doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The $80 restock.

Nice work, Stan.

The Snipe was refinished by me a long time ago. I stripped it, masked off the checkering, and shot it with the Brownell’s tung oil varnish they used to sell. I scuffed the finish with scotch brite between coats (you can tell I’m a car guy, right?) and laid on about four coats over a weeks time. I didn’t use any stain. The last coat got polished with 2500 grit wet or dry and finished with 3M Finnese-it. I cut the finish with enamel reducer to get it through a Binks #7, and used a few drops of Japan drier in the cup. I think I got 2-3 days out of a cup.

My dad liked shiny wood. He would have been best buds with Roy Weatherby.

Best,
Ted

There are so many different ways to finish gun wood that it is almost staggering. I have found my favorite, so far, to be the sanded in finish as formerly done by Phil Pilkington. He used to sell the finish but it is no longer available. It can, however, be easily made for yourself with readily obtained ingredients (only three). I've done several wood sets this winter using this method and am blown away by how nice it can make a plain, straight-grained piece of wood look. It creates a depth that causes a "holographic" effect on even the plainest of wood. It looks like you can see into the surface of the wood.

I never use stain either unless I am trying to match two different pieces of wood that are starkly different. This is a set off a Fox Model B that just needed a little "freshing up". No stain added.

After stripping and de-oiling ..........



After .........

a nice job...

i too, consider the pilkington method as my favorite approach to finishing, and now i keep two variants of mineral spirits for that purpose....one unaltered, and the other with alkanet red to pigment the solution. i find that alkanet also provides surprising "depth" to the finish.

i have several guns that were done with this finish, up to 40 years ago, and have weathered quite well.

best regards,

tom

Damn. Every time I think I’m going to get a day in the shop, a honey-do rears its ugly head for me.



Momma said her car was making a “funny sound”. Wheel hub and bearing took a dump. Oh well.

Maybe this weekend.

Best,
Ted

I had read of dissolving alkanet root in finish oil, or so I remembered it, but don't recall anyone saying they did so in mineral spirits. Makes perfect sense, though. I'd like to hear more about that, Tom. Always wanting to learn.

after reading a good deal of posts herein about alkanet - many from our brit members - along with references to "london red stains"...i decided why not? i do a fair amount of general buying on ebay, and i will make this simple for you;

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...mp;_nkw=alkanet+root+powder&_sacat=0

i put up two different items; 1) a couple of quarts of mineral spirits with about an ounce and a half of the ground power in a 2 liter soda bottle, and 2) about half an ounce in a pint bottle of 91% rubbing alcohol. it takes a fair length of time for the color to diffuse into the liquid, and the advice was to shake it often, or regularly upend the bottles. my supply is probably 5 or 6 years old now. the solids, of course, will settle and it is easy to gently pour off what you need for use. the alcohol based solution penetrates a bit better than the mineral spirits, and is a bit handier for darkening a small area.

if i want to considerably darken the wood, i will use the alcohol to whisker the wood and/or soak in a bit prior to starting the pilkington soak/sand/slurry process. nowadays, i automatically put a test spot of alkanet on any stock blank i handle to see what it does to that particular piece of wood - some show little change, and others are quite dramatic.

best regards,

tom

Thanks, Tom. You answered a big question I always had about it, concerning the solids.

I've got a bag on the way to play with.

Hello All,

Great project Ted. Keep the pictures coming.

And great info about alkanet Tom, thanks for sharing!

Best,

JC

My alkanet arrived in the mail yesterday. Gonna begin "building a potion" with it, in mineral spirits, later today.

"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good."