Re-finishing a stock.

[LehighBrad]

Hey guys....to help keep me busy working on a rifle before I start another one from the ground up, I was considering tearing down a gun I had built many years ago and refinishing it in a better way. My plan is to stain it a darker walnut color (at the time I stained it a reddish mohagany color...too red...yuk!)and hand paint fake curl by using some Feibings dark brown leather dye and modelers brushes. Then, finish it with Chambers oil which I REALLY like. The problem is the stock was finished with several coats of Birchwood Caseys Tru-Oil which, now that I've seen the results of Chambers oil, dislike a lot. Too shiney. Is it feasible to somehow strip the stock down to the point of being able to apply newer, darker stain, then rub in the Chambers oil??? I painted fake curl onto this same stock about 3 years ago, over top of the Tru-Oil finish, because I was just messing around and wanted to see how it looked plus I didn't know any better. It actually didn't look that bad, but of course eventually the striping rubbed off or faded away.

[mlrifleNY]

  I have used a quality stripper made for wood and then finished up with lacquer thinner to make sure I got all the finish. Just wear good rubber gloves when you do it and do it outside if you can. You need good ventilation.

Jim

[Nate McKenzie]

I use Homer Formby's Furniture Refinisher for this quite often. Use as directed. Its more expensive but it does a great job.

[bgf]

You will most likely still need to sand lightly to take off the stain even when the finish is gone.  Maybe sanding away stain in a pattern like the stripes you want then staining again with the tone/color you want would be a nice effect.  I've done one "faux" striped stock (stripes stained over base color) and I still like it (but it was nothing special); I'm interested in your project because I've always wanted to do another and go for broke with it, with several levels of detail and translucent light stripes breaking up the "painted" ones interspersed. 

Why?  Just seems like something fun to do .