I'm a newbie to rifles with wood furniture...  So can anybody tell me what is the best way to clean and maintain the walnut stock on an M1A? I don't want the smooth, wax-type finish that I've seen on some NM rifles, but I want to preserve the wood as best as I can.  I've heard that Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) is good to use, but I can't seem to find the right stuff at my local gun shop. If BLO is the way to go, where should I buy this stuff and what's the best method for applying it to the stock?  

Thanks.

CHL,
You can find BLO at any Home Depot/Lowe's or other hardware stores.  Just wipe it on with your fingers or a piece of cloth and rub in until absorbed then wipe off remainder or it will be sticky. Let dry over night. I've refinished several rifle stocks this way and it gives the wood a slightly darker, warm, rich appearance like wood should have. Repeat until the grain is filled to your liking.  I usually hit the wood with 0000 steelwool prior to first coat.  If the gun is not used much, wipe the stock down once a year with a slightly oiled rag to refresh.

Raskil is exactly right in his use of BLO.

Recently I found another little trick that looks good too.  Get some Homer Formby's Lemon Oil treatment and rub the stock down with it & a rag a couple of times before hitting it with the BLO.  It is a great cleaner, it nourishes the wood some, and it brings out some of the highlights of the wood.  In fact, you can mix the BLO & Lemon oil together and rub it good to get similiar results, but if the stock had been handled alot & is dirty - use the lemon oil first for a good cleaning.
BTW.............you can also add some stock wax into the BLO/Lemon Oil mix too - it doesn't add any shine to the wood, it just protects & highlights it better.

Check out a stock I just refinished this way (it was a really nice piece of wood):

http://community.webshots.com/album/70411986zVFpIF

Just be advised that boiled linseed oil has spontaneous combustion properties as it dries, so follow the directions and make sure you clean up all your rags or whatever else you use.

-Zmeja

You might also want to try Formby's Tung Oil Finish instead of the BLO...

Try Tung oil...I believe it is the origional finish.

Cleaning and refinishing stocks is two different animals. For cleaning, denatured alcohol works pretty well. The Boyds stocks that SA Inc uses generally are pretty dry and could use a judicious application of oil to complete their finish.

The original arsenal finish was a dip in a vat of pure tung oil (PTO). BLO was used by the troops because its cheap and it keeps the troops busy. Tung oil provides marginally more protection from water and scratches then BLO, but still isn't great compared to synthetics. Marine spar polyeurathene provides the best protection, but leaves a shiny plasticky finish that many purists don't like. This may be the type of finish you were referring to? Minwax Tung Oil finish, if you follow the directions on the can, will give you a finish that looks like a BlO or PTO, but provides more protection.

I started off using PTO on my M1A, but switched to Minwax Tung Oil finish after about a year of using PTO.






I won the M1 in a raffle, and it came with a polyeurathene finish, which is shame 'caue its the original stock on a nearly all original IHC. I took most of the shine out of it using Scothbrite pads.

Rassinfussinossinfeffer!!!!!! How do I post pics?

Figured it out, with some help from Ire on the Tech Board.

Thanks everyone... I appreciate the info.  I was getting some conflicting advice [%I]and this really helped.