Wood finishing w/ furniture in place

[FALout]

When reading about the Rupp rifle Taylor recently finished, he mentioned putting finish on the stock with the hardware/furniture still on.  I didn’t want to breach this subject on that post, so started this new one.  I realize I should only be rubbing in a little finish at a time, but am concerned about getting any on the brass or silver inlays, patch boxes, and such.  Is it a concern?  I’ve built a few rifles and have always removed what I can and then spent some time trying to get parts back into their mortises.  This method interests me as I’m just starting the finish process on my current build.  Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.

Robert

[Bill Raby]

What I just did was to was to put a couple thin coats of finish over all the wood without any of the metal parts. I wanted to get at least a little bit of finish underneath. Then mask off the metal and put it all back in before doing the rest of it. The metal was a perfect fit before any finish. Not so much afterwards. I ended up taking a lot of time scraping out all the finish underneath the metal. I would call it a mistake. It is a good fit now, but not as good as it was previously. Next one I do, I will do all the finish with metal in place and masked off.

[Stophel]

I have always had a really hard time with surface varnish.  It's something I just don't get.  I haven't figured out how to do it without gumming up the carving and everything else.  It remains a mystery to me.... so, I generally only do in-the-wood linseed oil type finishes.  Problem solved. 

[Curtis]

My past few builds I have started finishing with all the metal in place as well.  ref: https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=55149.msg586849#msg586849

No matter what finish I use over carving, I always clean and /or thin the coating over the carving with a fine, worn out old toothbrush.  It keeps the carving from becoming clogged.

Curtis

[FALout]

I’m not as much concerned with too much finish at the carvings, I save up old toothbrushes for just that purpose. And I can’t possibly mask off the inlays and Patchboxes.  I guess I have to assume that I should be completely done with all engraving of Patchboxes parts since there will likely be trouble removing these parts ?  I’ve been using Chambers stock finish for years, it works well for me, it’s predictable in how it will dry and the sheen I can achieve.  I’m gonna try putting on the finish with everything in place and see how it works. My biggest concern is the brass or silver bits being able to naturally age if there is any finish on the surface.  It’s just a different way of doing things that I’m not familiar with.

[thecapgunkid]

Rubber Cement.

I use it on the bone inlays and parts I make.




Then I just peel it off when rubbing the finish.

[Sidelock]

I do finishing with all of the permanent furniture (thumb piece, hunter's star etc.), and semi permanent appliances like ram rod thimbles, engraved and in place on the stock.  I then paint on Acra-glass release agent on these parts to minimize the amount of finish that would get on these during that process.  The idea about rubber cement is similar and no-doubt cheaper, I'll have to try that.  Any finish that remains on the furniture can be removed with a q-tip or even a blunted toothpick, dipped in acetone, cleans it right up. Do this carefully as drips of acetone where you don't want them will jack up a nice finish in no time.

[flehto]

My guns are finished w/o the furniture installed and the finish is composed of 2 wipe on/wipe off coats of LMF sealer w/  a 10-15 mins soak in time and a complete dry between coats.  Seeing the LMF sealer  is generously applied, after a wipe off, a tooth brush is used which is itself wiped off w/ a rag  when  removing  any sealer from the inlets and carving. A hard rub w/ 0000 steel wool removes any sealer that's on the surface.

After the sealer is completely dry and vacuumed,  2 very sparse coats of Wahkon Bay Trucoat are rubbed in w/ the fingers w/ a complete dry between coats. The final finish looks like there isn't any finish on the wood. The furniture goes in w/o any difficulty and  there's no need to cut back the shine...there isn't any and in fact, a fluufy towel is used to create some sheen.....Fred

[TommyG]

I've always finished with all my furniture in place save for the first(seal) coat. I simply wax my parts(2 coats), then install.  When done I do have to clean up the parts using acetone or laquer thinner before they're final polish.  But I'll take that any day as opposed to having the chore/risk of cleaning up inlets.