Matte refinish for a wood stock?

[Bighorner]

Any hot tips on a product to refinish an banged up wood stock? I like the dark matte finish on the ruger american wood stocks. It's not a collector gun so I'm no worried about getting things original. It's a generic mauser stock. I'm sure it's from the days when sporterizing mausers was the cool thing.

 

[gbflyer]

I used polyurethane applied with red scotchbrite. Makes a nice dull finish.


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[Centralcoastca]

Tru oil is what I’ve used to refinish a few stocks over the years. My grandpa showed me how to use it 30 years ago so there’s certainly other stuff out there now but it’s cheap and it works great. Like any paint job type thing the more time you put into the prep and steps the better it turns out. Basically you sand the old finish down to wood being careful to go with the grain with fine sand paper especially towards the end. I used a compressor to blow it off and then tack cloth to wipe anything left away. Then wipe tru oil all over with your fingers ( I use latex gloves) in a thin coat. Let it dry, then buff it with steel wool, very fine I believe 0000 was what I used. The first couple coats you almost buff it all off so that all that’s left is what fills dings and the pores. After that you’re basically buffing it smooth between coats until you’re satisfied with the finish. Some wood has deeper pores and it takes awhile to get them filled. Be sure to tack cloth between coats or you’ll end up with steel wool dust you didn’t even know was there in the dried finish. When you’re done you can leave it shiny or buff it lightly with steel wool for a matte finish. I’ve made some pretty crappy looking stocks look really nice using this technique. It is pretty labor intensive but if you do a coat or two every day it’s not too bad. Makes a good bad weather project.