Got a new Hawken

[Hylander]

Well, new to me anyway.
Found a 50 Cal. T/C Hawken today just by chance at a LGS.
Bore is great, Blueing 98%, no rust anywhere, Lock is good, trigger feels good.
Lots of green tarnish on the brass.
Lots of light scratch's on the wood, a couple of deeper ones but not to bad, also 
the hard finish is starting to chip off,
Can't wait to clean it up and participate in the postal matches.
I would like to refinish the wood, any tips on how to remove the old hard finish ?

 

[exMember]

citristripper does good. I use a piece of metal and once the finish bubbles up, I scrape the rest off with the metal tool.

Walnut like that does not need stain! Just give it a good hand rubbed finish with truoil or even tung oil.

 

[Hylander]

citristripper does good. I use a piece of metal and once the finish bubbles up, I scrape the rest off with the metal tool.

Walnut like that does not need stain! Just give it a good hand rubbed finish with truoil or even tung oil.

Thanks,
Yes, I plan to rub it down with pure Tung oil.
I may darken it a touch, but will see once the old finish is off.
However, I plan to shoot it a bit first  8)

 

[BrownBear]

...rub it down with pure Tung oil....

I'd check into that a little. Pure tung oil often has trouble drying hard, staying slightly sticky. For a fair number of folks, it also appears to cause skin irritation.  I have switched to Formby's Low Gloss Tung Oil Finish with complete happiness.  It's got a little bit of hardener in it (whatever that might be), but it has no problems with drying. Better yet it doesn't bother my wife's skin at all, even as she has a dickens of a time with pure tung oil on stocks.

Good score on the rifle!

 

[Randy Johnson]

If the old finish is removed to the point of raw wood you will need to fill the pores because walnut is very open grained. For the stock of my Kibler rifle, after the final sanding before applying finish I wiped the stock down with a tack cloth. The first coat was walnut tinted Watco Danish oil. When that dried I sanded the stock with 600 grit sand paper and then, without wiping down the stock, applied the next coat of oil, this time, and each successive coat I used boiled linseed oil. I kept repeating this until I got the result I wanted. By not wiping the sanding dust off between coats the dust and oil act as a filler to close the pores in the wood. It takes weeks to do it this way, but it is worth it.

 

[Hylander]

Thanks for the suggestions,

BrownBear: 
Did not know that about Pure Tung oil.
Maybe I'll stick with the Formsby as that is what I have always used 
on my other stocks with great success. 
Also, I always finish with a coat of T/C Bore Butter.

 

[Hanshi]

They are good rifles.  I had one long ago but it left home with someone else who was looking for one.

 

[RhinoDave]

I currently own two of them. One pretty one and one basket case. Any plans to refinish it or just leave as is. Good shooters either way.

 

[JLBSparks]

I've had a few of them. Good shooting guns. The one I have now is a .45, and I found a .50 barrel when I was moving. Can't remember why I'd have a barrel without stock to go along with it. Maybe I've been saving it for a rainy day.....

     -Joe