lookin for a swedish mauser

[Patrick Chadwick]

Guts, it is always difficult to tell from a photo, but that looks like a good walnut stock that is quite simply grubby. Now I am going to repeat myself here (but maybe you haven't heard this before) and write:

Do not do anything with it that is irreversible! Don't even think about sandpaper.
Just wipe over the stock with a rag moistened with natural turpentine. NOT turpentine substitute, NOT paint thinners. NOT water, caustic soda, oven cleaner or anything else.

Just plain, pure, natural terpentine.

I apologise for shouting, but I have to make sure that the message carries that far!

The turpentine will show up the underlying grain and figuring of the wood, at least for a while. Then you will know what you've got. Take a look at the thread on the Argentine Rolling Block on the Restorer's Corner forum, where you can see the transformation of what originally looked like a very poor stock indeed.