I first got my 2009 Rossis and saw the dull, flat finish on the 'mystery wood' I thought that it might just be the ticket.

I cleaned the surface thoroughly and noted that the grain wasn't filled with sealer so I applied the oil right over the original finish and let it cure for a week. Eleven years later and it still looks great.

Stock finish as delivered new (I'd added the saddle ring). Note the dull, single color with the bland look and little of the grain showing.



After a couple of coats of WATCO right over the original finish. Note the depth, color, and grain (yes, I also added the leather).

I found something similar a few years ago when I was finishing some bookcases.
The stain I had used in the past was showing up as a dull monotone to the bookcases and I was not impressed. I proceeded to finish them as I normally would and then applied a coat of varnish. The dull monotone I was getting from the stain suddenly popped and I had a glowing representation of the grain that was what I had been looking for all along. I can't say I've ever had that kind of contrast before or since. Usually you get a better sense of the grain and hue but for some reason with the wood in those bookcases and the way the stain reacted I was starting to question whether or not the methods I'd used a dozen times before were going to be worth it this time around.

[Deleted User 327]

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