what color should I put on the wood to match

[b00mer]

metal is a hammered machine brown finish

what would go good with it?

 

[Nashmack]

What kind of action is that?

 

[b00mer]

its an OLD Sears 22 single shot, just been sitting in closet so I decided to purdy it up

 

[Nashmack]

How's the grain on the stock? If it's got a nice grain, I'd go with a nice clear laquer.

 

[b00mer]

stock looks like crap, some old black type varnish under what appears black paint, was going to stick in sand blast cabinet and smooth it down with glass bead blast
trying to determine what color to put back on it, no amount of stripper is going to clean this wood!

 

[Pilgrim]

rub several coats of BLO on it and steel wool it with 0000 wool between coats after you've cleaned it. It will be just the color you want.

 

[b00mer]

what is BLO?

 

[Pilgrim]

boiled linseed oil

 

[Sprocket]

I would avoid using any abrasives to remove the finish - you remove wood when you do that. The metal of the gun will be proud of the wood and look goofy

Let it soak in stripper, etc. to remove the finish - let it dry thoroughly - then use 50/50 tung oil and satin spar varnish (which is mostly tung oil anyway).

The finish will be durable but need to be renewed every so often - go search the Browning forum of shotgun world for examples...

Good luck