Rossi Finish Removal II

[Ranch Dog]

This is ridiculous. You really can see the yellow dye just pouring out of the wood into the water.

Who was the mental giant that decided this was a good finish for a balsa wood stock and forearm?

EDIT:

After soaking a bit and washing them with a fine scotchbrite pad, it is now obvious that my forearm and stock are not matched at all. The forearm is much lighter and has a totally different grain pattern; very coarse and almost looks like oak. The stock is a deeper reddish/brown, and has a fine grain like mahogany.

Yeap! I'm not a wood guy, wouldn't know one from another, but I have always said that the two came from totally different trees.

I'm not a "black rifle" kind of guy but with my scout rifles, which all five R92s are, with a raised comb like on their single shots and a square butt and pad, I would replace them all.

[calan]

I think this is one of the strangest woods I've ever seen... and I've seen quite a few over the years. (My dad was a cabinet maker by trade, and I learned to use a bandsaw when I was 3 ). Whatever Rossi's true reason for choosing it, they may have done something right.

Besides being extremely light it's also fairly rigid, similar to poplar. Although it feels soft and does scratch easily, it is also very stiff and has decent strength. I'm pretty sure it is some type of basswood, or at least in the same family, as it has many of the same characteristics.

What has me amazed is the fact that it seems to be somewhat porus but has no resin in it, and yet it absorbs hardly any water at all when completely submerged and shows no signs of swelling.

Strange stuff.

[williamc]

Wow you just saved me $10 on chemical stripper at Home Depot.

After 6 months of light use, I can tell the finish on my 92 is wearing off. Can't wait to put on a new finish and some tru oil!

[pricedo]

This is ridiculous. You really can see the yellow dye just pouring out of the wood into the water.

Who was the mental giant that decided this was a good finish for a balsa wood stock and forearm?

That stuff Braztech puts on the stocks of their guns in no more a finish that the cardboard box or the paper wrapping the gun came in.
Finishes are supposed to be permanent ...... the cheap Braztech shoe polish definitely ISN'T that.
I wish that Braztech would be honest and market the guns with blank stocks (properly fitted but with no finish whatsoever) as KITS.
GUNS, except for sighting in for the owners ammo, are essentially good to go out of the box.
KITS need stuff done to them by the buyer before they can do the tasks they were manufactured to do.
The Braztech firearms are KITS and always have been.
At least 1/2 the content of this forum is an ongoing discussion of fixing things that ought to have been in order before the products left the factory.

[Ranch Dog]

No doubt about it, Braztech is well aware of it. There is only one "Product Review" on the RossiUSA website. It is a review of the R92 chambered in 45 Colt by Real Guns. It is a very "on spot" review in my opinion in which the writer, suggested two areas in need of improvement; the finish being one. The link will take you to the entire article but here is what was said about the finish.

RossiUSA_GunBlast-Review_R92.jpg

If you have removed the finish from your Rossi by soaking it, there should be no doubt that a sweaty face against the stock would remove the finish!

I disagree with the polymer finish suggestion. A classic or legacy lever needs an oil finish. Marlin's have a synthetic finish and it is a bear to remove when the rifle needs updating.

[pricedo]

I don't agree with a few of the opinions and assumptions made in the review but it was quite interesting.

The Braztech rifles are dead-on accurate ........more so than the Browning B-92 and Chiappa 92 (I have owned both) that are/were considerably more expensive than their Rossi counterpart & often touted as being "better thanr" the Rossi product........maybe in looks but certainly not in performance ..........and when the Braztech rifles are properly refinished not in looks either.
The Rossi rifles offer considerable latitude for personal expression and there are some really beautiful Rossi 92s posted on this & the Steve's Gunz site.
The Rossi rifles can best be described as uncut diamonds with a "raw infrastructure" that in my opinion is superior to both the Browning B-92 (no longer made) and the Chiappa 92 which cost considerably more.

[pricedo]

A classic or legacy lever needs an oil finish.

And Rossi was even kind enough to supply the pigment (ie. the "shoe polish" dye) which is already on the gun.
The superficial Rossi finish doesn't need to be exorcised in a 3-day purge ritual......all that needs to be done is apply a "fixer" like Tru-Oil or Linseed oil right on over the Rossi dye to add permanency and element resistance to the stocks.
The result is an attractive stock that can be touched up in a few minutes as the elements and normal wear & tear take their toll because the application & touch-up proceses are identical and Sesame Street Simple.

[calan]

...all that needs to be done is apply a "fixer" like Tru-Oil or Linseed oil right on over the Rossi dye to add permanency and element resistance to the stocks.

If I had to do it over again, I'd follow this plan of attack. Once the dye comes off, you discover that the forearm and stock have different colors and different grains, and won't take stain evenly at all....which I now understand is why Braztech uses the dye in the first place rather than a stain. Why they don't seal it with something (anything) is still a mystery.

One of these days I'll probably replace mine with some nice walnut, but for now I'm just finishing up (no pun intended) the clear coat after WAY to much effort in trying to get a halfway decent stain job done on them.

[pricedo]

...all that needs to be done is apply a "fixer" like Tru-Oil or Linseed oil right on over the Rossi dye to add permanency and element resistance to the stocks.

If I had to do it over again, I'd follow this plan of attack. Once the dye comes off, you discover that the forearm and stock have different colors and different grains, and won't take stain evenly at all....which I now understand is why Braztech uses the dye in the first place rather than a stain. Why they don't seal it with something (anything) is still a mystery.

One of these days I'll probably replace mine with some nice walnut, but for now I'm just finishing up (no pun intended) the clear coat after WAY to much effort in trying to get a halfway decent stain job done on them.

That's how it works with KIT guns like Rossi rifles.........you get to do the finishing work on the metal & the wood..........just what kind and how much work you have to do yourself varies widely with each Rossi rifle you buy.........I wouldn't have it any other way.
New Rossi rifles remind me of those old CVA black powder rifle kits you could get from Cabelas..........I built & sold a few of them as winter-doldrum-chaser projects years ago and made a decent profit doing it. They turned out really nice with a minimum of effort.
At least CVA was honest and upfront and sold the guns as kits and not as finished guns.
Unlike Rossi you knew what you were getting in each kit package and were fully prepared to get your hands dirty.

[kokopelli]

I'm going to start on my wood tomorrow. i can tell there is some pretty good looking grain on the wood.
I can't decide if I want to remove the finish and then use the Armor All/Tru-Oil route, or-
leave the finish on there and start rubbing in Tru-Oil.

thoughts?