wartime Russian wood finish

[mike radford]

Seems to be the issue with the soviets - we can never find historic documents detailing what was used

by oil finish you guys mean linseed right? it would explain the variation in colour seen in the two rifles in my first post - linseed darkens with age and holds onto dirt and crap. the front rifle looks very minty. Reminds me of a number of pictures of German troops carrying mausers (which were typicaly treated with linseed) of different shades in the same photograph.

perhaps the wartime finish is the dark spots one sees on your typical refurb - looks almost as though the Russians did a **** job removing the original finish then slapped some crap over it.... another sign of this is that the dark spots are most present in the low spots - like the finger groves on the forearm....anybody have any idea what the dark spots could be from? https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...la_SVT40-1.jpg
again stealing pics from wikipedia :P

anybody got any photos from russian museums? I'm sure they dont have refurbs in their collections

I have been in a bunch of Russian Museums. The Soviets refinish pretty much everything, including most of their museum pieces. They want them to be pretty and impressive. My pictures are on a dead computer about 3 or 4 back from this one, 2002,2004,2006 trips of 16-21 days. Most of the pictures are not so good since almost everything is behind glass or plexi.

This subject was beat to death on gunboards. The evidence that an oil based finish was standard until post war and Shellac was the norm upon refurbishment, even on guns that need next to nothing. A few of the PUs imported are largely original, matching original numbers, except maybe a scope change but almost all got a coat of shellac. The shellac is often on lots of the metal too.

[Flying10uk]

Could the post war soviet decision to apply Shellac to their rifle stocks, during post war refurbishment, have something to do with it being thought at the time that it may help to preserve the wood while in long term storage??? Some of these storage sites were allegedly Salt mines in the Ukraine?

[mike radford]

Yes, preservation for possible future use was definitely a goal. They had countries in mind that would help spread Communism, not to mention issue to the masses if Nato marched into East Germany and beyond. Many went to Viet Nam, not to mention many others. K98ks that are typical Russian Captured, mixed numbers, numbered stock on right, Shellac are well known and quite a few have capture papers, not to mention period pictures of most anything Russian, Chinese, Check, Hungarian(especially the M52 Hungarian PU was apparently more widely used than Soviet ones, probably another attempt to conceal origins).

Watch the first few minutes of the movie "The Green Berets" with John Wayne. They got quite a few things right in that movie regardless of what the critics said. The critics were like David J., anti-Nam war and biased. The movie will mention some of the weapons and ammo, plus their origins

[Schnitzelmahn]

so I picked up that refurb 1941 tula svt, and can't tell if the finish on the stock is original or redone or both....



more images 1941 tula Svt 40 arsenal refurb - Album on Imgur

[Flying10uk]

Could you post some pictures of the metalwork markings, please. It is likely that the receiver will have some sort of refurb marking/s and the stock may too.

[mdarnell19]

Yes the stock has been refinished. It is not the factory original finish. But I can't tell from the 1 picture if it is a refurbished finish or done post war by a individual. Please post more pictures.

[Schnitzelmahn]

its arsenal refurb, no doubt. the receiver is 1941 tula with force matched parts from rifles of different factories (for example, my muzzle break has a podolsk mark) . refurb stamp appears to be 7th grau arsenal (square)

curious what the finish is - perhaps half assed refinish or something else? stock could be from a arsenal other than tula.....

for more pics, check the imgur link, there are pics of both sides of the stock should give some better idea where it was originally made

[Flying10uk]

Can you see any square or rectangular boxes with a diagonal line through them markings on the woodwork and/or the metalwork? You often seem to see these markings on post war soviet reworks and if my understanding is correct it is a refurbishment marking.

[Schnitzelmahn]

yes, plenty of square markings on all parts. they do not have a line through it but the square is the symbol for the 7th GRAU arsenal

this image should tell us what factory the stock was originally made in.... what is the mark in the rectangle near the toe of the stock? there is a similar mark on the front sight post that is polodsk marked...

[mdarnell19]

It looks like your stock was a Podolsk stock before it was sanded and used for refurb. It looks like the BC in a square that is found on original Podolsk rifles. Can you confirm it is a BC in the square with is actually vs. Here is what a original looks like.

Attachment 74895