Type 99 Date of Manufacture

[LTPayton88]

Good afternoon,

Would anyone happen to know what the date of manufacture for this rifle might be? Thank you.

Information

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[Singer B]

My guess would be a Nagoya series 7 manufactured during the first half of 1944. Nice rifle!

[LTPayton88]

Thank you very much. I am in the process of bringing it back to original. the last owner decided to refinish the stock and had no idea what they were doing. luckily with a little paint stripper it came right off. So now it is just sanded but I can live with sanded more than I could nearly yellow looking varnish.

[browningautorifle]

So now it is just sanded but I can live with sanded more than I could nearly yellow looking varnish.

I like oil finish myself, better even than the original finish on these. What IS that wood anyway? Not walnut surely? What did they use?

[LTPayton88]

From my reading it seems they used Beech, Japanese Walnut, and Katsura wood. Primarily Walnut with the 99s though so I am not sure.

[Singer B]

I think the original finish was based on a mixture containing poison oak and it is nearly impossible to find. If in doubt, use the RLO since you know it wont hurt it.

[J-ROD]

Sorry to hear your rifle was sanded...a huge turnoff by many collectors.

As for your finish, by series 6, Nagoya could no longer get the superior Chinese Urushi lacquer to finish rifle stocks and switched to Japanese urushi. That is why you see early rifles with a deep reddish color and later rifles seem faded.

[LTPayton88]

Sorry to hear your rifle was sanded...a huge turnoff by many collectors.

As for your finish, by series 6, Nagoya could no longer get the superior Chinese Urushi lacquer to finish rifle stocks and switched to Japanese urushi. That is why you see early rifles with a deep reddish color and later rifles seem faded.

Yea sanded is not great but it definitely looks a lot better now that I took off what ever the last guy put on it. It is a good shooter though and I enjoy taking it to the range. Plus I paid nothing for it. So I can't complain.