I have bedding in the action that I wanted to protect from the stripper, and used Frog Tape for taping off the action ( bottom and top ) and the barrel channel. I tried to not be sloppy with the stripper and the tape worked fine. After stripping I removed the tape that had some stripper on it and replaced it with fresh tape that stayed on until the finish was on.
When I done the stripping it was too cold to do it outside so I used Citristrip gel for the stripping. Used a plastic 1" putty knife, coarse scotch bright, distilled water, and a stiff plastic bristle nail brush for removal. It took two applications of the Citristrip to get the finish off. The checkering still had some finish left on it so I used Zip Strip for one more try on it.
After it dried I looked it over with a magnifying glass and found it still had a few small specs that could be removed with my fingernail.
There was still signs of dried stripper in the checkering perimeter.
I used the tip of a carpet needle for removing it. Then used the eye of the needle to set my tape in the cut, before trimming it with an Exaxto knife.
Then after a sanding with 220 grit I used a shading tip on a woodburning pen and a distilled water soaked piece of white tee shirt steaming out 25 dents and scrapes.
After the 220 sanding I noticed a stain of oil or sap that showed the next day. I then sanded with 320 and 400 and the spot was gone. Started a 6 day coarse of slurry sanding. ( mist with distilled water, sand with wet/dry 600 grit, leave dry over night, and repeat. )
Went back to it the next day and the spot had came back. I started a thread on it looking for a solution.
Stock sanded and oil spot keeps coming up. Any way to get it out ?? | Rimfire Central Firearm Forum
I tried soaking with Acitone, mineral spirits , Naphtha, and alcohol. They all made the spot much smaller until the next day after it dried, then the spot was back.
I then tried steaming it the same as dent removal and it finally disappeared.
After I got back to the slurry sanding and completed the 6 courses, I dry sanded with 1200 grit wet/dry paper to remove the buildup chalk leaving the grain filled.
Applied 8 coats of the wipe on polly with a small patch of folded white tee shirt, with a gentle dry sand of 1500 grit between coats.
After the 8 coats were on I removed the tape from the checkering and put two coats on it.
That puts it up to the last two pictures in post one, with 2 more weeks of curing before a rub with rotten stone and a coat of Reaissance wax.
