Re-finish
 

Unfortunately, the buttstock of my Repro 12 gauge has suffered at the hands of an uncaring 'gunsmith'.
A once unmarked stock of magnificent walnut, is now marred with various nicks and dents.
ANOTHER gunsmith, has identified the obvious issues, in addition to a pronounced 'rippling' of the original finish and has suggested a complete strip and application of a 'London oil finish'.

I said YES!

Is the 'rippling' that I speak of, something common ?

The ripple effect is commonly seen on guns that have fiddleback stocks with a high gloss finish. Is your gun's stock fiddlebacked?

Not so much with fiddleback or curl, but with feather crotch figure. The further shrinking of the wood in those areas after finish is applied will cause the wavy surface. After straightening the stock out and refinishing, it may eventually move some more, but not as much as it was.

I agree. If the stock needs attention, get that Urithane off of there and put something nicer on it.

Fiddleback, Curl or Crotch ....

Interesting question, as its difficult to give a definitive answer.

Probably a little bit of each.

( Although, as a lover of feather crotch .... I wish it had more of such. )

Will post some pics when job is finished.

A point I find more curious, is that when I purchased the gun only a few years back, it had a perfect finish - zero rippling.

The rippling is now pronounced, especially after 'hanging about' in Gunsmith #1's workshop for 18 months.

Am guessing his inside temperatures are greatly varied ?

My 28 ga. Repro's straight grip stock is quite rippled and it is because of the 'highly feathered crotch wood'. I just don't think the blanks on some of these Repros were allowed to cure long enough before being put into service.

This fiddlebacked Repro has a ripple for each fiddle. I cannot recall seeing a single fiddlebacked Repro that didn't have some rippling going on.

IMHO, I believe the ripples are created during the sanding process with alternating soft and hard fibers of figured wood. Yes, wood will take on moisture (or lose moisture) and move a bit which will exacerbate the rippling effect to some degree on all types of figured wood, whether they be fiddleback, curly, feathercrotch or others; but I believe it's more of the alternating hard and soft wood fibers that is the culprit. The high gloss finish that most Repros have from the factory makes the ripples all the more visible.

Learn to love your ripples, as they ain't going anywhere and they ain't hurtin' a thing!

I agree the ripping is caused by the alternating hard and soft fibers when sanding. The more soft fibers sand a little more quickly and thus cause the rippling. I love Fiddleback and that is one pretty gun!