Restoring sanded stocks?

[Volvo245]

Hello all. Situation I know we have all ran into. Recently, got hold of an early Inland M1 carbine, with the original I cut stock. Someone had in the past lightly sanded the right side of the stock, not the left. Is there any way to roughen up the sanded side, so it does not look sanded! I tried steaming the right side of the stock to raise the grain, and it worked ok. Few coats of linseed oil and it looks ok. Just wondering if someone has a better method of roughening stocks that have been sanded to make them a bit more original looking. Thanks!

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[Gil Boyd]

I would have suggested staining the sanded part using a recognised match to the opposite side, which is easily acquired from any DIY shop but that was before you put anything else on it.
My suggestion for what its worth (as someone who did a french polishing course in my spare time a few years ago, and hasn't that paid for itself 10x over)is to take it back down to a start point, and then layer your stain carefully with a dobbed finger not a brush and rub it in using a circular method.
If possible do the whole lot in one go rather than trying to match as that is a skill and can be a pain!
TIP: progress slowly if authenticity and flawless matching of stain is what you seek.

Once you are happy with the match..........good old linseed to seal it.
Gil

[Volvo245]

I did not go into all of the detail in the first post, but what you said about stain was one of the steps that I did do, with my finger none the less, as you suggested. The light sanding had taken the patina somewhat away, and trying to get it to match the other was difficult. Trying to roughen up the wood is the challenge, and maybe there is not a way. The butt to me still seems too smooth for a GI stock.

[WarPig1976]

Beat it with a chain, slide it across cement, throw rocks at it and in no time at all it'll be good as Old!!...

Just kidding,,, not much you can do to get the pores back...

[Volvo245]

And I guess that is exactly what I am trying to do. Get the pores back. Had some success with steaming the stock, but will probably have to settle with what I was able to do. Much better than it was before though. At least they did not touch the other side!

[Brian Dick]

Remove the metal and clean the woodwork with grocery store grade clear ammonia and a Scotchbrite pad. Rinse with cold water and pat or blow dry with a compressor, then sit it in the sun to thoroughly dry. This will raise the grain a bit and cause small dings and scratches where the grain isn't broken to all but disappear. Then coat with linseed oil and rub out wet with fine steel wool in circular motions. Wipe down, let dry and repeat the linseed treatment until you get it to taste. It will even out the finish nicely without damaging or removing any more wood.

[U44]

Brian, I took your advise and cleaned the stock on recent purchase of a NPM carbine with ammonia and a scotchbrite pad. I first used Murphy oil soap, which took some crud off, but the ammonia process did a better job of cleaning, even the dings cleaned up. In addition to cleaning up the NPM stamp of the right side of the stock, I also found a .U. stamp on the left side. A couple of thin layers of RLP and the stock looks great.

[Gil Boyd]

Warpig,
That sounds like me taking the missus out on a Friday night "Beat it with a chain, slide it across cement, throw rocks at it and in no time at all it'll be good as Old!!..."

[WarPig1976]

Sounds like a cheap date!!....she got a sister??...

[Gil Boyd]