Ultimate Shine Polish

[Maplesrup]

Hello everyone
Im currently restoring a 38 or 48 year old queensland walnut rifle stock. Ive got it o 2000 grit sanding and was wondering how much furher i can go. It would be really great if i could get it mirror like. Ive bought 0000 super fine grade steel wool(feels like normal wool). Would this do it? Ive read something abou buffing compounds for cars work but i don won to hurt such a lovel chunk of wood.
My plans tto finish it are buffing oil(feas watson) and beeswax. Dont like he idea of varnish and lacquer because it can chip and i like using natural suff.
So how can i get it mirror like????

[dai sensei]

Not quite a mirror, but here's some 12,000 grit sandpaper, then some EEE and traditional wax from our sponser Ubeaut.

Welcome aboard.

[STAR]

I am no expert but a rifle stock of that vintage tells me it would be close to a refurbished 303.25 Sportco rifle with the 303 mechanism, a cut down barrel and a jazzed up polished walnut stock

How close am I to the mark?

[durwood]

I'm afraid you are on the wrong track, sanding is used to level a surface, the flatter it is the more likely it will produce a perfect reflection. A rough surface is leveled to make it flat and therefore reflect light better.

Abrasive paper is used to do the leveling, the finer the grit the smaller the scratches it leaves in the surface. These scratches can then be more easily removed by then going to something which will remove the scratches ( like compound, which is a finer grit suspended in a liquid/paste form) or by using a wax or polish to fill the scratches and produce a mirror finish.

Wood doesn't have the properties to be glossy by itself, depending on the timber the best you can get is smooth timber with its grain pattern. you will have to apply a material such as wax or oil or a clear varnish, lacquer or other clear paint to help the timber gain more gloss.

Normally if you go over 600 grit paper you are only putting scratches in the timber which are smaller than the actual grain, switch to an actual material to fill the grain and you will get the shine you want far faster than rubbing with more fine paper. If you look at a piece of timber under a microscope you would realise that the grain consists of large cells compared to the size of abrasive grit. if you keep rubbing timber all you do is break through into the next cell exposing another hole bigger than the scratches you are rubbing into the timber with the abrasive paper.

Compound is not a goer, it is for paint coatings, it is used to rub away the fine scratches and then a buff such as lambs wool is used to remove the ultra fine scratches the compound leaves, the final step is then to apply a wax or polish which fills these scratches, this leaves a fine semi perminant coating on the paint surface that helps prevent water or initial scratching of the gloss surface getting to the gloss paint finish underneath.. On a car the gloss level once buffed is waxed or polished to give it some protection from every day use same as its used to protect timber furniture.

Although clear finishes can chip on the timber they also are usually harder than the timber so they initially stop damage. A bump that would mark timber uncoated would be saved by the clear coating on it.

[Maplesrup]

ok great, ill go down to the hardware tomorrow and get some grain filler, thats like putty right? any way ill figure it out. Oh the rifle is a .308 Omark. with the original target barrel. I hope it turns out alright.

P.S sorry some of my words are missing letters my keyboards stuffing up

Thanx

[durwood]

Walnut should be too fine a grain to need wood filler, wood filler is a paste used to fill open grain timber that has indentations in it that are easily seen. I would think the walnut would be a lot smoother than that especially if you have seen results rubbing it with 2000.

[Maplesrup]

ok so would it get it's maximum lustre at 2000 grit with no grain filler, should i go over it with 0000 steel wool. Also whats a good oil to bring out figure and grain. U beut has shellawax on speacial could i use buffing oil then shellawax

[Harry72]

0000 steelwool will dull a 2000g surface.
You can get 2500g in W&D paper if you hunt around... but the finish difference will be hardly noticeable over the 2000g.

There are foam backed sanding pads that go up to 12000g but these are for plastics mainly, they would be pointless on wood.
Do as Durwood said just hit it with some wax paste and buff it out and be prepared to re-wax it often(while gun is in use).