Long Branch No.4 Mk1 wood/finish

Curious if a BLO regimen will darken a handguard on its own or if I will need do do something else. I have a 1942 L.B. that I aquired in excellent condition for an early rifle. However, it had English handguards although everything else is LB stamped (except forend was replaced at some point with a Canadian Arsenals unit, serial matched; likely by a unit armorer)
I found a LB rear handguard that is a perfect match both grain and finish/color, but the only good front handguard I could find is a couple/few shades too light unfortunately.
Thanks in advance!

Issue rifles in Canadian service did not necessarily have matching coloured wood. Not unusual to see rifles with a mix of walnut and birch furniture, let alone different shades of the same species. If you want this handguard to match, you could experiment with stains. But that isn't something that would have been done when the rifle was in service.

Boiled linseed oil is more like varnish with chemical driers. Get some raw linseed oil that will oxidize with age and color the wood a bit in the process. A reasonable color match was all that was required. I've seen rifles with three different types of wood installed so it's difficult to get them all colored perfectly unless you clean and stain all of the pieces to match which is cosmetically nice but not original.

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Originally Posted by Brian Dick

Get some raw linseed oil that will oxidize with age and color the wood a bit in the process.

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The original instructions :

Thank you hugely for the replies! Raw linseed oil it is!

I am restoring a long Branch No4 Mk1* and used raw linseed oil on the repro forend and handguards. I bought a butt used that pretty closely matches so I'm a fan of RLO.

This is the right time of the year to finish wood in the South. I get three times the work done in half the time using good old Mother Nature.

I think I'm repeating myself again but here goes. The British and Commonwealth Armourer's workshops had a powder they added to the warmed tanks of raw linseed oil to color it a bit. No one really knows the exact composition of the powder but I'm guessing it's ground alkanet root. A good friend and mentor in Winchester, NH gave me some pieces he acquired in the UK many years ago as it's a staple in the high-grade British gun making community. I have a pint jar of RLO I work from that I top off frequently from a gallon can. I put the roots in the pint jar and sure as God made little green apples, the RLO turns red. If you use this "red" RLO, it'll oxidize into the brilliant reddish tinted finish we've seen and love without buying fancy and expensive spirit-based stains. It just takes time for the finish to oxidize. I used to have Chestnut Ridge military stock stain but I've run out and the company unfortunately went out of business during the Covid nonsense.

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Originally Posted by Brian Dick

This is the right time of the year to finish wood in the South. I get three times the work done in half the time using good old Mother Nature.

I think I'm repeating myself again but here goes. The British and Commonwealth Armourer's workshops had a powder they added to the warmed tanks of raw linseed oil to color it a bit. No one really knows the exact composition of the powder but I'm guessing it's ground alkanet root. A good friend and mentor in Winchester, NH gave me some pieces he acquired in the UK many years ago as it's a staple in the high-grade British gun making community. I have a pint jar of RLO I work from that I top off frequently from a gallon can. I put the roots in the pint jar and sure as God made little green apples, the RLO turns red. If you use this "red" RLO, it'll oxidize into the brilliant reddish tinted finish we've seen and love without buying fancy and expensive spirit-based stains. It just takes time for the finish to oxidize. I used to have Chestnut Ridge military stock stain but I've run out and the company unfortunately went out of business during the Covid nonsense.

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It's Liberon spirit based stain for me on NOS wood Brian, that an BLO treatments until it stops going in.

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

It's Liberon spirit based stain for me on NOS wood Brian, that an BLO treatments until it stops going in.

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BLO is better than 'suck' but RLO is the correct stuff to use ! :

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Originally Posted by Alan de Enfield

BLO is better than 'suck' but RLO is the correct stuff to use ! :

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:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

First real good belly laugh of the day Alan!!

My typo, I meant to say RLO!

My system after wood prep and colour, is a few coats of warmed and Terps 50/50 thinned RLO, that really gives the initial penetration and depth of finish into the wood and sets it up for the following neat coats of oil ... Then keep on trucking until it stops going in....

Two of mine using this system, my A4 build I fitted NOS Keystone stock to and my Maltby No4 build, also fitted with new NOS woodwork.

Attachment 125993Attachment 125994

I like both of your rifles Mr. Clark. I have two 1903A4 snipers. One with a Lyman like yours except an M82. The other with a Weaver M73B1. The Lyman is so much better that I seldom shoot the one with the Weaver which still has it's NRA sale tag from the 1950's or 60's. I always considered the Weaver a .22 riflescope to be honest. Your Maltby also looks great. a small critique is that you need to refit your front handguard so it doesn't contact the front sight base. As far as the spirit based stains. They are available over here from Brownells but very expensive. A small 4 ounce bottle running about $30. I was buying Chestnut Ridge for $28 in a 16 ounce bottle! I recently restored a 1943 No.4Mk.1T and used Minwax dark walnut oil based stain on the new reproduction cheek rest. It seemed to do OK and blended well with the S/A marked nos beech. The rifle had been sporterized and still retained the original buttstock so I traded out the customer supplied beech rear handguard for a grooved British walnut one. It looks as it should but there is a bit of contrast in the wood color. Managed a 2" group at 100 yards during the range test a couple of days ago with a perfect bracket from DRP and Mk.1 scope supplied by the customer. I had a couple of rounds touching so the rifle is probably capable of MOA at 100 yards. I just can't hold them anymore with my arthritic shoulders, arms and hands! Keep up the good work.

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Originally Posted by Brian Dick

I like both of your rifles Mr. Clark. I have two 1903A4 snipers. One with a Lyman like yours except an M82. The other with a Weaver M73B1. The Lyman is so much better that I seldom shoot the one with the Weaver which still has it's NRA sale tag from the 1950's or 60's. I always considered the Weaver a .22 riflescope to be honest. Your Maltby also looks great. a small critique is that you need to refit your front handguard so it doesn't contact the front sight base. As far as the spirit based stains. They are available over here from Brownells but very expensive. A small 4 ounce bottle running about $30. I was buying Chestnut Ridge for $28 in a 16 ounce bottle! I recently restored a 1943 No.4Mk.1T and used Minwax dark walnut oil based stain on the new reproduction cheek rest. It seemed to do OK and blended well with the S/A marked nos beech. The rifle had been sporterized and still retained the original buttstock so I traded out the customer supplied beech rear handguard for a grooved British walnut one. It looks as it should but there is a bit of contrast in the wood color. Managed a 2" group at 100 yards during the range test a couple of days ago with a perfect bracket from DRP and Mk.1 scope supplied by the customer. I had a couple of rounds touching so the rifle is probably capable of MOA at 100 yards. I just can't hold them anymore with my arthritic shoulders, arms and hands! Keep up the good work.

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Hi Brian, thanks for your kind words. I have to be honest and say my A4 build is possibly my favourite rifle to shoot, I just wish it wasn't so expensive to feed!

The A4 Alaskan combo works well and (non milsurp collectors) people are always surprised by the quality of the optics after they stop mocking the tiny scope!

Re the Maltby, the picture doesn't show it, but there was adequate clearance re forend/ sight base ... That said, I had to replace this forend anyway as it developed a lateral split through the forend muzzle rest and running up the dead centre.

When I checked it after stripping you could see there was a knot just 'offset' the rest, the split started there and with No4 muzzle tapping followed a natural fault line in the grain....

Hey, it's wartime production, so hay ho...

It was simpler to replace it that attempt a repair, as it would have inevitably failed again at that point..

A few years back No4 woodwork was still plentiful and relatively cheap here in the UK too.

---------- Post added at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:44 PM ----------

I forgot to say, I've actually used Liberon Dark Oak before on well used darker rifle Walnut, to great effect, it's actually a better Walnut match than the same companies Dark Walnut!