Nagant 91/30

[douglass]

Hi all
the shellac is chipped, etc etc on the wood work, heard a few people mention sanding down and a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil, wouldnt mind seeing a cople of photos of the guns after this has been done.as i would think it would be clear unless there were differing colour stains??
looking for adive on any sizes of wire wool, sand paper etc,
being a complete novice everything would have to be in laymans terms.
any info greatly appreciated
my other nagant has been painted with a red varnish by the previous owner and the varnish seems quite bobbly/rough how could i smooth it without removing too much varnish/paint
regards
douglas

Information

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[Aragorn243]

Douglass,

First you said a very bad word, sanding. That being said, it is your rifle and if you are going for looks, you can do what you want with it. These rifles are dirt cheap in the US right now and in that they are already refinished by the arsenals, I don't see any serious collector value in them anytime soon. Could be wrong of course.

I have stripped the shellac off of three of them. I have then tried to get the cosmoline out of them with some success but the end result is still a very ugly stock. I've experimented on one of them with sanding, bleaching, stain removal chemicals of various types, detergents, etc and still wound up with a very ugly stock. I have decided that cleaning them beyond getting the oil out is probably a waste of time. Still, they don't look bad, I've coated them with BLO and while I don't have many coats on them yet, they don't look terrible anymore.

I actually bought another one today from Dunham's. A 1928 hex Ishevisk with all matching numbers and brass hand guard metal for $79. Hard to beat that price these days. I'm first going to see if I can get the grease off of it without messing up the shellac and then try to touch up the shellac by dissolving it and spreading it around. Never attempted that before so it will be a learning experience.

My reference books says the original finish is a military oil finish and the shellac was added during the refurbishment process.

[Cruisey]

Hi Douglass,

As Aragon has already said, rule 1 - No Sanding !

The red varnish you mention is shellac & can be smoothed out by using a cotton pad & denatured alcohol, (methylated spirit), wipe it gently onto the stock & it will melt and smooth the finish, dont rub one spot continually as you will remove the finish, make one or two passes over one area then move to another, go back once it has dried & hardened again.

Once done you can touch up with shellac if you like, I prefer the "lived in" look, but you may not.

Good luck,
Cruisey

[onlycrimson]

Personally I hate the shellac look so I always strip it all off. Usually a commercial finish remover works quite well, sometimes multiple applications are needed. After I strip it I let it "dry" out for a day. Then I steam it with an Iron and wet cloth so that all the nicks will be raised and the overall grain raised. Let the stock dry overnight. Then I might sand a very small amount to smooth the rough wood out. After this you can apply a new finish of whatever you choose.

[Aragorn243]

I located some denatured alcohol and tried smoothing it with a cotton swab and had no success. It didn't dissolve it but instead turned it white after it dried. Fortunately, this white rubbed off without difficulty but now I'm back to square one. Still have a rough looking stock.

Perhaps I need pure ethanol for this?

I would assume it is shellac, it's a Russian refurb.

[Patrick Chadwick]

I located some denatured alcohol and tried smoothing it with a cotton swab and had no success. It didn't dissolve it but instead turned it white after it dried.

The Russians did not use pure shellac, but a mix of shellac and wax of some sort. The whiteness is the reaction of the spirits with the whatever-it-was waxy substance. You need, alas, something a bit tougher - acetone, maybe. But try the gel-type paint stripper first.

[Aragorn243]

I tried acetone on it. It basically just removed it. Couldn't spread it around at all.

[Cruisey]

No ! Acetone is way too strong for what you were wanting to do, good for stripping quickly, but not for blending.........denatured alcohol is milder & patience is the key.

Google "french polishing techiniques", you will pick up a lot of good information on how to work with shellac

Cheers, cruisey

[louthepou]

I used a fe times good quality shellac (flakes that I mix myself with its solvent when I need it) to give Mosin Nagant rifles some needed care. I still consider this "maintenance" because: If the original shellac is gone in some spots, then the wood is vulnerable. So recoating with new shellac (right on top of the old one, cleaned though) is actually quite a simple operation and yields good results in my experience,

Lou

[Angrypirate]

Just for reference since the original poster asked for photos, here is my m91/30 that had the shellac removed with methylated spirits, then refinished with raw linseed oil, since it was what I had on hand.

I know, I know, its not really original, but I bought this rifle is for shooting, and I find that my hands slip all over the place on shellac, especially in summer. Theres no point in me owning the rifle at all if I don't enjoy having and using it, and the shellac was getting in the way of that.

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