I sent my order for my CMP Garand a few days ago, and I figure that i will want to refinish the wood when I get it.  What should I use to finish it?  Are there finishes designed for rifles?

Clean it with a mild detergent.

Wipe it down with boiled linseed oil.

Repeat as necessary.

Quoted: Clean it with a mild detergent. Wipe it down with boiled linseed oil. Repeat as necessary.

I was thinking that I would completely sand and refinish it.  Is this not recommended?

Or use Tru Oil.If you want it to shine.

Quoted: I was thinking that I would completely sand and refinish it.  Is this not recommended?

Not if you are going for USGI correctness.

One good trick is to use a hair blow dryer on high on the wood. It raises the years of gun oil and sweat to the surface, which you can then clean off.

Be careful - Don't burn the wood.

You'll be AMAZED how much crap will come seeping out.

50% BLO and 50% Japan drier.  It will penetrate the wood better and also bring some of the accumulated yetch to the surface.  Rub on...rub off.

NO....DONT SAND IT....

the quick and easy way is remove the stock, use some easy off oven cleaner, this strips off the old finish and gunk, rinse it with very hot water and use an iron with damp cloth to raise the dents...all the moisture will swell it a little and raise the hairs of the wood grains...this is a good thing.  after raising all the dents you want, leave a few to make it look masculine...what ever, let it dry naturally for a few days then use some tandy's brown shoe die which has a red/brown tone to put the almost official color back in and use a mixture of boiled linseed, beeswax, and turpentine which after prepared makes a paste rub in a coat and using very fine steel wool rub off the sheen and raised grains of wood. use tripple ooo or quad oooo steel wool...keep this up until you have no more hairs, (wood fibers) raised up and then just rub in the mixture of the paste.  this stuff makes a good protector of the wood too....use some polyurethane on the inside of the stock to weather proof if your not bedding it....there is a step by step similar to this on some web page somewhere but i forget where....if you have some splintering you can carefully sand them down...battlerifles.com has some good articles about this and the cmp web page has a forum with related topics sometimes...

I like mine all busted up and old looking, gives it more character. DON'T sand it please!