Whisker finishing (whiskering)

[Terry Cheek]

I have never whiskered a gunstock. However, I understand the purpose from articles, books, and posts I have read and want to do it on my Kibler SMR. I know this much; I should remove all furniture and the barrel, fill a spray bottle with tap water, and the stock is sprayed and left to dry. Wood fibers (whiskers) will stand up as the gunstock dries. Sand or scotchbrite them away and repeat the process until there are no more whiskers.

Am I missing anything?

Directions, instructions, or comments are always appreciated.

[Mike Brooks]

Leave the barrel in. Leave the buttplate on and possibly the trigger guard. If you take these off you will most likely remove enough wood to have those parts stand proud when you reassemble.

[Terry Cheek]

I should only remove the lock? Thank you, Mike.

[Darkhorse]

Don't be too aggressive when sanding off the whiskers or you will just create more. Sand lightly with just enough grit to cut the standing whiskers off at the stock level.
If the whiskers don't seem to be going away after a few attempts then you need to lighten up.

[alacran]

Ok, I assume this is a maple stock you are talking about. If you are going to go the tannic acid, then ferric acid or aqua fortis route, you will essentially be whiskering it when you burnish it with steel wool or Scotchbrite. If you are going to use an alcohol -based stain then I would bother to whisker it maybe.
If your scraping the stock why would you sand it? Any kind of water based stain will raise the grain again.

[Terry Cheek]

Thank you for pointing out the information I failed to include. My gunstock is Kibler fancy maple. The stain I plan on using is Iron nitrate. I will not scrape the stock only sand with 180 grit, then 220 grit, finally with 320 and maybe 400 grit.

[Mike Brooks]

Thank you for pointing out the information I failed to include. My gunstock is Kibler fancy maple. The stain I plan on using is Iron nitrate. I will not scrape the stock only sand with 180 grit, then 220 grit, finally with 320 and maybe 400 grit.

I stop at 220

[Dphariss]

On a Kibler kit I would raise the grain with every sanding grit. But remember to be correct it should not be over finished.
in fact I would simply sand or scrape away any modern machine marks then carefully sand with 220-320 grit for a final. SMRs are not supposed to be finely finished or highly polished.  For surfaces like the lock surround I would use a hard, flat sanding block and lightly used 400 grit since the lock is already close to the final wood surface. So “lightly” is the by-word here. Just enough to flatten and whiskers.
I never sand with paper coarser than 120 and then use a lot of care.
Now on a brass mounted Kentucky with carving and such I sand to at least 400. It makes getting a nice finish on the stock easier. But I am not a built up finish guy so,,,,
Also. If you have (or make) a SMOOTH burnisher, it can be hard wood, antler or a steel burnisher, it is possible to burnish the first coat of finish when its still wet to rub down and then the finish “glue” will the whiskers in place. Especially if they were raised by the Ferric Nitrate stain. But on curly wood be sure to angle the burnisher across the curl to prevent/reduce rippling and do not use excessive pressure. Also burnishing will not cure tool marks or rough sanding, the process may smooth it somewhat but its still going to show. But on a SMR this is not critical. I would probably raise the grain on a Kibler before any wood removal/sanding operation. And I would leave the buttplate in place for sure and maybe the trigger guard depending on how much wood needs to be sanded to smooth the toe line.

[Terry Cheek]

Thank you for pointing out the information I failed to include. My gunstock is Kibler fancy maple. The stain I plan on using is Iron nitrate. I will not scrape the stock only sand with 180 grit, then 220 grit, finally with 320 and maybe 400 grit.

I stop at 220

Thank you for the advice. It is well received.

[Terry Cheek]

On a Kibler kit I would raise the grain with every sanding grit. But remember to be correct it should not be over finished.
in fact I would simply sand or scrape away any modern machine marks then carefully sand with 220-320 grit for a final. SMRs are not supposed to be finely finished or highly polished.  For surfaces like the lock surround I would use a hard, flat sanding block and lightly used 400 grit since the lock is already close to the final wood surface. So “lightly” is the by-word here. Just enough to flatten and whiskers.
I never sand with paper coarser than 120 and then use a lot of care.
Now on a brass mounted Kentucky with carving and such I sand to at least 400. It makes getting a nice finish on the stock easier. But I am not a built up finish guy so,,,,
Also. If you have (or make) a SMOOTH burnisher, it can be hard wood, antler or a steel burnisher, it is possible to burnish the first coat of finish when its still wet to rub down and then the finish “glue” will the whiskers in place. Especially if they were raised by the Ferric Nitrate stain. But on curly wood be sure to angle the burnisher across the curl to prevent/reduce rippling and do not use excessive pressure. Also burnishing will not cure tool marks or rough sanding, the process may smooth it somewhat but its still going to show. But on a SMR this is not critical. I would probably raise the grain on a Kibler before any wood removal/sanding operation. And I would leave the buttplate in place for sure and maybe the trigger guard depending on how much wood needs to be sanded to smooth the toe line.

Wow, thank you for all the advice. It is well received and will be followed.