Stock refinishing - hole filling

I'm refinishing a stock from a brno 2E. I've stripped the old finish and have streamed out what dents I can. What I have is about four holes /garks that need to filled with something. What the approach here?

dapf make a good range of colored would fillers

Mauser308 you took the words out of me mouth big +1 for his post:thumbs:

A pic will give us some better ideas of what you need to achieve.

Sometimes making a feature of them works better than trying to make them invisible, like using a bit of ebony or a case head to fill them.


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Not sure whether I'll use boiled linseed oil or go the easier looking route of Tru Oil. In the long run I'd like to use BLO as I prefer the look. Tru Oil looks a lot like a vanish finish to me. Any comments on that those two products?

If I get a chance I'll chuck some photos up tonight.

Oh yeah, I also saw a youtube video of the block mixing saw dust and liquid shellac to fill small holes. Thoughts on that?

Never fill cracks with wood filler, even if made with wood dust. Problem with wood filler is that it... looks like wood filler. It looks cheap, unloved and you'll always regret every time you look at the repair.

Even imperfectly matched wood looks better. Try oiling a sample of the filler wood to see what colour it will become.

Once you have degreased/de-oiled the base wood, feel free to enlarge the hole to make a proper fit as you don't want to fill a shallow scoop of a hole, then insert the sliver of wood you have prepared - grain in same direction - and glue it in. The better the fit, the better the look. I have fixed floor boards with saw marks across their grain using small slivers sawn off from other boards and it looks great.

Epoxy is a failsafe heat and water resistant glue and it it will bond to remainders of old glues. Does not matter if the epoxy dries clear or brown as your filler piece should perfectly match the hole and so you won't see the colour. Think of it primarily as an adhesive, only secondarily as a filler. Don't use PVA as it does not glue to old PVA and anyway is not that water resistant. Then sand flat and oil etc.

A lot of guys put on several coats of Truoil, one on top of the other, and yes it does look like varnish/polyurethane. However if you take it back to the wood with steel wool each time, it just gets better and better and will match any linseed oil job. Allow it to dry fully, and then just use a fine steel wool like you would as if you are sanding it. Halfway through it kinda goes all dull looking, like its not quite dry, go past that until you have a decent semigloss type look. Then repeat it all over again, and again and again. The steel wool doesnt remove all the Truoil, it just takes all the dry surplus off the top and leaves lots of good hard finish right down on the wood where it should be. And then if its too glossy when you finish, you can use their other product, dont recall what its called and it dulls it all down. And if you gark it, its very easy to repair with an extra coat or 2 just on the affected area.

Attachment 69874
This is the worst one. Pretty small about 4mm by 3mm. May be a little over 1mm deep.
Attachment 69874

The others I can live with. The gark in the photo seems too big to sand out. Thanks for the comments about the tru oil Husky1600, I'll look into it.

Boiled linseed oil is not the way to go as most of the stuff you get now has a hardener and other stuff added. If you have months available and lots of patience numerous small coats of raw linseed oil is best. Thin with turps and put on lots of light coats wiping off the excess after half an hour and then leave for a week before buffing and applying a further coat. This is an ongoing and a long winded process but produces good results. The best and purest linseed oil is flax oil found in health food shops. You can be assured there are no dryers added. Most people don't realise that linseed oil has very few protective properties and was originally used on service rifles to nourish the wood tostop it drying out/cracking in dry climates. It offers very little in the way of water repelling properties and thus is not really a good protectant

True oil is good if you buff in between with Steele wool otherwise it gives to much if a glossy finish.

My favourite is tung oil which I now use as a replacement for linseed. You only need about 4 coats,it drys much quicker and also repels moisture. Again you need to buy pure tung oil not something that's got a whole lot of additives

Thanks for the comment omark.

Other question: I have removed the old finish which was a vanish/polyurethane of some sort, and now back to clean wood. However lots of dark stains in the barrel cannel and in the bolt recess. Am I right in assuming that this is soaked in gun oil? How do I get it out of the wood? Do I need to get this out given it will not be seen once its all back together?

That works quite well, just need to be careful not to sand the wood down too far. You can also use 10 second glue as well.

Damn I cocked that up. You can use acetone to get some of the oil out and you can also use a heat gun to lift the oil to the surface of the stock wood
and then wipe it off with a clean rag. The ding you showed in the photos wont take much to fix.

What you need to do to remove soaked in oil and grease is use a mix of acetone and calcium carbonate (not to be confused with calcium bi-carbonate.

It's like chalk dust and mix a little in a tin with acetone (in a well ventilated area) and then paste it on like plaster of Paris
I use a nice lock stick and cake it on. The acetone draws out the oil and it gets sucked up by the calcium carbonate powder
You then just brush it off
It dries rapidly so you can do multiple coats as required
Some guys use oven cleaner paint stripper and even the dishwasher but this technique is the best and does not damage wood fibre like the others.

If it's just a light clean you need ( rather than removing black oil stains) then simple green and a nail rush also works a treat

If you use 0000 steel wool to knock the shine down on Tru-Oil, make sure you rub the stock down thoroughly with an old towel then run a magnet over the stock. You'll be surprised at how many steel wool shards you get.

A link to good stock finishing is: Stocks: Making, Repairing, Refinishing, Modifying, and Bedding - RimfireCentral.com Forums