Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association
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  1. #1
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    Default Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    I recently purchased a Ruger Mini-14 5816 with the hardwood stock. Love the rifle...but I prefer all of my firearms to have a Tung Oil finish. Decided that I wanted to refinish the stock and, after contacting the company and doing some research, I found out that the stock was birch.

    This led me to research what others have done previously that led me to the conclusion that birch is incredibly difficult to stain and darken. As I'm sure most of you know it ends up blotching most of the time. Because I use Real Milk Paint Tung Oil products, I was intrigued by the Dark Tung Oil that they offer. Also found this post helpful where someone applied this product to a birch stock but it came out blotchy. I decided to apply it full strength instead of thinning it with the hope that it would not be as blotchy.

    To make a long story short I wanted to post my process here in case anyone was interested in stripping the original finish and applying a similar finish:

    • Applied CitriStrip liberally across the entire stock.
    • Let sit for 24 hours and scrape off with a hard plastic edge.
    • Applied CitriStrip again to lift out remaining stain for similar time and scraped off excess.
    • Used a rag between stock and iron and steamed the remaining stain to the surface and wiped off.
    • At this point all of the stain was lifted and I sanded with the grain lightly with 180 grit, wet with water and allowed to dry, sanded with 220 grit, wet with water and allowed to dry, sanded with 320 grit. It should be noted that I barely sanded the connection points where the metal touches the wood.
    • Wiped off all of the sawdust and poured full-strength Real Milk Paint Dark Tung Oil into a cup. Wiped on to stock with a rag and kept just enough oil on the stock to keep it wet. For 40 minutes I constantly applied a little more oil to the entire stock to keep it wet as it soaked in.
    • Then...wipe off excess.
    • I applied many more coats until the stock stopped absorbing the tung oil.


    I should have taken photos of the entire process but I have a flip phone. Wish it were darker but I'm pretty happy with the result. Could probably get it darker by thinning out the tung oil but I don't want to risk making it more blotchy.

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    Last edited by Yosef; February 13th, 2023 at 09:26 AM. Reason: Title Change

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    Looks nice!

  3. #3
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    USN Retired, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    very nice
    Owner Trigger Time LLc 01 FFL/NFA Saylorsburg, PA. Sales/Service/Transfers/Training
    NRA CRSO/Pistol/Rifle/Shotgun inst. BSA Rifle/Shotgun Merit badge counselor. US Navy Marksmanship Team Staff

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    I like it very much; you did a great job and IMO it was well worth the effort.

    Noah
    Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times.

  5. #5
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    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    Perfect.

    Thanks for sharing!
    I called to check my ZIP CODE!....DY-NO-MITE!!!

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    Fantastic, nice work!
    Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    The Real Milk Paint guy used to be about three miles away from me on Pumping Station Rd in Qtown. He's a good dude. I think he's somewhere in NC now.

    I've used many of his products and they were al top notch. I redid an NOS unfinished '03 C stock with his tung oil. I did four coats and it came out great. Unfortunately, my asshole dog ate the upper handguard.
    Accuse your enemy of what you are doing as you are doing it to create confusion -Karl Marx

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    It looks awesome, nice job but I have one question...Why didn't you just remove the everything from the stock so you didn't have to tape it up and work around it?
    Gender confusion is a mental illness

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    Quote Originally Posted by Walleye Hunter;
    It looks awesome, nice job but I have one question...Why didn't you just remove the everything from the stock so you didn't have to tape it up and work around it?
    He may have worked at Earl Scheib.
    Accuse your enemy of what you are doing as you are doing it to create confusion -Karl Marx

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Birch Stock Refinishing with Pure Tung Oil

    Quote Originally Posted by RockIsland View Post
    The Real Milk Paint guy used to be about three miles away from me on Pumping Station Rd in Qtown. He's a good dude. I think he's somewhere in NC now.

    I've used many of his products and they were al top notch. I redid an NOS unfinished '03 C stock with his tung oil. I did four coats and it came out great. Unfortunately, my asshole dog ate the upper handguard.
    R.I.P. dog. I couldn't even imagine...

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