Help me pretty up my gal?

[garrettbragg12]

I've noticed that there's spot on my cabines stock, mainly areas of high use such as the grip and handguard, where the original finish/coloring is fading out. Now lets just say I've never really worked with wood, BUT I've done my homework. I know the BLO, PLO, and Tung oil was used to finish these stocks, but I'm not sure which was used on mine. Any ideas? I'd really like to match the rest of the stock. Thanks for looking guys. Probably a simple question, and I really did look, but I don't want to chance messing up when all I had to do was ask.
Attachment 39500
Attachment 39501


M1/M3 Carbine: late '44 Inland
M1 Garand: late '44 Springfield

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[imarangemaster]

It looks like a BLO finish to me, with a satin glossiness. You could try a BLO touch up and see if it matches.

[bonnoughj]

Already looks good to me. .

[twh]

In order to get an even, uniform finnish you would have to strip the stock and try to stain it and then apply whatever kind of topcoat finnish you prefer ie BLO, RLO etc. Even if you do the above there is no guarantee that you will get a completely uniform finnish due to the grain and physical properties of the stock. I would rub it down with BLO and leave it alone.

[garrettbragg12]

In order to get an even, uniform finnish you would have to strip the stock and try to stain it and then apply whatever kind of topcoat finnish you prefer ie BLO, RLO etc. Even if you do the above there is no guarantee that you will get a completely uniform finnish due to the grain and physical properties of the stock. I would rub it down with BLO and leave it alone.

Can I rub it down as it is now or do I need to do anything to prepare the wood? I really appreciate your help. Thank you!


M1/M3 Carbine: late '44 Inland
M1 Garand: late '44 Springfield

---------- Post added at 11:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 PM ----------

Already looks good to me. .

Haha thanks, but unfortunately the pictures don't show the areas of wear, as they don't show up well on camera!


M1/M3 Carbine: late '44 Inland
M1 Garand: late '44 Springfield

[imarangemaster]

It does not look like an original raw linseed oil finish. If it was varnish or verathane, it probably would not have the wear areas. It could be tung oil, though. I would take a 50/50 mix of mineral spirits and BLO and wi[pe down the whole stock. I did it with my original Inland that had "wear" areas, and it evened it out nicely.

[Bruce McAskill]

The area around the grip is discolered but it's not wear. It's a build up of oils from your hands and from mainteance on your carbine. You can remove most of it with a good furniture stripper. Then you can apply the coating that you want to. With a shine to the frinish it makes me thing it might be Tung oil that was used on it.

I do hope you didn't drill any holes in your stock to mount the night vision equipment as your stock is a type 2 highwood which would not be the right one for the scope system but would be in demand for a mid production type carbine. But it does look nice for sure.

[garrettbragg12]

The area around the grip is discolered but it's not wear. It's a build up of oils from your hands and from mainteance on your carbine. You can remove most of it with a good furniture stripper. Then you can apply the coating that you want to. With a shine to the frinish it makes me thing it might be Tung oil that was used on it.

I do hope you didn't drill any holes in your stock to mount the night vision equipment as your stock is a type 2 highwood which would not be the right one for the scope system but would be in demand for a mid production type carbine. But it does look nice for sure.

I appreciate the advice! And no, no holes were drilled. No permeant modifications whatsoever. Just punch out the rear sight, and replace the original top handguard with a special M3 handguard (had an oval cut in middle) and you're good to go! When you want to go back, replace original hand guard, and remover sight bar and put the rear sight back in!


M1/M3 Carbine: late '44 Inland
M1 Garand: late '44 Springfield

[twh]

Wipe it down with mineral spirits or acetone to knock down the shine and then rub in a couple of coats of BLO.

[frogman]

The CMP web site has a vary good Forum on how they recommend to refinish carbine stocks.