Henry Frontier stock refinish
Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2023 2:26 pm
Bear with me, this post is only meaningful with picts, which i will try to post.
I made a recent acquisition of the Henry Frontier 22 but i never liked the finish on these as the walnut wood grain is almost totally obscured. A you know its a satin finish but appears really lifeless, almost like a brown paint with a wee bit of transparency. So i decided to refinish...one thing i will say it's an extremely durable finish. No luck with sanding it down, resorted to the scrape method, to give you an idea of how durable, in one specific location i counted the scrapes to get down to wood, 36 scrapes in one small location, took over 6 hours to sand and scrape. I then did a very light golden pecan stain/sealer then multiple coats of very thin rubbed in Birchwood Casey True Oil. The beautiful walnut grain now shows thru.
In the full length pict the Henry is the lower rifle,while it's a Rossi 357 on top. Sorry bout posting a pict of a Rossi, but that is one i also refinished...used 3 different stain sealers to get the tone i wanted.
Now in the pict of the stock closeup it shows the refinished Henry and the Rossi prior to refinish (but a different side of the stock than what is shown in the full length image.
Note: i really wanted the Henry 357 but when i was looking there was none available anywhere. The Rossi i reworked internals (it needed it), the Henry i never touched. The butter smooth action is great and has a stock trigger pull of 2 lbs 10 oz and has a better trigger feel than any of my other firearrms.
Side note, one of the most beautiful rifles I've seen is the Winchester model 70 Super Grade with the blond maple stock. I recently refinished a friends stock trying for that light blond look and he's totally blown away with the result.
I made a recent acquisition of the Henry Frontier 22 but i never liked the finish on these as the walnut wood grain is almost totally obscured. A you know its a satin finish but appears really lifeless, almost like a brown paint with a wee bit of transparency. So i decided to refinish...one thing i will say it's an extremely durable finish. No luck with sanding it down, resorted to the scrape method, to give you an idea of how durable, in one specific location i counted the scrapes to get down to wood, 36 scrapes in one small location, took over 6 hours to sand and scrape. I then did a very light golden pecan stain/sealer then multiple coats of very thin rubbed in Birchwood Casey True Oil. The beautiful walnut grain now shows thru.
In the full length pict the Henry is the lower rifle,while it's a Rossi 357 on top. Sorry bout posting a pict of a Rossi, but that is one i also refinished...used 3 different stain sealers to get the tone i wanted.
Now in the pict of the stock closeup it shows the refinished Henry and the Rossi prior to refinish (but a different side of the stock than what is shown in the full length image.
Note: i really wanted the Henry 357 but when i was looking there was none available anywhere. The Rossi i reworked internals (it needed it), the Henry i never touched. The butter smooth action is great and has a stock trigger pull of 2 lbs 10 oz and has a better trigger feel than any of my other firearrms.
Side note, one of the most beautiful rifles I've seen is the Winchester model 70 Super Grade with the blond maple stock. I recently refinished a friends stock trying for that light blond look and he's totally blown away with the result.