First up I sent Mrs Missed into the local hardware to purchase some citrus based paint stripper as I had read that in would not affect the white line spacers which are plastic.She also was asked to get some 00 and 0000 steelwool.
I gave the stock a good coat making sure the checkering recieved an extra coat.Next up was waiting the required 20 mins for the sweet smelling stripper to work.After the wait I attacked the stock with a paint scrapper
.This sounds a tad bit harsh but when done with some care is actually quiet safe.Varnish removed from the easy areas I then attacked the checkering with a nail brush.The best part of the Citrus paint stripper is that clean is done with water.Next was an afternoon,evening in front of the TV with the stock in one hand and steelwool in the other.Mrs Missed was cooking Corned beef for tea and I used the steam from the saucepan to remove the dents from the butt and cheekpeice.This was the bit I was most worried about but proved to be the easiest
.A couple of seconds over the steam and out they came. 
.I think it was about 9 pm when I rang James270 for some advice I was wetting the stock down to remove the whiskers and was wondering how many times I had to do this.The answer was basicaly how long was a peice of string.All up I stee lwooled the stock for 18 hours carpal tunnel the result
Honestly I was not happy with the stock the timber seemed to have a very open grain and I could not get it to havs a shine.At this time my Daughter and son inlaw called in to pick up the grandsons.Jarrod is a cabinate maker and his advice was to oil it and fill the grain.Crunch time was on me so I melted some Beeswax and mixed it with some boiled liseed.I used 0000 steel wool to apply the mixture and after application I sat the stock on the mantel peice to dry.I sand between the stock between every coat till I had the colour I wanted (7).Any way here are some pics .
- mod 70.jpg (64.24 KiB) Viewed 6948 times
- mod 72.jpg (73.07 KiB) Viewed 6948 times
I will post some more when time permits
So Pat do you approve ?
And you could not see a great deal of character in the wood.Once the varnish was removed I washed the last of the Citrus stripper away to reveal a very different picture.The butt displayed a fair amount of fiddleback with just a trace of it in the forend.
.When I went to give it a second coat of Beeswax I was unable to find it and was sure I had left it on the computer desk