The stock is clearly been sanded . But since that is not what you want to hear , yes it is a special one of a kind .
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The stock is clearly been sanded . But since that is not what you want to hear , yes it is a special one of a kind .
Wow, that is a dramatic color shift. I didn't realize most if not all the red color was in the finish. Good to know. Now you are in for a real adventure if you hope to restore the correct color. I've heard they do make the stuff and if you search for it here you may find out how. Some guys have created an alternative finish they like. Or you can just leave it alone. It doesn't affect the shooting.
I don't know about restoring it at the moment. It's apart of the rifle's history, I might change my mind a few years down the road who knows!
---------- Post added at 04:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:46 PM ----------
Okay? A little quick to jump to conclusions there. But I'm new here, so I'm not quite a regular yet. I was just interested in reading any information that I might not have known.
The Japanese wood was very light in color . They wanted their stocks to look like European stocks , so they put on a dark stain , then sealed them with a clear [ urushi ] . If you sand off the clear and some of the stain the stock will get lighter , right down to almost white if you sand it all off . Later war stocks were still done the same way , they just did not wait for the stain to soak in and dry . They sealed it while it was still wet .