I have something like that made and sold by Old English furniture polish company.

 

I've used it in the past, but never on a gun stock. If I remember correctly, it basically melts the finish a bit, allowing you to smooth the finish out over worn or scratched spots. I don't know that I'd use it on anything rare or seriously valuable, but on stuff like a dresser or a coffee table, it did the job. Your post inspires me to try it on the stock of a used rifle I recently purchased. I was going to refinish it anyway, but if a restore job largely gets rid of the few scuffs and scrapes, it would be far easier.

 

Never tried that one, but Ive not had good success with their Feed-n-Wax product. Feel like it basically does nothing.

Let us know how it works for you.

 

Never tried that one, but Ive not had good success with their Feed-n-Wax product. Feel like it basically does nothing.

Let us know how it works for you.

Same here.
I should have used it on my leather boots.

 

Longtime stock guru norenmf advised not to use Howard’s Feed & Wax if I recall. Check out the stock refinishing posts/forum here on RFC.

 

Should have read noremf, sorry

 

I used the Golden Oak color of this product to achieve the tone I wanted on one of my stock builds that was in Maple.
It was applied onto the bare wood in a couple coats to get the golden hue I was after. Then applied tru oil a couple days later.
One inside pic and one outside pic for idea of color.
The maple was extremely white before adding restor a finish.

 

American Guild Wood Finish

New to SPG Sales, American Guild Wood Finish is possibly the finest wood finish you will ever use. This old little-known formula was and still used by a small, very talented, group of gunsmiths to obtain the highest custom grade finish, expected of the finest firearms. It goes on thin and easily...

shopspg.net

 

Maybe I'm just old and cranky, but I don't buy into this stuff about an "easy" restorative finish. If a finish does a good job, it will have to be pushed along by some patience and care.

I worked for over fifty years in the Appalachian oilfields. The Olde English products I have uncorked smelled suspiciously like straight-from-the-well high gravity (low viscosity) crude oil.

 

I have restored a few hundred stocks over the years. For a typical Mossberg stock I suggest not over-complicating the issue.
What finish did it start life with, what does it have and what is your goal?

Most Mossberg's I see (vintage of course) have a common oil finish.
Without knowing what your stock has, what damage you are addressing, and what your goal is no one can efficiently help you, but many will tell you some of their favorite products that may or may not be useful to you.

I typically break stock work into a few buckets:

1. Damage
2. Current finish (does it need cleaning or removing)
3. Stain/color
4. New finish

Most stocks I work on get cleaned or stripped to bare wood (#2) and refreshed or new finish (#4).

I find traditional, common methods work best (a BLO scrub; 50%BLO, 50% turpentine or mineral spirits) for cleaning, water based degreaser to remove oil to bare wood (Purple Power/Citrus Cleaner), or a mild paint stripper (Citristrip) if there is some other finish needing to be removed.
I rarely stain but occasionally do.
My finish is usually a traditional oil (I prefer BLO but others are fine) and waxes (Gunny's Paste aka Tom's 1/3 mix; https://thegunstockdoctor.com/).

I read Noremf's thoughts on Howard's feed and wax (and I strongly urge everyone to read them, and ALWAYS avoid any silicon products around firearms wood; no silicon spray or silicon gun socks are allowed in my shop). I took a common 10/22 stock and polished it with NuFinish and waxed with Howards, it came out great (for a worthless stock) so I did the same to one of my CZ 452s. But it is not a traditional military or American traditional oil finish.

Ruger and CZ polished with NuFinish and waxed with Howards Feed N Wax. It took 10 minutes tops per stock! A bit shiny for me but on these it's great. Click Clack was cleaned (purple power) to bare wood and treated with a few coats of BLO and a few coat's of Tom's 1/3 mix.

Neglected trade in Mossbergs:
Note 42MB has a stock chip held on with tape.

I got these for a great price, they looked like crap and were on the trade in rack in the local tactical gun store, no one was looking at them.

All I did to the Mossbergs was disassemble, clean and oil the metal. The socks were taken down to bare wood with purple power (no sanding, no harsh chemicals), a ew coats of 50/50 BLO/Turp and a few coats of 100% BLO. Done. The techniques for working on these are well known and have been used for many decades. The material is cheap and commonly available. If you are working on your own stocks do you really need some mystery wonder time saver elixir? While I look for ways to add efficiency (again, hundreds...) that is different from an unproven shortcut that does not say anything more specific on the can than "wood finishes" (guns or tables, rubbed oil, shellac, poly, varnish, what?)

I would like to test this wonder product and see what it's strengths and weaknesses are before I committed it to a nice stock (and most Mossberg stocks can easily be made to look pretty nice), until then I will stock with what is well known and easy.

CMP 40-X stock as received. Nice, with plenty of dentys and dings; signs of respectful use.

All I did was a deep scrub (several sessions with 50/50 BLO/Turp and a green scotchbrite) followed by 5-8 coats of BLO until it looked done. That works blends and evens out any normal dents and dings (It had no gouges/damage).

If I find some new worder product that looks as good or better but allows significantly less time/labor or $$ I will be all over it. But 8 coats of BLO is generally easy to tell from 2 coats, there aren't really shortcuts to that type of appearance.

 

I ordered a can of this stuff, mainly for our dining room table.
Someone on another forum said this Howards product is great on gun stocks, I'll be giving that a try also.

View attachment 613490

This is an excellent product. Have used it on many kitchen cabinet restoration projects with great results. Great for high traffic areas. Also comes in several color variations, thanks.

 

FWIW,
I didn't intend for this thread to be a blown-out topic on refinishing a gunstock.
I only mentioned the Howard product, for something you might use to go over and dress up the original finish.
This is all I will be using it for, just for touch up or enhancement.

 

Many people find it’s best to maintain and touch up stocks with the same material as the finish itself.
But you do you!

 

Howard Restorafinish is a strong solvent that works best on lacquer based finishes. Lacquer can dissolve with solvents and work as new again. New coats of lacquer will meld right into the original coat and become one. I don't know if other finishes will do that or not. Many older firearms, especially lower cost ones, were finished with lacquers, especially American made guns.

 

I ordered a can of this stuff, mainly for our dining room table.
Someone on another forum said this Howards product is great on gun stocks, I'll be giving that a try also.

View attachment 613490

I've used it on furniture, but never on a firearm. Truth to tell, I haven't been that impressed with it on furniture. I use it mostly to touch up vacuum cleaner scuffs on chair legs. With a selection of different colors, I can usually find something that will blend into the surrounding finish well enough to pass. If someone wants to get down on the floor and peer at the chair legs looking for finish flaws, they'll find them, but I figure any injury to their sense of aesthetics is self-inflicted.

 

How about a pic of the back of the can showing ingredients.

Doug

 

I couldn't find ingredients on can???

Warning says,,, contains Ethylbenzene &Toluene.

 

Well, I can't get too excited about this Howards product, now that I've tried it.

I tried it on a couple of greyish spots on dining room table; I couldn't see much improvement.

Next, I put some on a Mossberg stock, not much love there either.

I'll use it up eventually on something???

I think I still like the Old English dark scratch remover much better. (Remember, just for touchup)

RS

 

If you want the best finish...Look up Timberluxe..Made in Nevada, Mo. by Brian Board.. Used by Winchester..English gun restorers..and I've done a couple of my Parker stocks..Look it up...jkv....

 

Pics?