M1 stock finish oil

[Brian Dick]

Heated tanks of raw linseed oil. Just like the British workshops used for military wood. Dunk them and let them drip dry. The Armorers who were most skilled at woodworking could tell just how long to let them soak in the tank by the condition of the wood. Skills long lost unfortunately.

[mac1911]

Now just for hahaha .....is your stock worth anything.
Before you go trying to make it look all pretty it may be better to sell it and buy a new stock from CMP,dupage,cmp,DGR,wenig or such.
I recently finished a late 50s HRA I found at yard sale to go on my CMP HRA service grade that came with new wood.
I cleaned with dish soapy water, gave it a wipe with lacquer thinner and then 3 applications of 100% tung oil. I have just found 100% tung oil the easiest to use for me. For the new production wood I have used min wax tung oil finish. I have also used linspeed , Tru Oil, Danish oil and boiled linseed. All work well and if you follow directions all work well. I prefer any "treatment" that looks like it's in the wood vs the on top of the wood finishes like poly and shellac.
The cmp article is a good and will get you going.
For most of my other usgi stocks I use the basic oil and cheese cloth clean up and end it.

HRA stock refresh - Album on Imgur

[browningautorifle]

I cleaned with dish soapy water, gave it a wipe with lacquer thinner and then 3 applications of 100% tung oil. I have just found 100% tung oil the easiest to use for me.

No wonder I came up with Tung oil in the beginning...

[mac1911]

No wonder I came up with Tung oil in the beginning...

IIRC in my 1965 war department over haul manual of the 30cal M1 I think it list both tung and linseed oil.
One of the oldest club members who worked at SA said for the most part the armory's used what ever was available. Tung oil became difficult to get during war time so they used what they could get. He also mentioned tung oil was used in other products and materials for the war effort.?
Advantage/disadvantage to linseed is it darkens with age.

[mac1911]

I added a few pitctures to my recent M1 stock freshen up. late production HRA
Theres a few pictures of the new CMP wood stock it is replacing in there with min wax tung oil finish

View post on imgur.com

---------- Post added at 08:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 AM ----------

[Bob Seijas]

Nice.

[browningautorifle]

my recent M1 stock freshen up

Yes, very nice.