Extremely easy and quick finish for your Rossi

[Esel]

I was looking at the wood finish on my brand new Rossi 92 and it's pretty nice. It just seems a little vulnerable. I thought about spraying some polyurethane over the original stain on the stock but remembered that someone tried this and the finish never seemed to dry for them. It just stayed tacky. I didn't want to take a chance that I'd run into that same issue so I resorted to using a method that I have very successfully used in the past on three different rifles. But this time I didn't want to completely strip the finish to the bare wood. I wanted to preserve the original finish of my 92 and just give it a hand rubbed top coat. So I removed the but stock and cleaned all of the wood with paint thinner to remove any grease that might be there. I read that mineral spirits would remove the stain if it was used for cleaning the stock so I refrained from using that. I cleaned the fore stock without removing it and applie tape around it to protect the metal. I didn't want to take the fore stock off because I'm aware of how difficult they are to put back on. Next I applied 3 hand rubbed top coats. About an hour and a half later the finish was cured and the gun was ready for use and it looked beautiful.

Below is the link for this really revolutionary method of applying a hand rubbed finish to any gun stock that is extremely easy to apply and gives you a professional hand rubbed finish that will be cured and ready to use in a fraction of the time it would normally take. And I'm really happy to report that you can apply this method over the original Rossi finish with great results. There is no point in including any pictures as the below link is full of them. I'm surprised this method of refinishing hasn't spread around to other forums. Give it a try, you'll like it. The below is pretty much a complete tutorial.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/sh ... p?t=331108

[akuser47]

Never tried that before but I always liked my oil finishes also I may try this though looks good. Can you post pics of yours so that we can see the before and after?

[Esel]

These are work in progress pictures. Sorry they're not the greatest, but it might give you an idea. Just couldn't capture the light right on my finished photos that would be an improvement over these. I wanted to stay away from the polly look and I'm pretty satisfied with the results.

[akuser47]

Looks good give us a finished shot of her when you are done.

[Esel]

Thanks for the compliment AK. I just happened to see your refinish job on the Taurus forum. Yours looks really good too. You've got very nice wood on your 92 from what I could tell.

[akuser47]

Yea It was dull at the beginning and now it really pops the grain is coming out and the oil keeps getting better looking with time. I did mine the hard way tore it all down and refinished the stock the only reason I did was all the rust I found on the mag tube and barrel that was covered by the forearm. I wanted to seal that so this would stop. I originally posted a before and after on ar15.com of everything I did to it Long thread but it was good info from others added as well. Here is a link to my main thread The wood is alot darker now that the oil has time to seep into the grain lookin better with time.http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_47/36133 ... oose_.html

[Esel]

I checked out your post at ar15.com. Very interesting. Looks like you did a great job. I like the aged look also and I hope that mine does the same thing. Here's a few more photos of everything put back together.

[akuser47]

You have very nice wood the grain flow is perfect from what I can see it will get darker with any oil finish they darken with time some more than others. Yours looks really nice good work I am gonna try your method on my extra ak stock set to see what it looks like afterwards. edited to add some pics i just took today after shooting her again. If you compare to the pics from my refinish thread you can see alot more darkening from when first applied the tung oil finish Fromby's low gloss. sorry the pics bad really old camera but it works.

[Esel]

Thanks for the good words and good luck with the finishing of your extra AK stock. I'm sure it will turn out great, just as your other work has. I wish I could take credit for this newer method, but I just happened to run across it while reading different forums in reference to the CZ's. It does work well though. And it's really fast. The first time I used it was when I refinished my CZ 527. I completely stripped it and probably put 7 or 8 thicker coats on it. Then I lightly sanded and used steel wool between each coat. It came out looking close to a poly finish, which is what I wanted for that rifle. After that job I used an alternative method. I went with very light coats and rubbed the finish really well and buffed with a cloth between each coat. I liked this method better as the finish definitely came out with more of a hand rubbed look. I kind of like the pores of the wood to show, depending on the rifle.

[Esel]

Somehow I didn't see your pics after reading your post. But wow, your finish looks very professional! And again, that's really nice wood! I haven't seen very many 92's with much more than average grain. You definitely got lucky! My wood seems fairly average. But it looks good and looked new when I received it. That's the main thing. No scratches, nicks, dents, etc. So I'm very happy with that. My 92 has become my favorite rifle. That's a nice looking Ruger as well. I'd eventually like to get a Vaquero. Maybe a stainless, short barreled model with a birds head grip for a little something different, as I already have a Blackhawk.