Maintaining rifle while Retaining Patina - Please tell.

This rifle I believe has character.
Attachment 25171
As a newcomer to this Enfield stuff, I have always liked to see the woodwork cleaned and re-oiled but as I get hold of a few, I'm changing my mind. I do however want to keep them in the best operational condition so how do I retain that old, used, slightly grubby "patina" whilst keeping the rust and woodworm at bay.
I have already made the buttstock on this one a bit shiny with some raw linseed oil when removing labels.
Should I leave the remains of the red painted letter(s) on the butt, Should I try and remove and stop the rust under the charger bridge from whence it oozes. Should I apply linseed oil to the woodwork or perhaps some sort of antique character retaining furniture polish.
Surely I must at least oil it a bit to stop rust!.
I have a few others that I was going to "clean up" but I'm having second thoughts on those too now. They seem almost to need knocking around a bit more and grubbying up to give them some character.

How do you maintain while retaining character?.

Good on ya mate, having copped a fair bit of flak over this type question, I will sit this one out and watch how it goes.

Of course oiling is a must to prevent rust, but you will get many replies when it comes to wood.

JSS, I guess the best piece of advice I can offer is to tell you to always strive to be a minimalist in any conservation effort. You will meet fellow collectors who'll give you hell for doing something as mundane as oiling the stock. Somehow in their minds this alters the weapon in some form or fashion. Me? I've been dealing with Enfields since the 1960's and have definite opinions on this subject. First off, no sin in oiling the stocks. Rub the Boiled Linseed Oil into the stock with the palm of the hand--rub hard enough to generate a bit of friction heat. About as much oil as will be on the tips of your fingers is ample to do the entire stock assembly fore and aft. Don't worry overmuch about getting a thin coat of BLO on the metal parts--that's what happened in service and was a fairly effective water proofing when in the field. Prop the rifle up in the corner and let the BLO dry. When you reach a point where the oil is just gumming on the surface, take a piece of coarse wash cloth and briskly rub down the stock. Voila! You're finis!! Gradually you'll build up a fine patina finish just like the rifle had in service. It'll take awhile to accomplish but it is worth the effort. No, the stocks won't be shiny like a new penny but it'll look correct and as it appeared in service, kinda a low gloss look. Oh yes, don't try to expedite things by applying spar varnish, TruOil or anything else to the stock furniture.

Most of these rifles are removed from long storage covered in some variant of cosmolene. The first thing the importer does before marketing the weapon is remove the majority of this grease. Sometimes they dip the whole rifle into a cleaning solution to remove the worst of the grease, without the luxury of disassembly. What does this do?!!! It quite effectively removes all of the built up oil from the stocks and leaves them quite dry--dangerously so as a matter of fact. Trust me, this would not have been an acceptable appearance during the rifle's period of use. So oil those stocks up and damn the consequences!

Remember, the only parts of a SMLE which was allowed to be removed by the private soldier in service was the bolt assembly and the magazine. That's a historical fact. Nothing else was allowed to be removed. Soldiers were not issued a screwdriver in their kit. Hence all the riveted trigger guard screws, safety springs, etc. you see out there on extant examples. So as far as Royal Ordnance was concerned there was no good to be accomplished by letting the private soldier run amok with his screwdriver disassembling his rifle for cleaning in a water logged trench at Ypres and take the risk of him losing the parts accidentally in the mud. A logical Colonel Blimp mindset to be sure.

As for the rust around the charger guide you mention, I'd recommend some good machine oil and either #0000 steel wool or bronze wool to clean up the rust. If you're careful, you'll do as good a job as any soldier in the field trying to avoid getting gigged at inspection by his sergeant for a rusty rifle! Just take it long and slow and keep it well oiled as you go to looosen the surface rust for removal. Sometimes a razor blade can be effectively utilized to remove some of the oil softened rust.

I'd tend to advise you to leave the red paint you mention completely alone. You can be certain it has already discolored the wood immediately below the paint so there is little gain in trying to pretty it up.

Hope that helps you a bit. You are welcome to PM me if you need further clarification on the matter.

With old rifles where I do not want to clean without removing the wood patina, I use a high-quality spray-on beeswax furniture polish - in UK where you are, there are many brands marketed for antique furniture. I apply it fairly liberally and polish off with something absorbent like a bit of old towel: the solvent in the spray does a good job of lifting off surface crud and grime, and the wax polish helps ensure that the wood retains its patina gloss.

The rifle will probably survive at least another hundred years without being stripped down, but a careful dismantling would allow you to clean the metalwork and any mud and dirt which is inside the barrel channel.