Refinishing the stock on my M1 Garand

[norton]

I am currently sanding the stock on my M1. What finish do you guys recommend?

[Minuteman]

I would have recommended that you not sand it.

Heating, rubbing and boiled linseed oil.

:patriot:

[Bushbacker]

Put the sander away right now. Get some Behr's Tung Oil as recommended here. Search the "C&R Stock Cleaning and Preservation" forum and read some of the postings on M1s. Very informative website. Might require registration.

http://p102.ezboard.com/fparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforumsfrm34

Here's a sample from "Cabinetman", the moderator:

Hi all.
I'm trying to consolidate the essays here so I've recopied the thumbtacked post about BLO/Tung oil and have added one about CA as well. I hope that these will assist you as you repair and refinish your rifles.

Blo & Tung oil.

What would you say if I told you that "Boiled Linseed Oil" wasn't boiled at all? You'd say "pishaw!" I'm sure. In fact, however, Boiled Linseed Oil isn't boiled at all. Linseed Oil is squeezed from the Flax plant. BLO is simply regular Linseed Oil with metallic dryers added. These driers are what make linseed oil "cure" within a day or so. Without them, the oil would never harden. In the old days, lead was added but it was found to be unhealthy so the industry uses what are called salts of Zinc, Cobalt or Manganese. In order to help mix these driers into the oil, the raw linseed oil was heated, but never boiled. Now, let me take a second to pontificate about BLO.

Of all the oil finishes on the market, BLO is the weakest and least resistant oil finish, period. In any test, it will allow water to pass through it into the surface below quicker than any other finish out there. In fact, this is considered an asset when linseed oil was used as a base for old, enamel house paints. The linseed oil was so porous that it allowed any water to escape that accumulated below the paint surface on the clapboards or shakes of your house. This kept the paint from lifting. Why, then, did the military see fit to use it on the stocks of rifles? Well it's applied differently. It was heated (not boiled) to get it thinner, then the stocks were literally dipped into it, allowing the warmed oil to penetrate deeply into the wood. A deep penetration of any oil will help repel water and debris as opposed to just laying it on the surface with a rag. It was also extremely cheap. Later on, however, tung oil was added to the mix at the Garand factory.

Tung Oil was used for centuries but only introduced to the West about a century ago. It, as opposed to BLO, provides the best oil protective finish on the market. Like BLO, "raw" Tung Oil has driers added to it to speed the drying time. It's lighter and doesn't darken the surface as much. It builds more quickly, too, requiring fewer coats to obtain the desired finish.

So, let me be perfectly clear about why I like Tung oil over BLO. When we apply blo to a stock, we never put enough on to make any difference, really. It doesn't penetrate enough to really do the job as I've stated above. It's just too porous and in order to really "work", we'd have to leave our stocks dipped into a bath of it for quite a while to really be effective. That being said, most of us do not put our service rifles through the kind of extremes that it saw in actual combat service. We baby them, actually. BLO, then, can provide an effective cosmetic appearance but will do little to provide the tough, mechanical protection the original BLO offered. Tung oil, otoh, does provide as good a mechanical and cosmetic finish as any oil can. That's why I like to use it over BLO.

Let me also introduce you to one final type of oil, some of you may actually be familiar with. So far we've discussed raw oil and "boiled" oil (oil with driers added). The third type is called "polymerized" oil. Ever hear of "Tru-Oil"?? It's actually polymerized oil. It's oil that, with the driers, has been heated in an oxygen-free environment to a temperature of about 500 degrees F. This polymerizes the oil which makes it cure very fast, become very hard, and really resists water and moisture penetration. This type of oil is NOTwhat we'd like to see on our rifles. It's what is commonly used for commercial rifle stocks like shotguns and the like. It's hard and glossy and inappropriate for Military weapons. It's also expensive.

So, I hope this helps put more into perspective the attributes/drawbacks of oils. If I had to select one of the three I've mentioned, it would have to be the tung oil. It builds fast, is water and moisture proof, and most importantly, it's removable so that refinishing or "tuning up" of a stock is fairly straight forward by just removing the surface finish and then reapplying it.

Let me also close by saying that of all the industries, the paint industry is considered the worst when it comes to labeling contents of a can. Terms are confusing, ambiguous, inaccurate, and outright misleading. Over the recent years, the paint industry has been under fire to improve the labeling of their products but it has a very long way to go.

[Faulkner]

I agree, don't sand. I've refinished 50 or 60 Garand and carbine stocks and I never sand. I do buff with 0000 steel wool, though. Before you apply the finish you can rub the stock with your hand in a old pair of panty hose. Where the hose snags is where you need to buff a little more. Once you're snag free you can quit buffing.

If I don't completely strip the old finish off, all I use is a 50/50 mix of Boiled Lindseed Oil and mineral spirits, a couple of coats that are hand rubbed in over several days.

If I completely strip the old finish off, I sometimes use Chestnut Ridge Military Stock Stain (with a hint of red) and then use the BLO mix.

Here's a picture of a Garand stock I refinished a couple of weeks ago.


http://pic13.picturetrail.com/VOL488/1124764/6541000/148472376.jpg

[norton]

Fellows I appreciate your input.
My rifle is not an original. It was a rebarreled rifle. When I purchased it, it had already been refinished.
An article in Shotgun News by Steven Matthews talks about restoring Military rifles. My stock had a large dent in it, from a time I dropped it on concrete several years ago.
I just want it to look better. I am not a re enactor, I use my rifle for range shooting.
If it was an all original WW2 issue M1 I would heed your advice. Its not.

[Minuteman]

Were not being purists. It's just pragmatic. There is no advantage to sanding.


All M1's are historic and at least 30 years old. But that's not really important if you don't care. Most have been rebarreled, or "re-arseneled" is the govt term.
Usually sanding is not needed even for the most severe cases. It changes the shape/profile of the stock. It may look & feel "weird" when your done. There is no advantage to sanding. Sanding removes wood, all you really want to do is remove the old finish, and prep for the new one.
You can remove dents & some chips by heating areas or the whole stock. This causes swelling that fills voids. You can try to save cartoches (stamps in the stock), but it's not important if you don't care.
Your still refinishing it. If it was an original WWII collectors item, then it should never be refinished at all.
Mine is also a range gun/shooter, not a collectors item. This is the advice given by the M1 guru's at CMP. Not just to collectors, but to shooters.

You can refinish it, or even buy new stocks. Many colors & styles available.


What is the advantage to sanding?

[Bushbacker]

I agree with Minuteman. That fella has written other "refinishing" articles for SGN. I cringe whenever I see one.