03a3 ugly furniture

[aris]

Decided to clean up the wood on my 03a3 , it was almost black from years of sitting around. I got the black film of goo off but it has the ugliest color to it that I have ever seen on ANY firearm. The pics of The original finish has a nice honey color to it,. Mine has a bland grayish blah color to it. Can I do anything to bring out that color like in the pics I saw or is it just what it is, UGLY!!!!!!! Any guidance is much appreciated, Thanks , Aris

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[browningautorifle]

Mine has a bland grayish blah color to it.

Sounds like dry wood to me, pics might help. There are threads here about treating walnut, most speak of Linseed or tung oil. I use Watco danish oil but not on severely dry wood, that's what yours sounds like.

[aris]

OK, not to sound like a dumb *** but, what do I do about dried out wood. I do have boiled lin seed oil which is what I was gonna treat it with, but I dont want to put anything on it till I am confident that the cleanup is done.

[browningautorifle]

Once you have it cleaned to your satisfaction you apply the BLO with hand or rag and keep letting it soak in...the wood will drink it in. Cleaning? Some of these guys swear by citristrip...have you heard of it? There'll be others along soon, you'll get the phone book on this one if you can wait a couple days.

[aris]

Sound advise. I'll wait for the phone book. ....Only thing worse than NOT doing something is doing it WRONG. Thanks again.

[browningautorifle]

Worst case we can bring this back to top for some more opinions...

[mrclark303]

I would clean the wood with a wet red scotchbrite followed by dry to remove all the crud, at this point you can decide to use a colour if you wish (I tend to use Liberon spirit based) and follow with raw linseed oil feeding until it no longer takes it in.

I would think if it's bone dry as you say, I would be tempted to put it in a bin liner and and reapply the oil for a week.

Then remove the excess and buff up to a semi Matt finish.

[Daan Kemp]

Photos would enable those who know to comment to the point.

[browningautorifle]

He may be done with this one... "Last On 08-04-2020 @ 05:44 AM"

[pickax]

Yes Jim. sounds like he went to caustic before asking. Like the medical profession motto, "first do no harm".
mrclark303, I like the English terminology you use. Took me a minute... Good advice to try and save it.
But he'll definitely have "wood whiskers". that won't sand out.