Restocking the wife's Savage 11

Polaris

Handloader
Dec 16, 2009
1,239
30
Glass bedding is done. Rough sanding in progress. Stock is Richards Frontier in semi fancy American walnut (wet down to show grain). Quick question. Do I want to use some stain to make the grain pop, or just leave it alone and proceed with wet sand oil finish?
 

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I like the wood to look natural so I would I would make the wood damp raising the grain and scrape the fuzz off with a piece of sharp edge piece of glass and then put a coat of true oil on it and steel wool it off and see what it looks like. If it's too light for you wipe it down with laqcure thinner to remove the finish and put a light stain on it .
 
Some other notes on this project. LOP was shortened 1" from standard to accommodate my wife's T rex arms and the recoil pad added. I opted to bed the barrel channel as the factory cut left some irregular wood contact which was unsightly and could affect accuracy. Bolted rifle together and fired 5 "settling shots" and 2 five shot groups after glass bedding. Grouped around .8" with the standard "deer" load she's been shooting for years so that was a success. Rifle grouped around 1" +/- a couple tenths depending on the day so some improvement there, at least equal to previous accuracy. I think it significantly improves the ergonomics and appearance of this plane-Jane rifle, and I can't wait to get to the finishing stage and see what it looks like all put together.

If you ever order a LH stock from Richards microfit, be sure they cut the action correctly. On this one, the bolt release cut was for a RH action. Rather than sending it back, I did some dremel and gouge work to correct the issue and float the trigger group, but it was a lot more work with many opportunities to go horribly wrong than it should have been for a 99% inlet.
 
Looks good. Make sure you post a finished pic. That's a nice looking stock
 
Stain will mute a lot of the character, unless you do a light coat and light sand so it dies the deep pores. Multiple coats of tru oil or ting oil will do you good-
 
I've got my own finish blend. Tru-oil/turpentine/BLO in different ratios depending on coat and specific wood properties. Just wondering about something to bring out the grain. Think I'll leave it alone on this one and see how it turns out. Wife likes light wood anyhow. Almost went with fiddleback maple instead of the walnut but I had to veto as I was the one that had to sand it. Wish I had a piece of scrap from the stock blank to test on. They picked a winner of a blank on this one. Hard to find a butt that figured with grain flow all the way from toe to tip. Should be strong, accurate and pretty when all done.
 
Crappy artificial light doesn't do it justice but the fiddle back and burl are starting to show. Sanded to 220 grit, BLO/turpentine penetrating coat and one 220 wet sand with true oil. Found a couple tool marks to sand and blend,then on to 400 grit wet sand, a few thin coats of true oil, possibly thinned with turp depending on how the wood is responding and final buff out with gunstock wax.
 

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Guy Miner":nodu9npr said:
Just don't hide that wonderful grain...
Trying not to :) Always interested in tips. My forte is restoring vintage military stocks, this is my first attempt at a refined finish. It's starting to feel alive so I'm getting close.
 
That is a sweet looking piece of wood (y) I am sure that your wife is going to love her new Savage :wink:.

Blessings,
Dan
 
Wet sanded to 400 grit with straight Tru oil, then burlap buff with just a drip of turpentine.
 

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Not going to change much from here out. Buffing revealed a couple more small tool marks to address, then on to a few coats of tru oil, final buff with stock sheen and gunstock wax. Was starting to worry after first wet sand when I lost some of the definition in the grain, but 400 grit and burlap really brought it back.
 
Some more notes on this. I'm drifting away from the tru-oil at this point. It worked quite well for filling the pores on the wet sand, but it's not spreading on very well in finishing coats. At least with my specific piece of wood in my climate, I'm having much more luck with my own mix of 25% artist grade turpentine and 75% boiled linseed. This was shared with me by an old time furniture restorer. Spreading on in much thinner, more even coats and buffing down to a beautiful lustre. Tru-oil was starting to gum on me and required heavy buffing with burlap to bring it back down. Just couldn't get it thin enough at this stage. Grain is really coming alive now. A couple more thin coats of turp/blo and I'll let it cure for a week, then final buff out and satin finish.
 
Very nice! That wood has beautiful character.

JD338
 
Getting there. Stock is curing now. Any tips on making a sling swivel drilling jig? Really don't want to order something that should be able to be produced from scrap lumber. I do not have a drill press, but do have a compound mitre and table saw available.

I have an idea how to make it with the mitre saw, just wondering if somebody has been there, done that.
 
Can't claim the hideous sling but it's the one she likes. Turned out pretty well. Poor light doesn't show it off very well. And wood stocked rifles can shoot. This is at 100 yards off a tree stump with a Lh rifle 2 inches too short for me.
 

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Very attractive (sling and all); and you are correct that wood-stocked rifles can shoot. Excellent!
 
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