best way to finish a rifle stock made of wood?

spacephrawg

New Member
Just wondering hypothetically. Over on Starship Modeler's forums, folks recommended a variety of different oils. I asked if stain would be a good option and one guy said he's done that and the result looked flat compared to the depth one can get from oil.

The project i have in mind is to CNC at least one wooden stock out of some hard wood or other for a nerf gun. If that goes well, I'll make a few and resell the thing. I'm intending to make a nerf recon look like a hybrid of an MP44 and an FG42. if that works out, I'll move on to other nerf guns for a similar treatment. That plus internal mods and a nifty paint or vinyl dye or both job is the goal.

I want the thing to look somewhat battle tested, though not as beat up as, say, a star wars prop.

thanks in advance for your help!
 
You can get a really nice result that has a lot of depth from just stain and a clear coat. This is a stock I did from cheap pine stock.
m79-grenade-launcher-scratchbuilt-new-40mm-grenade-pics-img_0689.jpg-50465d1302491771
 
Take a damp cloth and wipe down a section the wood stock. This will bring out the grain and from there gives you a bit of a visual on the pattern and depth of the grain if you were to use a stain or oil. It can help one decide if you want to just oil the wood and seal it, or have color to it. I learned this trick from an old wood worker years ago.

If you do use a stain, go for a tung oil based. Nice Light coat of that should give you color and not muck up the stock. Good luck!
 
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Just remember that if you do decide to stain soft wood, e.g. Pine, to use the appropriate conditioner. This will help prevent you from getting splotches and achieves a much cleaner professional look. Conditioners are cheap and work fast; wood is ready in about 10 minutes.
 
Just remember that if you do decide to stain soft wood, e.g. Pine, to use the appropriate conditioner. This will help prevent you from getting splotches and achieves a much cleaner professional look. Conditioners are cheap and work fast; wood is ready in about 10 minutes.

Since this will be a probably made of a harder wood (didn't they only make rifle stocks out of hard wood?) would I still need a conditioner?

What sort of wood did the Germans make rifle stocks out of any how? Especially on the automatic weapons? Or the Russians for that matter? Oak or something like it?
 
You can get a really nice result that has a lot of depth from just stain and a clear coat. This is a stock I did from cheap pine stock.
m79-grenade-launcher-scratchbuilt-new-40mm-grenade-pics-img_0689.jpg-50465d1302491771

that looks lovely. pine? Isn't that really soft?

I thought rifle stocks were normally made of harder wood. No?
 
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Yes, however, Pine is easier to work with than the conventional hardwoods of say, Walnut; which was prevalent in US Garands of WWII.

Try not to make the connection that soft wood equals soft wood, and hard wood equals hard wood. Balsa, which is one of the lightest, least dense woods and yet is considered hard wood.

Pine is cheap, easy to work with, and can yield incredible results with just simple staining. I've been using pine for years and have made lord knows how much furniture with it and it still holds up just fine.

You're not going to battle with it, so it should be fine. The choice, however, is yours to make.

But if your going to CNC the thing, I guess you'll be allright with whatever wood you choose. I'm so used to a hammer and chisel that I forget about technology these days. :lol

 
When I refinished the stock on my flintlock musket I used Tung Oil, it has a very nice shiney look that I liked, and after a bit of use all I had to to do was steel wool the stock and apply another coat and it looked like new.
 
When I refinished the stock on my flintlock musket I used Tung Oil, it has a very nice shiney look that I liked, and after a bit of use all I had to to do was steel wool the stock and apply another coat and it looked like new.

Sounds good. Over on Starship Modeler, they're recommending the same stuff as well as the tru-oil.

As far as making it look like new, I'd rather it look like old or at least used. Is there a prescribed way to make it a bit grimy?

About CNC'ing the thing, the final product will be handled a lot. The nerf gun it will be going on will be not only fully functional but internally modified to get near-airsoft ranges, with the right modified darts.

Maybe I can get away with using a wood that isn't as hard as walnut? yes/no?
 
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