Gorgeous. What did you use to strip the old coating? Solvent? Turp?
Looks like i should pull the stain out of that minelli, eh?
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Gorgeous. What did you use to strip the old coating? Solvent? Turp?
Looks like i should pull the stain out of that minelli, eh?
I used acetone to get most of all the grease out so it wouldn't clog my sandpaper , then 80 grit paper to get the rest. Those new cheap replacement stocks (Minelli's included) are usually very fat and so plenty of wood to work with. This one had an extra 1/8" on either side of the handgaurd. I used files to get the sides and shape nice and flush after the first rough sanding, then I sanded with 100 and finally 150grit (by hand). Makes it nice and smooth, but still leaves enough to feel the wood under the finish, like an original. If I'm restoring a stock and trying to preserve the 80+ year old color, I use lacquer thinner followed by raw linseed or my red oil, depending on what the color was like. It works slower than acetone. If not careful, acetone will take everything away in a blink of an eye.Quote:
Originally Posted by jesse_
FYI, the stain on those minelli stocks is really just a light spray tan. It is only there to hide the variation in the cheap walnut. It comes off with a very, very light sanding. You could get it off completely just scuffing with 150+. I have done several of the minelli 1903 stocks. One of them had beautiful figured heartwood on one side, with red and purple swirls on the butt, and the other side was light sapwood.
jesse_ and I have been chatting about stocks/manufacturer/color on PM, and since my thread photos are no more, here are some pics.
2 Minelli stocks. I had threads with lots of pics that followed rescuing them from sporters. They are both finished with just plain organic raw linseed oil from the health food aisle of the grocery store, and lot's of time hanging in the back of the shop. That stuff is pretty good on oatmeal too, even better mixed with molasses, but that kind of defeats the health centric purpose. Oh well. The point is, there is a lot of variation in the type of walnut you get under their spray tan.
Attachment 123504
Here is the other side, and underside of the M1903 above...the wood was 2-faced! Kids call it Tommy-Lee after his role in one of the Batman movies.
Attachment 123507Attachment 123508
Notice the hand guard is 2-faced as well? That took some playing with. I got lucky one of 3 NOS hand guards I had a little knot on the left side, and produced a pretty good match :)
Here is an update on the CMP stock I started above over the weekend...another coat of home-made red oil applied this afternoon, and wiped down a couple hours later.
Attachment 123505
And here is a NOS Keystone Scant. Keystone and some of the other contractors stained them dark reddish-brown. Judging from the depth of the stain when I took it off, it was water or alcohol based. Oil based stains don't ever penetrate as deep as these were. Would have looked great just oiling it, but it had a severe blemish on the butt that needed sanded out. I finished it with just my home-made red alkanet oil. No initial alkanet/turp or alkanet/alcohol stain like I'm doing now.
Attachment 123506
I'm not claiming any of my work is perfect or authentic. Fact is I generally care more about how it feels in my hand then how it looks in the end. To get an authentic feel, don't sand above 150 grit (sandpaper manufacturers vary, 100-150, by hand is a good stopping point depending on the paper. Cheap garnet paper from harbor freight, 100 is perfect. High quality cloth backed paper, I go to 150). For looks, I wipe down my raw wood with plain turpentine or mineral spirits in order to judge the variation in grain and quality of the wood, then plan a course of action based what this wipe down looks like wet, e.g. whether to stain first, red-oil applications etc.
During WW2 the government never used anything but raw linseed oil. A gloss reflecting stock was not considered to be of much value other then to get someone killed. There was NO Tung oil used on US stocks. One has to consider that the Tung oil was controlled by the Japanese so was a bit hard to import. The US stocks were dipped into a vat of warmed Linseed oil. Once soaked enough they were removed, dripped dried and then wiped down and made ready for assembly on a M1 Garand or US 30 carbine. Flat finish so no light was reflected by the stock.
I'm just going over what I read in the Canfield book. Page 125.
Apparently the first Tung trees were cultivated for oil in the US in 1927. FOR351/FR420: Tung Oil Production in Florida
1000 tons in 1939 and 152 million pounds of oil in 1952.
Attachment 123637
As a side-note, I found some info on when Springfield stopped using logwood stain.
Also found in "The Model 1903 Springfield Rifle and its Variations" pg 26.
Never say never unless you have seen them all :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce McAskill
At least for '03s, some of the contractors who made replacement stocks stained theirs, but did not oil. I imagine it was the same for Gov. contracted replacement M1 stocks. I think I've seen pics somewhere of NOS M1 carbine stocks that were stained by the manufacturer. Don't hold me to it though...google won't tell me yet where I saw it.Quote:
Originally Posted by bob seijas
Yes, it seems to be all over the lot, from yellow swamp wood WRAs to dark walnut. I recall seeing a document that showed the desired color on a sample stock and had directions on stain if one did not match it. Of course I can't find it now :(
There is a book on the history of stocking the M1 carbine by Overton.
They paid attention to color and would use air-brushes on portions of sapwood or other inconstant portions to get the color correct.
They also did quite a bit of filling. They also had fixtures and tooling to take scrapped stocks from other manufacturers and rework them.
I'll see if I can post later this week.
They also made Garand stocks starting in 1952. All the way through and along with M14 stocks into the 60s.
According to the book the Pratt-Lambert company supplied Tung oil for M14 stock production.