Should i refinish my m1 garand

Wood saturated with linseed oil, tung oil, boiled linseed oil, or boiled tung oil, does not absorb new applications of those same products well. The end result does not dry well sometimes leaving a sticky mess that will ooze when heated by sunlight or extended firing. A second consideration is the order of potential use.

Wood treated with linseed oil, tung oil, boiled linseed oil, or boiled tung oil can be coated with Minwax Tung Oil Finish or Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil with some success. Once the wood is finished with Minwax Tung Oil Finish or Tru-Oil, then linseed oil, tung oil, BLO or BTO will not penetrate the varnish layer and will not likely dry leaving only a sticky mess on the sealed surface of the wood.

Phrased another way, once Minwax Tung Oil Finish or Tru-Oil is used, follow up applictions to repair scatches or damage to the stock or to simply freshen it should to be done with the same product. Linseed oil, tung oil, BLO, or BTO cannot successfully be applied over those more modern finishes because the varnish component seals out the older natural finishes and they will not dry. Some stock finishing products that do work and last while the USGI look is being recreated during a complete refinishing job are noted here for reference.

The following is a group of products that from actual experience work in a predictable manner and give a usually repeatable effect on USGI wood.

Use safety gloves and ventilation. Sometimes one can be found but not the other brand at stores here or there around the United States. Each 4 ounce bottle would do about Garand stocks.

Either is very nice and they can be mixed before use to vary the color match of hard to match stock sets. Gale Lock Company Stains. Oily cloths, newspapers, paper towels or any other material saturated with such products has the potential and will on occasion spontaneously burst into open flames.

Proper disposal would include air drying in a single layer on a noncombustible surface away from buildings. Alternatively, sealing such materials inside of an airtight metal container until later safe disposal might be done again placed on a non-combustible surface away from buildings. Once thoroughly dry and cured, the oil in the materials no longer generates heat. The over all concept is simple.

Each step is separate and not too complicated. The customer would get the wood bare with Minwax Antique Furniture Refinisher. The Minwax Tung Oil Finish makes a flat finish or shine finish based on what you do with it while it protects the wood. Each product in order does its own part. The end result is a USGI looking finish that is more durable.

Any product or procedure that includes water is not appropriate for refinishing rifle stocks. The oven cleaner and dishwasher versions of cleaning stocks are not appropriate. Water, chemicals, and hot water are the death of wood fibers and any cartouche marks on the wood.

Wood in many respects is a bundle of straws held together by glue. The active ingredient in Easy-Off Oven Cleaner sodium hydroxide attacks the natural wood glue hemicellulose holding the wood fibers together.

Left on long enough, it will even attack the individual wood fibers. Even more problematic when unintended is that Easy-Off requires rinsing with water which raises the grain of the wood and requires sanding to remove the feathers raised. Oven cleaners and dishwasher detergents chemically alter the wood fibers and remove natural oils in the wood. A lye like compound may be left in the wood to later leach out if damp and attack the metal placed against it.

Minwax Antique Furniture Refinisher, synthetic stripping pads, a stiff toothbrush, and a kitchen vegetable brush will get all the old finish off of the hand guards and off of a walnut or birch stock while putting needed natural oils into the wood and keeping the grain flat.

Every bit of the stock, inside and out, should be cleaned with the Refinisher including the butt stock kit holes. It is actually good for the wood. It will run down the wood as the work progresses into the pan to reuse. The directions on the can should be read carefully before use. The can clearly indicatesm the Refinisher must be used in a well ventilated area. The fumes should not be inhaled.

These items are all cheaper than ruining the family iron which can never be cleaned right and which will always spit melted varnish and old gun oil onto clothing being ironed. The metal pot with a round snout is the key. The tape bushes up the OD of the hose to fit the ID of the snout. The best fit to tea pot is the goal. Garden hose will almost melt from the steam heat and is useless. Assemble the hose into the snout with the tape after filling the pot with water.

Put it on the stove. Heat the water to boiling and then put the burner on Medium Low or Medium depending on how hot the stove is. The customer, the discharge end of the hose, the stock, an oven mitt, and whatever else is wanted is located into the previously cleaned kitchen sink usually nearby the stove.

After a couple of minutes of steam going through the hose, the hose will get so hot it quits condensing the steam into hot water and begins ejecting HOT steam where ever the open end is aimed. Thus the need for an oven mitt to hold the hose. Turn on the stove exhaust fan also. The steam will get hot around the customers head. Adjust the burner for the best steam level. The two quarts of water last longer than commonly thought, but will go dry. That is very hard on the pot.

An alternative is a tea pot with a straight thin spout that you can slip a hose over tightly. Many of the raised dents will remain black showing through the subsequent stain applications. Some will never turn clean wood colored again no matter the amount of steam or wood stripper applied. Wood that is pressed in often responds to being raised. Wood fibers that are cut do not often raise up much. Gouged away wood will not fill the holes created by prior damage. In some cases, where there are only a few dents in the stock, it might be better to accept the character it affords the wood and not try to remove them.

The synthetic pads smooth the wood very slightly when used with the Refinisher. After the Refinisher totally dries and before staining, the surface can be wetted to raise the grain. A damp cloth rubbed over the wood works. Not soaking the wood, just dampen. The grain raises a little and opens the wood pores up a little. Left that way on purpose, the wood is more like the condition of most USGI stocks.

They have a rough texture if newish. If they are well used and well worn, the wood takes on a very smooth texture. Let the stock dry for several days in a warm dry place before staining the wood. In the alternative, once the grain is raised with a little moisture and then dried, the raised grain can be lightly sanded to remove the feathers and make the wood smoother.

It will leave the wood feeling rough instead of smooth like furniture. Experiment on a scrap to compare results between different grit sand papers. An original USGI stock has a surface texture similar to about grit sandpaper when manufactured and about grit sandpaper after some use helps smooth it up. Finer grit sandpaper only makes the wood smoother and quicker to take a gloss like finish.

Likewise, multiple pieces of wood such as a Garand butt stock and two hand guards can be color matched to enhance appearance. Both are needed for the USGI red color, especially with birch. Most light birch stained with two heavy applications of Dark Walnut 69 followed by one light application of Chestnut Ridge will make the birch look like walnut with a touch of red.

The Chestnut Ridge stain by itself turns light colored woods a bright red color and is not desirable to most users. It works nicely on dark walnut used sparingly and to a limited extent on medium walnut, but not at all on light birch or light walnut. It never turns the light colored wood walnut colored.

The color just gets redder and redder on light woods. It does the same redder and redder color shift when used on light colored walnut also. If the customer has a birch butt stock and nicely colored walnut hand guards, do the butt stock first.

Then stain the walnut hand guards with a light application of 69 and a very light application of Chestnut Ridge for red, if needed. The hand guards will come out about the same color as the birch butt stock.

If the hand guard color is incorrect, strip it and do it over from the beginning. Leave the butt stock as is. Match the hand guards to the finished butt stock. That is much less work and one less variable. A hand guard is very easy to re-strip and re-do. With a three piece birch Garand stock set, do all three parts the same, but remember to do the butt stock first and match the hand guards to the butt stock.

If you have an all walnut stock set, then one heavy coat of 69 and a light coat of Chestnut Ridge gives a very nice USGI color with no further to-do. The real way to figure out what color stains are attractive or matching is to get some pieces of wood and try the colors. Hobby shops, woodworking stores, big lumber yards, usually have little pieces to try or buy cheap.

Put a color here and a second color there and a third color down the sliver. Let it dry and add or change colors so it can be seen what the stains do on a piece of walnut. Birch is hard to find, but an oak dowel or an ash dowel gives a good approximation. Oak is closer to birch than ash in accepting stains. Proceeding one stain step at a time.

Let each step dry completely for a day or more so that the color changes are complete as each stain step dries. Then decide which or how much of the next color to do. In all cases the finished stock was simply dipped in a tank of linseed or Tung oil for a few minutes and then allowed to drain dry. Stocks that come from the CMP, whether as parts or on a rifle, are often coated with that sticky goo called cosmoline.

Even those that are not are likely to be oil soaked or stained in one area or another. Here's what I do. Spray it on, let it soak for minutes, and then rinse off with very warm water while scrubbing with a Scotch-Brite pad. Depends on your definition of refinish and what you're starting with. If its a run of the mill mixmaster and you want to clean it up, and more importantly, know how to do it properly, I have no problem with it.

The 03 I got from CMP had a stock that wouldn't have made a good fence post. It was a seriously beat up piece of wood. I replaced it. Did I ruin the value? Probably not. My Garand wasn't much better. Likewise it got a different stock. I'm lucky because there's a guy in the area the professional restores military stocks for dirt cheap.

In both cases I'm sure I increased the value. Now is you're talking about slapping a coat of Tru-Oil , or similar drek, on it, stop right there. Nothing good will come of that. Reparking is a tough call. Metal would have to be awfully bad for me to consider something that drastic and expensive.

It will increase the value quite a bit if it is a beater. I've always thought it was a little strange that if you repark, reblue, refinish, reoil or any of the other re's you have just destroyed a rifle's value, if the CMP does it, suddenly it's a collector grade and the rifle is worth more, I don't get it. I do have to agree with some of the other fellows though, don't mess with original firearms because it does hurt the value.

It's not my rule it's just the way it is, believe it. My Garand is a mix master that was refinished in the crappy thin, black greek park. For such a rifle, it won't hurt the value any to refinish it. Now, an all original Garand with original finish like the one my dad got from the DCM, don't mess with it. I'm not saying that every Garand ever produced has been completely rebuilt, but arguing that a particular rifle is "original" is just moot.

There have been circumstances where I have seen mixmasters that went for more because of the fact that they were mixmasters. These would be the rifles that escaped the mass re-arsenal I mentioned earlier, and they went for more because their faults and mix of parts make them the exact same rifle they were 70 years ago.

These are what I refer to as "True Battle Rifles". Their condition is directly related to the combat conditions they endured, and makes them that much more desireable to some collectors.

Quoted: I've always thought it was a little strange that if you repark, reblue, refinish, reoil or any of the other re's you have just destroyed a rifle's value, if the CMP does it, suddenly it's a collector grade and the rifle is worth more,. When ultraviolet light strikes a wood finish it breaks un-reacted double bonds in the oil.

This causes the finish to breakdown and fade. Our Gunny paste contains no finishing oils allowing it to be applied to any type of wood finish. Microcystalline wax is superior to natural waxes because it is PH neutral and doesn't contain any acids.

Our wax has a melting point of F whereas beeswax will get sticky around F. If you used Tung oil we recommend you wait at least one week before applying the wax. If you used linseed oil we recommend you wait one month. If you are going to apply the wax to an existing finish we recommend that you clean the stock first to remove any surface contamination or older waxes that might be present.

Using a circular motion apply the wax to the stock. Only a very small amount is needed. If the stock is broken down apply the wax to the inside areas as well.

Pay special attention to areas of end grain. The majority of moisture moves into and out of your stock in these areas. A thin layer of wax is all that is needed to provide the water and sun protection we need. Two coats is normally sufficient to protect the stock.

Important: At GarandGear. If you are not satisfied with your purchase you may return it within 30 days of purchase. Please see our complete return policy here: [Return Policy].

Cart 0 items. Edit cart. Getting Setup The first step to this process is determining which oil you want to use. The two oils that were originally used on the M1 are Raw linseed oil and Tung oil. Both types of oil kits are available in the online store. There are some very important differences between our products and those you might find at your local hardware store. Be sure to read the section below before deciding what product to purchase. Our Product Our raw linseed oil is cold pressed and filtered.

No refining of the oil is performed. Each linseed oil kit includes a 4oz bottle of pure linseed oil, a 3M Finishing Pad and a microfiber rag. Birch and Walnut The stocks below highlight the difference between the two most common wood's used on M1 Stocks. The top stock is birch and the bottom is walnut. Both stocks shown below are finished with six coats of our raw linseed oil. The color on both stocks will begin to develop over the next year.

The birch stock is starting to darken as the raw linseed oil oxidizes. Beeswax and sunlight Did you know that most commercially available beeswax today contains a pesticide called Fluvalinate; a synthetic pyrethroid. This product is used by bee keepers to control mites in their colonies.

This miticide accumulates in the beeswax. When the beeswax is exposed to UV light it breaks down into 2, 4-dimethylaniline and 2, 4- dimethyl phenyl.