Strip,stain,then Wipe On Poly. Min Wax Coco Bolo is a good stain for the non Walnut Remington stocks.

 

I went a different route and bought a walnut stock and forend off of eBay. No buttpad or stockbolt- just the wood. It needs a bit of refinishing but I got it for a good price. Effectively this makes my Express similar to an old 1990s Special Purpose.

 

Here is what I have done on birch stocks. Strip factory finish with chemical stripper, sand lightly, give the wood a coat of wood sealer, then stain, sand/steel wood lightly, then several coats of polyurethane, I prefer satin, but you can go semi gloss or gloss. A quick note, there is regular polyurethane, and spar urethane, spar is made for exterior use.
Of course you can also use TruOil, or other gun finishes, but the key is the sealer before the stain as birch and even some walnut will not stain evenly, there will be some really dark spots and some light areas in the same piece of wood according to the grain.

 

Hi retired2006:

Wow! Applying sealer prior to stain makes me ask, how does the stain penetrate the wood after it has been sealed?

Tia,

leomat

 

Hi retired2006:

Wow! Applying sealer prior to stain makes me ask, how does the stain penetrate the wood after it has been sealed?

Tia,

leomat

I believe retired2006 was referring to a pre-stain wood conditioner that minimizes streaks and blotches when applying stains to soft woods. I've used pre-stain conditioners successfully on pine but, I haven't tried it on walnut or any of the exotic hard woods. Never saw a need for it. Not sure its needed on lighter colored hardwoods.

When working with walnut, i use Art's French Red filler (old Herter's formula) then TruOil, Waterlox or a good spar varnish. Back in the day, Herter's Liege finish worked well. I don't know if Art's still offers Liege finish.

DF

Montani Semper Liberi

 

Hi retired2006:

Wow! Applying sealer prior to stain makes me ask, how does the stain penetrate the wood after it has been sealed?

Tia,

leomat

I believe retired2006 was referring to a pre-stain wood conditioner that minimizes streaks and blotches when applying stains to soft woods. I've used pre-stain conditioners successfully on pine but, I haven't tried it on walnut or any of the exotic hard woods. Never saw a need for it. Not sure its needed on lighter colored hardwoods.

When working with walnut, i use Art's French Red filler (old Herter's formula) then TruOil, Waterlox or a good spar varnish. Back in the day, Herter's Liege finish worked well. I don't know if Art's still offers Liege finish.

DF

Montani Semper Liberi

That is correct about the wood conditioner, my bad !

As a side note, I just refinished the wood on my 525 Golden Clays, the stock and forearm wood were different shades from the factory. The forearm was much darker than the buttstock. I applied a coat of dark walnut stain to the butt stock only, without any sealer, did not wipe it, and after it dried, I used steel wool to match the two shades. The really dark spots on the stock, I rubbed much more than the lighter spots, this let me match the color without hiding the grain and figure in the walnut.
I finished it with satin polyurethane ( Ace Hdwe brand spray can), about 4 coats. I prefer that finish over the oil finish that was on the gun.

 

Krylon works good too

 

I painted mine to match the local high school colors and mascot!! It was used for 4 years in their SCTP shooting...Mustangs

Think outside the box!!

 

Better to pay extra bucks up front on decent wood and finish than trying to refinish poor wood later on. Kinda like putting lipstick on a pig, in the end its still a pig.