doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Wood finish on a fine savage

With the owners permission Ill share a couple of pics of a special 1899B in 303 savage from 1903.

Varnish was the regular finish on savage stocks at this time and higher grades of rifles had stocks that had a "high grade finish" per the 1905 catalog. "Extra finish" could be added to standard stocks for a price.

How do you make a stock look like this? Varnish or was this high grade of finish done another way, like oil.

Not sure how Savage did it, but I've got a Marlin 1893 with the high grade "piano" finish. Marlin used a combination of methods to do theirs. First a quick dip in varnish to soak the raw wood, then many coats of hand rubbed linseed oil, until the finish was like glass.

grogel you might want to post those pics on the Savage collectors forum at 24hourcampfire.com.

The gun belongs to a fella who posted the photos at the 24. Finish is said to be varnish And I dont have a reason to doubt that, but
I dont see the the knowledge of original finishes with the savage collectors that I see with shotgun or other rifle manufactures.

My hope was that someone here would recognize the look of the finish and be able to make a educated guess as to how it would have been achieved in the early 1900s.

I would be willing to bet that it's finished in shellac, it looks like it, but the only way to tell for sure would be to test it. Varnish, as we know it today, is one of the more difficult finishes to apply, would be even more difficult on a buttstock, and I doubt Savage or any other manufacturer expended that amount of effort.

Tim

I will try to answer your question on how to make a stock look similar to the vintage Savage finish. It can be accomplished with just about any finish that can be built-up (shellac, varnish, tru-oil, etc.) The pores are first filled. This can be done in various ways (the pores can be filled with the finish, a combination of finish and sanding dust or rottenstone, or a commercial pore filler). Next several coats of finish need to be applied to build up a film of finish on the wood. This film needs to then be leveled and polished. Leveling removes small surface imperfections in the finish (this is usually done with fine grit wet/dry sand paper). The leveled finish is then polished to the desired sheen/gloss(this can be done with steel wool or other polishing abrasives).

Most pre-war finishes are shellac. Shellac is easy to use, dries quickly, polishes well, and imparts a warm amber color to walnut. If shellac is used, a method of applying shellac known as a French polish could be used. This does't require as much leveling or polishing as other application methods. It takes a little more practice to master. I have resulted to using an HVLP spray system for applying the finish. It saves time and produced excellent results (especially with shellac).

Hope this helps

Thanks for all the input. Is there nondestructive way to tell if its shellac or varnish?