Scratch repair

[troublemaker71]

Got lost hunting the other day and had to crouch and crawl back to the Brazos river (the only visible landmark I would recognize at that point in the day) through mesquite tree, hackberry and briar hell for several hours, using only my sense of direction.  Then back up along the banks of the river through more dense thicket, mud and neighbors barbed wire fences.  Not easy for a 6'7" fellow.  I swear I fell into some quicksand, too.
           
            Anybody recommend a product for covering up or diminishing a few ugly cosmetic scratches on satin-finish walnut (visualize mesquite thorns, hackberry, and barbed-wire doing their trick on a panicked guy's gun while hurrying his ass to beat sundown out of Deliverance land).
           
            Me squealing like a pig ->
           
            Thanks,
           
            Tristan

[Fred Flinstone]

How deep are the scratches? only the finish is marred or deep gouges in wood.

[troublemaker71]

These are gouges.  Not too deep, but enough to remove some of the checkering and expose bare wood elsewhere.  Just deep enough to be really ugly but likely too shallow to worry about refilling with any substitute wood product or putty.  I think I could get by with just recoloring the scratched areas to sort of match the original finish.  I saw some bottles of brown Birchwood-Casey stock refinishing stuff at Academy and thought that if they just made a refinishing/touch up pen with the same colored stuff I'd be allright but didn't notice any such product.  Maybe if I just get a bottle of the mentioned stuff and keep to the affected areas I won't end up with big miscolored splotches on my otherwise pretty stock.
           
            Thanks

[Fred Flinstone]

If the finish is scratched simply: dismantle barreled action from stock & apply a thin coat of satin polyurethane in spray form on stock. If deep gouges are present you'll have to steam afflicted areas to swell wood out. If deeper gouges are present you're better of stripping the finish of with furniture stripper(take off ALL metal components off before proceeding) and sanding until the gouges have been level off and apply a finish. If checkering has gotten a beating go to your local gunsmith & he'll pour Accuraglass and rechecker the damaged area.
           
            Did you bring a compass(& or a GPS) with you while loss. Now you know what to get next Christmas.

[troublemaker71]

Should I apply some kind of diluted water soluable walnut-colored finish to the scratched areas prior to using the satin polyurethane, or will the polyurethane itself sufficiently darken the lighter colored scratched areas to match the rest of the stock.  Presently I'm assuming the polyurethane finish is clear, not walnut colored, and will preserve the scratches as they currently appear unless I use some brown finish beforehand.
           
            I'm confident this job will not require stripping the entire stock.  The scratches are actually confined to a couple of localized areas rather than throughout the stock.
           
            Thanks for your help, FF.  I really appreciate it.
           
            T
           

[Fred Flinstone]

Polyurethane is clear with a slight honey glow to it, a simple quick test put a little saliva to the scratch area and rub a litttle, if the scrat disapear the varnish will do the same job.