A while back, I ran across this Mark lll I’m a Pawn shop for $99. The wood had been “ sporterized”, but the metal seemed mostly intact, including the magazine cut off, and really good original finish. The action was slick and tight.
So I brought it home.

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She's a good candidate for bringing back to life. Springfield Sporters should have everything you need, including fore end and the two upper handguards. The wood will be the most expensive part of the restoration, but you're in the rifle cheap enough to where you'll be ok in the end. You can also find tons of parts through Numrich, BRP Guns, Sarco, and Apex. I got lucky with my rebuild a few years back since mine still had the, albeit cracked, stock. It's fun and rewarding, plus you'll have brought an old warhorse back to life.

So I started searching for the wood and metal I needed to put it back in original shape.

My goal is to make a shooter for myself, not a collectible. Just a representative that I can enjoy at the range.

Turns out original forends are getting scarce, and expensive.

After months of trying to pick one up, I finally decided to buy a DP package from Springfield Sporters. All the wood and metal bands and such, reasonably priced. But from an Indian drill rifle. Not what I hoped for, but keeping the budget under what I could buy one in original trim for.

This is what I got

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The Paint had to go, so it got stripped. I know original finish is desired, but in this case, I'm not going to have an original Rifle, so I wanted to make it as good as I could.

Once stripped, the wood was badly stained with 100 years of oil.

I asked here about getting the oil out, and the best advice was Brownells Whiting.

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So I set to work

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The whiting, mixed with acetone, really seemed to draw the oil, you can see the yellow leaching out
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I must have done this 20 times, the never seemed to be an end to the oil, and every time I sanded, more oil Came to the surface.

One  day I left the wood in my hot car( I take it to work and mess with it during down time).

When I went to take it out, it was bleeding oil.

As an experiment, I hit it with a heat gun.

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At this point I realized I would never get all the oil out of the wood.

The whiting is good for surface stains, but cannot remedy this kind of saturation.

I decided to go ahead and stain and see what kind of finish I could get.

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So I did a final whiting treatment, which dried the surface, sanded it  to 200, and stained it with a walnut stain. The forend pieces took the stain nicely, but the buttstock stayed light, didn’t match, and showed the oil stains horribly

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Forgot to take a photo of the crappy finish on the buttstock, I was busy trying to remedy it.

I decided to try to use my nemisis, the oil saturating the stock, to my advantage if I could.
I took the stock and started running it over a gas flame, forcing the oil out and browning the wood a bit. When oil flowed, I rubbed it into the surface. After getting it a good bit darker, I gave it another coat of stain, which absorbed much better.

I liked the look so much that I ended up treating all the wood this way.

So today, after a few days of drying and five coats of linseed oil, I put her together.
In truth, the 200 grit got the wood too smooth for a military look, and it’s too shiny, I’m debating steel wooling  it with 0000.
I’m no Enfield expert, I’m sure there’s a lot else wrong with it, I’m planning to replace or fix some of the screws, and the rear barrel band, which is clearly stamped “DP”. The rifle is also missing the inner band around the barrel that helps bed the stock, not sure that that could be replaced without removing the sights, which is more than I want to do.

But I am overall happy with how it turned out, I’ve got a decent looking rifle to take to the range and play with. Now to see how it shoots!

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So I’m open to suggestions if I screwed something up, I know it’s not a collectible “Original “, but I do want it to be somewhat period correct.

Nice job.  Frankly you don’t want to do too nice a job.  They don’t look right.  You need some character!

I like your stock work.  Unorthodox method but the results speak for themselves.

The heat really allowed me to blend the oil stains into the finish, making them much less distinct and natural looking.

I kind of wish I had stopped at 80 or 100 grit sandpaper though.

I am pretty good at beating up rifles though, so it should acquire more character soon!

I'm not a huge fan of Enfields but for what you started out with that is a really pretty rifle. Good job.

un'bubbaing rifles is my favorite

I sometimes seek them out because I must have brain damage

I have the same problem, just finished the Enfield, went for a bicycle ride, stopped in the local Pawnshop, and...

$180 dollar “ sporterized” Kar 98....

I can’t help myself.....

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Don't worry too much about the smooth wood finish.

It used to be a sign of an old sweat, as it was popular to "bone" the stock to smooth it out - the process is what it sounds like - they'd run a bone handle or piece of smooth bone over the wood to give ot a polished appearance. Very common with the "Bisley shots" types with their issue target rifles too - either in Service or civilian club shooters.

Nice restoration - you got lucky with the barrel being left to original length too!

I did a SKS and to get all the Cosmo out I baked it in the oven at 170 wiping it down every 30min. After 5 hours is was still giving out cosmo. You Enfield looks great. I trade a Enfield for a set of 2.02 heads I really regret that now. That Enfield was re-barreled with a Hart Barrel in 303 .

As. follow up, apparently I didn’t screw up the wood fitment too bad, finally made it to the range, thought the  old girl shot fairly well for 100+ and some cheap Selliee & Beloit ammo.

100 yards, turns out the front sight is loose enough to push with a screw driver.

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Nice work. Let's see the rest of that Mauser

Sitting in the back of the safe. Did some research on it; it's the pre-curser to the K98, developed in WW1, they actually turned it down to small ring size for weight savings as well as shortening the barrel.

AS far as I can tell, the KAR 98a was a relatively small production piece , there was also a Polish version, the 98az.

The stocks, fitted for the small ring 98 action and short barrel, with wood over the sights, and a stacking bar, are exceedingly rare, and expensive when found.

A reproduction is available for around $275, but that leaves you hunting the metal.

I'm gong to leave it be for now, maybe I'll get lucky on a stock, or it might end up as a custom rifle, which would be a shame as it has a decent original barrel with the original sights.

Nice work!  My brother re-finished some Mausers about 20 years ago, and ran into similar problems with magically replenishing oil spots.