Japanese Type I

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

I t sure seems to have the nice red color. My 2 cents I would not touch the finish. Very nice piece as is.

[Aragorn243]

I like the finish, I just don't know if Bubba did it or not. If Bubba did it, I'd rather have the correct finish on it. If the Japanese military did it, I'm fine with it. It does look nice.

[grumpy638]

I'm the cotton swab guy me and my friend lanyard Lew set up at the shows will be at fernwood this weekend

[riceone]

At one time I had three and all were different colors. On one the but stock was one inch shorter. If thats poly on the stock it will be hard to remove without taking of the finish under it also. roy

[Aragorn243]

I'm the cotton swab guy me and my friend lanyard Lew set up at the shows will be at fernwood this weekend

I don't expect I'll be at any shows for a while. I don't go to many and I'm out of gun money right now. I usually hit Harrisburg. Just made my first trips to Gettysburg, Fair Oaks and Reading. I've been to Lebanon before and did like that one but I don't know if I'll head up in a few weeks or not. I don't want to upset the wife too much. She's been pretty patient with me so far. I need to save for a Garand.

---------- Post added at 06:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:37 PM ----------

At one time I had three and all were different colors. On one the but stock was one inch shorter. If thats poly on the stock it will be hard to remove without taking of the finish under it also. roy

It isn't poly, that much I can tell. It's also very old, been on there a long time as you can tell where the wood shrank along the butt joint, the finish at one time met. It's like matching sides of a puzzle piece and the gap wasn't wide when it was applied, probably wasn't a gap in all sections by appearances..

I opened it up today. It is marked FAT on the barrel so it's a Terni assembled rifle, an early "B" series so about the 11,000's produced if the numbering holds true which no one seems to know. Was some minor pitting on the base of the receiver so it's seen some use. Interior of the stock is unfinished best I can tell, doesn't look as if it had been dipped in oil. Found one small "S" on the receiver tang and the two PB's I mentioned on the bolt. Cleaned the dust out of the barrel end and that's all that was in there. Bore very clean otherwise. Two patches and it was clean.

[Aragorn243]

I was cleaning the rifle a bit last evening and discovered the butt joint was loose and it slid right off. Having never seen this before I figured maybe you guys hadn't either so for those less daring perhaps, this is what the butt joints look like on at least the Italian stock, I would expect the Japanese stocks to be very similar.

[andiarisaka]

Under that finish, as you've likely seen, is an orange hued wood that closely matches the "Italian Walnut" used on some US Krag rifle stocks circa 1900 and a bit later.

[jmoore]

Having never seen this before I figured maybe you guys hadn't either

Not in the case of a Type I! Thanks for the "techie" photos.

Here's a Japanese Type 38 lower section for comparison. (I think it's been shortened in the back, though.):

[Aragorn243]

Guys, I just couldn't stand it anymore. After taking it apart and seeing what was in there, I had to get that varnish off of it. While it may have looked nice in the photos, it was cloudy in spots, had large runs, had a few fingerprints and a few scuffs in it. The wood underneath had a simple oil finish and as of tonight, that is what it has again. If I had felt that it was original in any way, I would have kept it but it was Bubba finish and had to go. I asked around on a few other sites and everyone said it was not an original finish. All research I did pointed to either no finish or a light coating of linseed oil.

The two piece stock is very interesting to me. They were not glued but held in place by the butt plate and the sling screws. On the Type I, there is one very long screw that went through both pieces. You can see the screw hole in the photos. I can see in the Type 38 photos they did the same from the side. Looks like an additional screw with the trigger guard on that one. The glue on mine was probably done by the same guy that put the varnish on it. It was all dried out, not sure what kind it was but it didn't hold up over time.

Anyway, here are the after photos with two coats of BLO.

[andiarisaka]

Looks much better to me.