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Posted: 1/20/2008 6:53:22 AM EDT
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hey guys I was just able to secure this garand over on the CMP forums http://www.odcmp.org/new_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=43284 end up costing me 660, i guess thats fair to not have to wait 3 months. How do you guys think I did with that? |
 NM, I followed your link for the pics. Nice garand! 
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| The stock does not look too bad except for the sanding marks. Anything that has been that heavily sanded will not lose any more value if you decide to smooth it out, just do not remove the remains of the stamps. If it were mine I would just leave it alone with the exception of another coat or two of BLO. |
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my K98 stock had to be "cleaned" first. i used a green scotch bright kitchen pad and denatured alcohol to remove the russian shellac, and to clean it up a bit. i read afterwards acetone works a little bit better. after it dryed for a few days, i applied the BLO. do NOT just slap it on there thick with a brush. buy some thick rubber gloves- real rubber gloves and rub it into the stock, a little bit goes along way. i cant emphasize enough on how thin you should put it on there. it will soak into the stock pretty well the first time, then each time after that it wont soak in quite as much. if you leave it on there for too long, youll end up with a sticky gooey mess. that is why you need a clean rag to wipe it off after twenty minutes. once it is on for too long and gets gooey youll need to clean it off with the acetone or denatured alcohol again. rub in thin, even coats.... keep that in mind... |
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I would clean it with acetone or denatured alcohol or even mineral spirits and a scotch brite pad as builttough250 says. What you might try first is take a hair drier or heat gun to heat up the stock first to get some of the old oil/grease out. Once you heat it up you will start seeing drops of oil/grease on the wood, just keep wiping them off. What i've done in the summer is wrap the stock in paper towels, put in a black plastic garbage bag and set it on the dash of my truck for a few hours. You wouldn't believe how much old oil/grease a stock will hold. I've also soaked them in the tub with scalding hot water with dishwashing detegent, the water will turn a tea color with a film of oil on top. Some people even run them through a dishwasher. I use BLO and mineral spirits mixed 50/50. It goes on thinner and won't get get gooey. Also remember when using BLO and rags, put the rags outside when you're done, they have been known to spontaneously combust under the right conditions. |
| I use a 2x2inch piece of cotton cleaning patch to apply BLO when I am doing my stock work. I work it in a bit at a time until the whole stock is covered, then let it sit for 20 minutes. After it has had a chance to soak in a bit I wipe it down with one of the blue shop paper towels to get the excess off and a cotton towel after that to make sure there is no extra left over. One, maybe two coats in a evening. Let it sit and dry for 24 hours and then apply another coat or two. Yours looks to be in good enough shape that a few coats should be all it needs. Once you are done with the BLO set it in a corner somewhere for about a week. BLO takes a while to dry and the heat in your hands is enough to melt it again for a few days. Here in humid Houston, a week of drying does good enough. |
| With the better pics I see just how much sanding was done. There does look to be some very nice tiger-striping under there. I think I will change my mind and say that I would take my hand sander and some fine grit paper to it, being careful around the stamps. No sanding on any of the bearing surfaces of the receiver or trigger housing. That would really bring out the figure in the wood, and IMO increase the value of the rifle over the present rough sanded condition. A little steaming of the dents to raise them before sanding would not hurt either. |
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If you look at both sides of the buttstock you can see there are faint stripes running at about a 45 degree angle. These are what we call tiger striping. Here is one of my K31s with some good tiger striping. A bit too much glare from nighttime photography, but you get the idea.  I think that smoothing out the old sanding marks with fine grade sandpaper will help the wood and it certainly will not hurt it, just do not overdo it. Just enough to remove the old sanding marks, very lightly over the stamps and smooth the wood out. Maybe 200 grit over all the stock except the stamps followed by 400 grit over everything. Steaming the dents can be done a couple of ways. The cheapest is to use a wet towel and a steam iron. I have never used this method personally but a search should yield more info on it if you want to try it that way. I bought a Steamfast Kitchen and Bath Steam Cleaner that is a handheld steamer with a fine nozzle. This allows you to concentrate your steam on a small point to raise the dents. Let it dry for a day before trying anything else. You want to do any steaming before you sand since the steam will raise the fibers on the wood and will need to be sanded lightly to smooth things out afterwards. Once you are done with the steaming and sanding then just apply the BLO as described in my other post. |
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thanks alot, I really appreciate the words of wisdom. Is tiger striping considered to be a good thing in the wood? when I said the wood that will strip whatever is left of the original finish right? will using BLO bring it back to how it looked from the factory? thats the part im confused about, just looking to keep things as correct as possible. Am I correct in assuming that the 400 grit should be used over the stamps and that the 200 grit should be used very lightly on the stamps? |
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Tiger striping in walnut is fairly rare. It enhances the looks of the wood a lot. Normally, the better the wood looks, the more figure or striping it has, makes the rifle more attractive to buyers. So I guess you can say it raises the value of the gun. Whenever I refinish, such as when it has been sanded with coarse grit paper like yours, I will first clean and degrease the stock. I do this by washing it first with Dawn dishwashing liquid followed by Simple Green degreaser and then again with Dawn to flush the Simple Green. Always let a stock that has been washed sit for a minimum of 24 hours to let the moisture evaporate fully. Doing this removes all the old finish as well as any grease and dirt that has built up over the years. Garand stocks were originally dipped in a large vat of hot Linseed Oil to apply the finish. Later in the war they changed to Tung Oil but I like the look of the BLO finish as well as the smell while I am applying it. Either of the two would be a correct finish for your stock. The 400 grit paper is a fine grit, the 200 grit paper is a bit more coarse. Start with the 200 grit and work all over the stock without going over the stamps. When the sanding lines that are showing up in your pics are gone switch to the 400 grit and go over it again, making sure you work lightly on the stamps. Again, never sand on the flats on the top and bottom of the stock where the receiver and trigger housing metal actually touch the wood. You will loosen the fit of the receiver if you do that. |
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ok gotcha so basically only sand the surface wood not the internals areas, makes sense I really appreciate the words of wisdom, I should be picking up the rifle on sunday. I'll fire it that day and then after im done at the range i'll go to work on the stock. it'll give me a nice project to do until i can take it to the range the next weekend |
i pulled the buttplate off my K98 stock, but not the take bolt down dish or the crossbar if the parts are small enough and far enough out of the way so they wont get hit with the sand paper i wouldnt worry about them |
| I would take all the metal off if you are planning on washing the stock like I posted before. Otherwise you could get some moisture left under the metal which would not be good. The front ferrule where the sling swivel attaches can be tapped off with a wooden hammer handle. The screw that tightens it is usually peened so I never loosen them when removing the ferrule. The metal on the front handguards is not as easy to remove as the stock metal. The rear handguard clip needs a tool to spread it for removal. It is easy to break the rear handguard trying to remove the clip without a tool. The front handguard is just a matter of bending the small metal ears enough to slide the liner out. It can be fun the first couple of times you do one getting the ears snug when you reinstall it. |
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hey guys got the rifle in today and she's beautiful decided on not messing with the stock just gonna leave it as is. the front handguard is kinda wobbly, the receiver lockup is super tight and so is everything else, just that front most piece is wobbly, anyone know how to fix that? thanks |
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