Please look at these Hand guard markings

[painter777]

These did all come down from Western Canada, a surplus buy back in the 60's. Original owner owned property up there and snuck so many at a time back home over the border buried in the back of his station wagon. He then pulled ALL the wood off and traveled the big Western US gun shows selling just the metal. This is a fact. Many had Korean rack numbers painted on them. I know some of you will remember this. I came across these years ago thru a friend who stumbled upon this guys stash, who was my friends' Fathers neighbor. All the wood (Stocks, Stock metal and HG's were piled in a small garage and had spilled out under a rickity carport roof. Many had been beat up by the weather, getting rained and snowed on. Sides that were up had been sun bleached, sides that were down has taken on a blackish look from the moisture getting to them and not having a chance to dry.
My friend found that the original owner had been burning these in a small wood burner in his small shop. He saved what he could and after hearing about it, I helped supply $$ to help recover anything salvagable. At first he would send sets to me to repair and re-finish. Then I'd auction them off and split the income. Later I bought the remaining carbine stocks from him and later when offered, I bought the rest of the HG's. I don't want to say just how many stocks and HG's I've bought over the years, but there were many. Many of the stocks were heavily weathered from being caught outside.
Remember when I was repairing the stocks and selling them, many/most of these came from those buys. Some could be saved... others became 'Donor Patch Wood'.
To give you an idea of the condition of some...... Does anyone remember 'Frankenstock'? Here's a picture to refresh your memory...

Frankenstock..



Many were saved and many more will be. Here's a few pictures of some that were passed along after being stripped and re-finished..






Some that came with painted on rack numbers were re-finished to find great stocks. 1 had a Korean tag attached that explained what it's storage bins location was. Here are a couple examples of some jewels found under rack paint....



Tag was on this stock, a Inland Type III long barrel channel....


This was one of my best after re-finish finds, A RMC Type I with no Rebuild stamps in great condition. The factory applied putty over the knot hole was breaking down and did not survive the strip....





Now back to the 4 Rivet Handguards...
I have one of my very limited thoughts......
Pay close attention to this one in the Ebay link. Zoom in on the first picture and look at the metal retaining tab and look closely above the cut away edge.
Can you see fresher wood? Towards the left side?
Here's the link again...
USGI M1 M2 Carbine Hand Guard Stamped Q-RMC Quality Hardware 4 Rivets | eBay

What's that ?
"Dinner is ready........ Your favorite... Martha White Bisquits and gravy"
Be right there !!

Later,
Charlie-painter777