I was fortunate to recently obtain a Hakim with a Swedish bayonet. I believe it has matching numbers (they are in Arabic and per my son, who does read Arabic, they are all matching). The rifle had a red colored varnish finish that was heavily marked, gouged and scarred. My initial research revealed that this red varnish was not the original stock finish and had been added by the Egyptian military when the rifles were taken out of service. The original finish was oil based and actually enhanced the wood grain. I therefore decided to strip off the red varnish and take the rife back to its original condition.
Dismantling and reassembling this rifle was definitely a challenge due to the small retaining wires used with the receiver screws. The stock was stripped with Citristrip followed by a mineral spirits wipe down. I boned the wood using a paint brush handle. No sanding was done. The metal parts were cleaned and there was still some cosmoline found in the deeper recesses. Once the parts were cleaned, they were soaked in CLP. The metal parts were then oiled and reassembled.
The wood was allowed to fully dry and then RLO was hand rubbed into the wood (about 15 applications so far). The original scarring and gouging in the red varnish disappeared and the original wood was actually in very good condition. The rifle functions perfectly and is definitely fun to shoot.
Before pictures:
