Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Rossi's short stocked carbine for the working ranch hand!
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pricedo
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by pricedo »

Ranch Dog wrote:
pricedo wrote:WOW !
That not only sounds like work........it is work !...........I wasn't planning on watching the seasons change through the shop window fancying up substandard wood..........too much like using silver polish on a rusty tin can. :shock:
Absolutely no work to it. It took a little attention each day while I was running back and forth with ranch chores. Absolutely nothing to it. If your just want to "slop" something on, why bother, as that is what you have right now on behalf of Rossi. I would just leave it alone.

Try it and you will see how little time and effort it takes. There is no finish to remove, the Rossi stocks are not finished at all. They put a protective coating of something that is the equivalent of reddish brown shoe polish and call it a day. Mineral spirits will totally dissolve the Rossi finish.
I want something that is going to penetrated (soak in) to the wood and preserve it.
I don't think the Rossi "shoe polish" does a good job of sealing the rather porous wood from the elements.
I've seen gun stocks that were stripped, cleaned thoroughly of the Rossi coating and tru-oiled and other guns where the TO was slopped on over the in situ Rossi coating and worked in & the latter methodology produced the dark legacy look I like while the stripped & cleaned stocks were too light in color.
Both methods produced homogenous attractive furniture but I prefer the latter not only cause it's a lot less work but because I prefer the looks of it.
In essence I'm using the superficial Rossi coating as a dye to mix with the TO.
The TO does a lot more to seal & preserve the pithy Rossi mystery wood which is goodenuf for the purpose.
If Rossi used real walnut in their guns and an actual finish instead of paint on polish the guns would be more expensive and we don't want that.
We have all in moments of consternation after finding problems with our Rossi rifles demanded more QC and better materials from Rossi from time to time but we had better be careful what we ask for if we want the price to stay cheap.
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by dos0711 »

True...I paid $350 for my Ranch Hand 45 at Academy Sports...
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by Model 52 »

pricedo wrote:
Ranch Dog wrote:
pricedo wrote:WOW !
That not only sounds like work........it is work !...........I wasn't planning on watching the seasons change through the shop window fancying up substandard wood..........too much like using silver polish on a rusty tin can. :shock:
Absolutely no work to it. It took a little attention each day while I was running back and forth with ranch chores. Absolutely nothing to it. If your just want to "slop" something on, why bother, as that is what you have right now on behalf of Rossi. I would just leave it alone.

Try it and you will see how little time and effort it takes. There is no finish to remove, the Rossi stocks are not finished at all. They put a protective coating of something that is the equivalent of reddish brown shoe polish and call it a day. Mineral spirits will totally dissolve the Rossi finish.
I want something that is going to penetrated (soak in) to the wood and preserve it.
I don't think the Rossi "shoe polish" does a good job of sealing the rather porous wood from the elements.
I've seen gun stocks that were stripped, cleaned thoroughly of the Rossi coating and tru-oiled and other guns where the TO was slopped on over the in situ Rossi coating and worked in & the latter methodology produced the dark legacy look I like while the stripped & cleaned stocks were too light in color.
Both methods produced homogenous attractive furniture but I prefer the latter not only cause it's a lot less work but because I prefer the looks of it.
In essence I'm using the superficial Rossi coating as a dye to mix with the TO.
The TO does a lot more to seal & preserve the pithy Rossi mystery wood which is goodenuf for the purpose.
If Rossi used real walnut in their guns and an actual finish instead of paint on polish the guns would be more expensive and we don't want that.
We have all in moments of consternation after finding problems with our Rossi rifles demanded more QC and better materials from Rossi from time to time but we had better be careful what we ask for if we want the price to stay cheap.
That's exactly the case. I looked at and experimented with some of the unstained wood under the butt, and in the tang recess and it just did not stain quite dark enough for my tastes with the Tru-Oil stain, other commercial stains, coffee or anything else I've used in the past to get a traditional walnut looking color. I'm pretty good at getting stained and dyed results (that many people at the range will swear is walnut) with the hardwoods we normally encounter here in the US - but the wood Rossi uses is a real challenge. I just didn't see the point in messing with it when the current color was what I wanted. The first coat of try-oil was telling as it went on like the underlying "finish" wasn't even there and then dried with no compatibility issues. At that point I saw no reason to complicate the process by stripping the wood at all.

Now the trade off is that there are a couple areas with some surface irregularities that I would have preferred to sand out, but they are very minor and not worth the over all effort in terms of stripping and re-staining the wood.

Ranch Dog wrote:
pricedo wrote:WOW !
That not only sounds like work........it is work !...........I wasn't planning on watching the seasons change through the shop window fancying up substandard wood..........too much like using silver polish on a rusty tin can. :shock:
Absolutely no work to it. It took a little attention each day while I was running back and forth with ranch chores. Absolutely nothing to it. If your just want to "slop" something on, why bother, as that is what you have right now on behalf of Rossi. I would just leave it alone.

Try it and you will see how little time and effort it takes. There is no finish to remove, the Rossi stocks are not finished at all.
That's also right on the money. I've got about 10 coats of TO on mine. The first couple coats take a bit longer as it really soaks it up, but subsequent coats go on in less than 5 minutes. I don't follow the BC protocol exactly as I only use steel wool on it every 3rd coat or so - but then I take it almost back down to the base coat - you get nice fill with the grain, but without any heavy buildup. But even the wet sanding with steel is only a 5 minute or so process. Then wipe it down to dry it, hit it with a tack cloth to remove an dust and apply another coat of TO. With a coat every 3 hours, you can do the whole job in 5 to 10 minutes pieces over the course of a weekend, then let the last coat dry a few days before polishing it out with a rubbing compound to get the sheen you want.

----

FWIW, I would not recommend trying to finish it with the wood on the gun, in particular as removing the wood takes all of 5 minutes, and I would not call it "slopping it on" as light coats really work best - with all but the initial few coats being as thin as you can spread them - and in particular the last coat as you want it to dry very quickly so it won't pick up any dust.

----

As an aside people argue about whether TO changed it's formulation. I'm of the opinion they did as it cleans off my hand much easier than it did 25 years ago when I first started using it, and it does get past the tacky stage faster, and generally picks up less dust. But I also regard the TO they sell today as better than what I started with for those reasons as the final finish is just as nice and just as durable.
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by pricedo »

The Tru-Oil should arrive in a coupla days then I can kick start "Operation Slop Pail". :mrgreen:
After the dust (mist) clears I'll see what I got. :D
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by Model 52 »

pricedo wrote:The Tru-Oil should arrive in a coupla days then I can kick start "Operation Slop Pail". :mrgreen:
After the dust (mist) clears I'll see what I got. :D
You can thin it with mineral spirits and then maybe use one of those electric power painters. Just don't tell anyone. :D
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by jh45gun »

I put several coats of tru oil on mine to toughen up the finish but it could use a few more has some shine to it.
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by pricedo »

4 bottles of Tru-Oil arrive last evening.
Gonna put some on the 92/454 today & hopefully witness the stock transforming magic everybody is talking about. :mrgreen:
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by Ranch Dog »

pricedo wrote:4 bottles of Tru-Oil arrive last evening.
Gonna put some on the 92/454 today & hopefully witness the stock transforming magic everybody is talking about. :mrgreen:
Four bottles! You could put it in a pail and dip it! ;)
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by jh45gun »

Ranch Dog wrote:
pricedo wrote:4 bottles of Tru-Oil arrive last evening.
Gonna put some on the 92/454 today & hopefully witness the stock transforming magic everybody is talking about. :mrgreen:
Four bottles! You could put it in a pail and dip it! ;)
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Yea a bottle of tru oil goes a long way and it never goes bad either as long as you keep the cap on tight.
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Re: Stock finish? Dissatisfied

Post by pricedo »

My 92/454 stock is drying now.........still attached to the rest of the gun.
The stock soaked up hole lotta Tru-Oil.....I slopped it on in the true sense of the word.
Will clean up the spots of oil that got on the metal tomorrow with gun barrel de-greaser.
The light almost pithy wood now looks pretty good and should be a lot more resistant to moisture damage which was all I really put the oil on for.
Looks like the stock has a real oil finish and not the cheap "painted on" look it had before.
The cheap Rossi shoe polish (which it probably is) served as a good dark color pigment for the oil.
Cleaning with mineral spirits would have been counterproductive as the stripped, cleaned and oiled gun stocks I've seen look too light and "anemic" & stripping and cleaning would have been way too much like work. :mrgreen:
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