Henry Rifle Forums

I am mostly caught up with most of my projects and started looking at the finish on my 2 new Henry's. I am thinking of stripping and putting on a Tru Oil finish as I like the lighter more natural finish. I have some questions I hope someone can help me with. Will Citri Strip take off the whatever Henry uses for their finish and if not what will work? Is the dark finish on the Henry's actually stained into the wood? Any info on this from someone that has done this would be appreciated.

There are a couple of people on this forum who have experience with this, hang in there.

Finishing, or refinishing, wood is as much art as it is science. I'd recommend not diving into it until you know what you are doing. Pick up a copy of "Understanding Wood Finishing" by Bob Flexner. Modern commercially applied finishes are intended to be permanent and therefore can be extremely difficult to remove without abrasives.

Gunny I agree with you but I have re-finished may stocks. I am more concerned about what to take the old finish off with being I have never refinished a Henry.

leverjc wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:45 am

Gunny I agree with you but I have re-finished may stocks. I am more concerned about what to take the old finish off with being I have never refinished a Henry.

Nearly all commercial stocks are finished with a 2 part urethane at the factory, which is very resistant to nearly any stripper. Remington, Browning, and Weatherby for example use this. Sometimes a staining agent is included in the urethane to obtain a more even color, and I suspect that is what Henry does. I rather doubt that CitriStrip will do the job.