M1 Stock refinishing question

[JKL]

I have "cleaned" (not stripped) my Garand stock with lacquer thinner and have applied about 5 coats of BLO over the past several days. Since the last coat of BLO I have put three or four coats of wax (Howard "Feed and Wax") on the stock--and now I am beginning to think I should have done more coats of BLO to get the look I really want. My question to the experts is simply this--can I apply BLO over the wax onto the stock as it is now, or do I have to back to the beginning and take off the wax with Lacquer thinner and basically start from scratch? Will the new BLO coats penetrate the wax I have applied? Thanks for your input....JKL

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[phillyriverrat57]

best to try and remove the wax with a solvent . lighter fluid works well, then test an area to see if the BLO will take. I have redone several M1 garand stocks, i always strip them, steam out most of the dents then use Toung oil on them. i use brass wool OOOO after each coat, and it works great. uaualay acheaves the WW2 look in only 3 coats.

[Johnny Peppers]

Before you strip the stock use some BLO cut 50/50 with turpentine (the real stuff). Coat the stock heavily with the 50/50 mix and let it set about 30 minutes and then scrub the stock down good with old toweling. Remove all you can and then smooth the stock out. See if this removes the wax without stripping the stock.

[JBS]

I would say remove what you have done and start again if you can get it off. Get your BLO from an artist supply store as it will be real boiled linseed oil and not the junk sold in the box stores that is full of junk you don’t want in your stock.

[JKL]

Seeing that the BLO I used originally was just regular stuff I picked up from Ace hardware, perhaps my best bet would be to try to remove all that I have done and start from scratch using the "real" BLO which I can hopefully find at a local artist supply store. If I'm going to do this I might as well do it right, and I've already learned the pitfalls of trying to go too fast. Thanks for the advice....JKL

[Johnny Peppers]

It's not the cost of what you are applying to the stock, but the method in which it is applied. Since you can't immerse your stock in a tank of heated linseed oil, you can only try to replicate the military finish as best as you can. Boiled linseed oil dries faster for your application, and if you don't intend to use what is left to paint the Mona Lisa, hardware store grade will work fine.

[DaveN]

On this site some where it was suggested to use raw (RLO) and that flax oil or flax seed oil as I can't find the bottle in the fridge, was the same thing. I got it in the health food aisle and though the set up took longer it worked fine. I also use BLO and turp with great results, and I like the smell the turpentine adds. I have also used a aprox. 20% turp 80% BLO mix with nice result.

[Jumong]

Phillyriverrat is correct in using Tung Oil. That is what was used by the Armory when building the rifles. The stocks were dunked in tanks and left hanging to dry.
linseed oil was used by Army and Marine units who had it or procured it for polishing stocks, but it wasn't the original finish. The US Govt even planted Tung in the Southern US to ensure a supply if overseas supplies were blocked. Hatcher discussed this in his book.

[gew8805]

Phillyriverrat is correct in using Tung Oil. That is what was used by the Armory when building the rifles. The stocks were dunked in tanks and left hanging to dry.
linseed oil was used by Army and Marine units who had it or procured it for polishing stocks, but it wasn't the original finish. The US Govt even planted Tung in the Southern US to ensure a supply if overseas supplies were blocked. Hatcher discussed this in his book.

The above applies only to the M1 Garand. In US production, tung oil was used on wooden stocks during and after WW2. Before that during the US production, hot linseed oil was used for the 150 year period starting ca. 1792 through the early 1940s.

If applied properly, standard hardware store linseed oil can be used with good results but the stand oil sold in artist supply stores is more like the linseed oil used before the 1930s.

[Johnny Peppers]

This is a Model 1903 Springfield sold through the NRA/DCM in 1916. The stock finish is still almost perfect, and as you can see the grain was not filled on the military stocks. Less can be more on military stocks.