I am trying to refinish a birch M14 stock, and it just isn't working out well for me. Here are the steps I have taken, which were done according to what I had read across a number of forums:

1. Sprayed it down with Easy Off degreaser, let it sit for a day, wipe down, and repeat one more time.

2. Let it dry for 24 hours after degreasing the second time, and go over the wood lightly with a torch to evaporate any remaining moisture/degreaser still in the wood. After this, the original finish was at least 95% removed, and it looked like a natural, unfinished, dry piece of wood.

3. Apply a light coat of boiled linseed oil using a cotton ball or paper towel every 24 hours.

At this point, I am at ~10-12 coats of boiled linseed oil without much noticeable improvement. When I apply a coat of it, the stock becomes bright and shiny under the oil, which is what I want. But after it sits for a day, it all gets absorbed and the wood becomes dull again. I don't want to use an unnatural stain, but I do want it to be semi-glossy and I want the grain to be bright and pop out. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to just keep applying coats of BLO until it's glossy, or will it always keep soaking in?

This is where I'm at right now. The shiny parts on the wood are sticky portions of BLO that I guess didn't soak in or something.




This is how it looked after being degreased/stripped:

For comparison, this is what a small area looks like immediately after being wiped down with boiled linseed oil. See how the butt of the stock is significantly glossier and brighter than the rest of the rifle, which hasn't been touched since yesterday? I want the whole thing to look like this. Is that even possible?

tung oil will get you to where you are trying to go in terms of build up and sheen.

I wrestled with refinishing a crusty old ak stock set

and it turned out really well.  Ill edit to add pics in a min

Looks to me like you could've took a lil more time stripping/prepping it


From here, if you don't want to strip it again, wipe it down real good with some denatured alcohol

lightly sand it with some fine foam sanding block  "just to smooth out any raised grain"

wipe it down with alcohol again, should feel really smooth and clean at this point

then start applying coats of tung oil, 4-6 coats will get you a lot of buildup and a nice sheen

good luck

Pointman12 check out this guys 4 part video, I think you will get the desired effect you want with his process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p21MKDi3r8o