The Hearsch Angocoellum Rifle: A functional Steam/Cyber Punk Rifle

Step 8 Finishing the stock and a bit of paint

shortened breath came more and more difficult as she raced for the door . . .the port seemed to bounce wildly as she tumbled arse over teakettle down the corridor. Not even daring to look back, she ran as a sprinter in the lead of a race; but in this race the loser would be slain!

Now the project is really starting to come together but who wants a bare piece of wood?

Tools and Materials:

• Lots of paper towels
• Flat black brush on Paint
• Heavy duty hand cleaner
• Wood filler
• Paint thinner
• Some sort of sandable wood sealer
• Your choice of stain . . .I used a minwax mahogony stain
• Your choice of finish . . .I chose minwax Polyurethane
• Paint brushes
• A standard screwdriver for prying open cans of stain and finish
• A rubber or rawhide mallet for closing them without damaging the lids
• A piece of soft cloth and a plastic bag for polishing the finish

First look at the piece and find any holes or gouges you don't want (you should have gotten rid of them all in the sanding step but invariably a couple make it through) and fill them in with the wood filler and let it dry. Sand off the excess.

After all that sanding and carving there's going to be a TON of sawdust in your stock even if it doesn't look or feel like it so the first thing you do is spray it off with a compressor hose if you've got one or at least blow it off and then moisten a clean rag in mineral spirits and wipe it down to remove the rest. Let the Mineral Spirits evaporate and then open your can of stain . . .stir it well and dip a folded paper towel in it, let the dripping stop and wipe the stain onto the wood following the grain pattern. Wipe off any excess and let it dry (shouldn't take too long as the wood soaks a lot of it up). If you'd like it darker/richer give it another coat at this point.

Now open the can of sealer, stir it, and apply it evenly like you did with the stain but with a new paper towel of course. This takes a while to dry so I'd work on something else for a while and come back. Once it's dry give it a light sanding with high grit sandpaper, dust it off with a cloth and give it another coat. Do this at least a couple of times.

Once the last coat is completely dry and sanded and wiped then open up the Poly(or whatever finish you chose) and stir it as well. Apply it just like the other two. After the second coat instead of sanding take an old tshirt or other soft cloth and buff the finish until it's shiny (after it's dry of course). After the third coat use the plastic bag. You can keep applying coats until it looks how you want. I used 2 coats of stain, 2 coats of sealer, and 3 coats of poly.

Now open the paint can and brush a coat of black into the cubbies you made earlier if you made any. make sure you get all of it. Once it's all dry and good then you can start assembling the rifle!