Refinishing Newer Crosman stocks

[Ronno6]

I purchased a Remington Vantage 1200 that had a few chips in the finish.
The underlying wood is significantly lighter than the finish.
So, I undertook to strip the old finish.........more easily said than done.
MAN.............Crosman is using some tough stuff these days!
I sprayed on a coat of Kleen Strip premium stripper and waited...and waited....and waited........ nuttin' !
The stock kinda shined brighter when I put the steel wool to it.......
So, I sprayed on another coat, and let it sit...overnite....and.......zippo......
After scrubbing that off with a steel wool pad, I sprayed, waited abut 5 minutes, and the finish had liquefied somewhat...
I was able to scrub it off.... so...........
I guess it is a 3 application process ??

The wood looks to be beech and I am deathly afraid to stain. It may be too white to just oil.
I think I will spray a coat or 2 of a tinted poly, then finish with Tru-Oil.

Cheaper than a new stock!

[JPSAXNC]

If you spray it with tinted poly, I would just leave the poly finish. I've used poly on a number of stocks and it looks great. I give it two coats of poly, then go over lightly with 0000 steel wool to take the shine off, then another coat of poly and steel wool again and then buff it with a cloth.

[Ronno6]

I have used Minwax Poly Shades, and its pretty good stuff....but it ain't cheap......
I have some Rustoleum Varathane en route........maybe I'll give that a try.

Think maybe the steel-wooling after the 1st coat of stripper scuffs up the finish so that the next coat can penetrate the surface..
Dunno, but there is a fairly narrow window in which the old finish will scrub off fairly readily.

[TooJung2Die]

Since it's more than likely beech I wouldn't attempt to stain it. I've had some really miserable results trying to stain beech. Using an oil finish like Tru-Oil looks good if you like a blonde finish. Oil will get darker over the years. If you want to try stain use a light color stain and thin it. The darker the stain the worse it will blotch. Apply multiple thin coats. I have used tinted brush on and spray on finishes but I haven't gotten good enough at applying them to get an even coat. Your mileage may vary. I don't like beech. 😒

I stopped using stripper on old factory finishes and sand it off. It's actually faster. Since the finish is tinted and on the surface you'll get down to wood fast using an aggressive grit. Don't worry about removing wood. You have to sand a long time to take off enough wood to matter. I start with something like an 80 grit and final sand with 220 grit. Going finer than 220 is unnecessary work in my opinion.

[Ronno6]

The stock has a few areas of goofy grain/color.
I may just spray with the tinted poly and be done with it......
That seems to mask grain/color imperfections pretty well, but still allows the grain to show.

[Ronno6]

A couple of finished pictures.
4 coats or so of Rustoleum Varathane Dark Walnut...not too dark....

[Mzq284]

That's pretty nice!

[Bicycleman]

Ron, I like that look.  Well done!