IWDfinish

Ironwood Designs

Finishing tips

Instructions and suggestions on how to properly finish your Ironwood Designs stock set.

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Sand Paper: Recommended 1 to 2 sheets of 150 & 240 grit Garnet type paper.

Steel wool: #0000 Super Fine, at least 2-3 pads.

Oil: Any of the following are well suited, Tung oil, Tru-oil, Boiled Linseed oil (BLO),

Watco Exterior Wood Finish, “ Natural” .

Rags: Clean cotton cloths, ( old T-shirt or socks ), for oil application.

Wax: Orange Oil/Carnuba based wax for finish upkeep.

Howard Feed-N-Wax recommended.

Our stocks are shipped rough sanded to 150 grit. We recommend an additional 150 grit hand sanding to remove any small sanding scratches or minor rough spots that we may have missed. Sand with grain until the grain/surface

becomes clear and smooth. The figure of the grain will become more visible, and there should be no hazy or “rough to the touch” areas. Basically, you are making all of the sanding scratches uniform, and in the same direction.

If you encounter stubborn scratches, that do not come out easily while sanding with the grain, you will need to do a little sanding in those areas across the grain. When cross grain sanding, you’ll want to drag the sand paper, (one direction, not back & forth), over the scratch, until it starts to fade. Then, gradually change the angle of the sanding until you eventually end up going with the grain again. This will remove the scratches created during the cross grain sanding.

TIP1: Tear the sheets of sand paper into 3 equal strips, across the width of the paper. Then, tear those strips into 3 equal portions. Fold those smaller squares with 3 equal folds, which will give you a perfect sized piece that can be flipped as is wears out. You can use the edge of a bench top or a ruler or any straight right angle object to tear the sheets cleanly. Use the back side of the paper as the side to tear against.

TIP2: Take care as to not round over or “melt down” any of the machined ends of the parts. Sand equally and gently in these areas. Overly aggressive sanding will disturb the properly cut end profiles. If you need to sand a little more on near the ends of the part, drag the paper from the end of the part, inwards towards the middle of the part.

TIP3: If you are ever unsure if you have sanded a part insufficiently, you can always use steel wool to buff the area in question. This will polish the wood a bit, exposing any small scratches that you may have missed. Any flaws you expose with steel wool buffing, can easily be gone over again with the grit you were currently using.

Repeat above steps with 240 grit paper.

Raising the grain is an essential and simple process required to ensure a glass smooth surface when the final finish is applied. All you need is a clean cotton cloth or sock, (smooth or outside of sock), soaked in clean tap water and then ringed out. Simple wipe the 240 grit sanded parts wet, and then let dry completely. You don’t have to soak the stock, just wipe across the parts once, so that you can see that it has darkened from the water. This process will make all of the hairs of grain, that were compressed into the grain, curl up and raise above the surface of the wood.

If you do not do this step, and apply oil right after the 240 grit sanding, the stock will look blotchy, and the grain will not be clear and defined.

After you have raised the grain, and the stock parts are dry, re-sand with 240 grit, until the parts are smooth and the grain is clear. You should really see the grain “pop” out, and the true colors of the wood.

TIP1: If you still see small scratches, after 240 grit sanding & Raising the Grain, refer back to cross grain sanding instructions in “First Sanding” section above. You will not have to raise the grain again if you do any touch up sanding at this stage.

When you are satisfied with the final sanded parts, buff the parts with the #0000 Super Fine Steel Wool. Use some elbow grease when you buff the stocks. This process will do a couple of things. It will remove and sanding dust left in the pours of the grain, and, it will put a nice sheen on the stock so the oil will go on smoothly.

TIP1: Be careful when steel wool buffing near machined areas, like vent slots, or edges along barrel channels cuts. The steel wool can get caught up in the grain of the wood, and possibly chip off small slivers of wood. It can also leave hairs of the steel wool in the wood. Buff away from right angles of cornered edges, not towards those sharp surfaces.

This is the easiest and most enjoyable part of the finishing process. If you sanded the parts properly, the oil application will reveal incredible colors and grain, that literally grew out of the ground. You’ll still need to apply it properly and exercise some patience, but it will all be worth it.

Oil application instructions will be pretty much the same for all of the oils listed above, except a few minor differences regarding time between re-coats, and final buffing.

For Watco Oil: Use clean cotton cloth, preferably T-shirt, or rag with not a lot of rough fibers exposed. Soak the balled up, or folded over section of the cloth with oil, and apply oil to parts, First coat should be heavy, as this is the coat that really penetrates the wood, and protects the outer, and just under the exterior surface of the wood. Rub it in across the grain, to push the wood into the pours of the wood. Then, rub with the grain. Don’t forget to oil the front and rear of the part. These areas will soak up the oil almost instantly, and need extra oil per coat. Insides of hand-guards & pistol grips also need oil, as you do not want to leave and exposed wood that can absorb moisture.

After first heavy coat is done, wipe off excess and let sit for approx. 15 minutes. Re-apply oil, but not as heavy. Thin coats are only needed from here on. When applying the 2nd coat, the surface my feel tacky, no worries as the rag will glide across the surface as the new oil is applied, and the previous “tacky oil” will break loose. After applying 2nd coat, wipe any excess oil off, with oily rag, and let sit for 15 minutes. Repeat for at least 4 coats. On your last coat, use the oily rag to break loose the tackiness that may be present from the previous coat. Rub the rag on the part until it slides across with no tackiness felt. Then, simply wipe off as much of the residual oil with a clean cotton cloth.

After last coat is done, and excess has been wiped off, let sit for MINIMUM 24 HOURS before handling or doing any buffing. Exercise some patience here, as you do not want to ruin all of the careful prep work you have already done.

After it has dried for min. 24 hours, lightly steel wool buff off any excess oil that is remaining on the stock. This will clean up the final finish, and remove any excessively shiny spots on the oiled surfaces.

TIP1: Make sure to remove and oil that may have puddled in any machined pockets, or where there are any right angles. Excess oil that dries can cause fitting issues. You can use a Q-tip to easily remove drips or puddles in these areas. If you do end up with some dried oil that has built up, carefully use an X-acto blade to gently scrape it away.

If using Tung oil, or Tru-oil, the steps will be the same as listed above. The main differences are the drying time between re-coats, and the final buffing process.

You can refer to the recommended dry time between re-coats, as listed on the container of whichever brand of oil you end up using. Tung & Tru-oil is typically around 4 hours between coats. Re-coats should be applied as if you were polishing a shoe. Thin coats, pressed into the wood. Doing it this way will not leave much excess to remove. These oil types have hardeners in them and are thicker in general, so excess oil left on the stock that dries, can be more labor intensive to remove.

After you have applied 4-5 coats, and it has dried for MINIMUM 24 hours, you’ll want to steel wool buff the stock. These oil types dry really hard, so if you do not buff it, is will show the rag strokes from the last coat applied, and will have a shiny skin that is inconsistent. Buff it with the #0000 steel wool, and buff it hard. You may notice that the outer layers of oil may start to look like you are removing a decal from a windshield, when it gets grey and gummy. Do not worry about this, just keep buffing until the gummy surface is clean and smooth. You already have the oil into the wood, and a few layers on top. Buffing it will remove the uneven outer layers and smooth out the lower layers, giving you a really nice uniform satin sheen and smooth surface.

To do a super high grade finish is not difficult, but, it does take more time. Basically, you would follow the instructions for a Tung oil finish, and them simply keep applying more coats. The goal is to completely fill in the pours of the grain, so that oil coat is solid, or without any fissures or pits on the surface of the oil coat. This can be attained buy doing the finish in 4 to 5 coat stages. So apply 4 to 5 coats, as described above, then buff, then repeat with 4 to 5 more thin coats. The trick is to not build of the oil too much on areas where the wood is more solid, or less porous. Buffing it out will remove the excess, and leave the oil that has filled in the grain, (pours). It may take 16 coats, or possibly 30, but the results can be astounding.

When the stock is done, i.e., dried thoroughly, steel wool buffed, and installed, then you are ready to apply some sort of wood wax to the stocks. You can use when we recommend as listed at the top of this page, or you can use other products suitable for furniture upkeep. It is also a good idea to wax it down after you have taken it shooting, as the wax will clean powder residue handling marks, which will dirty up the stock over time. Your stocks and finish work will last a very long time with a minimal amount of effort.

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