Picked this up from a board member and decided I wanted to refinish the stock. The shellac was flaking, as they all are but the wood was near perfect. So I stripped it using Dawn Power Dissolver. I sprayed it on, brushed it in and let it sit for 15-20 min. I then rinsed it off with warm water and repeated twice. Then I set it in the garage to dry from about 2pm to 10am then next morning. I then wiped on one coat of Minwax Mahogany Red stain. I had intended to do 2-3 coats, but I liked the color on the first coat. Also it wasn't as red as I would have liked it to be so I didn't want the chance of it getting darker. I put the first coat of boiled linseed oil on last night and again some this morning. The wood was really dry and thirst and is sucking up  the stain and oil. I intend to do 2-3 more coats of boiled linseed oil once a day.

Here are some pictures of the current progress. I'll post some updates tonight of it oiled.

ETA: It now has 4 coats of BLO on it. I think I'm going to leave it at that once it dries and put it back together. Oiled pictures at the bottom.

Before:


Stripped and Dry:


1 coat of stain:


4 coats of BLO right after 4th coat was applied and rubbed in:





Finished:

did you sand your stock at all? I have been thinking alot about refinishing mine lately, but that is one thing I have wondered about. my stocks, where the relief cuts are in the sides of the stocks, have very rough edges on the leading and trailing edges and I dont know if I should sand them down. Also, what about removing the hardware on the stock? Did you just leave yours on when your stripped them?

I left everything on as you see here. After the stripping and rinses there was some rough spots so I took them down with some 1000 grit wet/dry and they went away quickly.

I have finished! New pics posted above of the finished refinish!

Looks pretty nice.  There is just something about an oil finish on an old military rifle that gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling.

Looks good. Strong work

Thanks for the compliments all. This was my first time renishing a wood stock. I'm quite happy how it turned out. Makes me want to do more!

did you seal it with anything to make it water proof/resistant? I refinished a .303 Lee Enfield #4 once and used Polyurethane and some steel wool to apply the final coats, came out nice...I kick my self for getting rid of it..but I was in college and needed money

Hey DD! Good to see to you finally here! Thanks for the compliments. No poly finish, just multiple coats of boiled linseed oil. I may try a tung oil "finish" on my next refinish job, but this turned out so nice, why mess with the recipe!

I used formbys tung oil finish on my sons .22 and it came out nice, but very different than what you got with BLO.  It is very glossy, but that was what I wanted for it so I am happy.  I am not sure I would like it on an old military rifle though.

I really like that dark reddish color. Nice job

I definitely did not want it to be glossy. I like my milsurp stuff to look like the old war horses they are. I actually wanted it to come out a little redder. I had looked for Minwax Sedona Red, but could only find Mahogany Red. I may try one of their water-based custom mixed ones.