Recent cmp m1 garand stock refinish results

[Cabinetman]

I have 2 stocks I will be working on. I will post details as best as possible
1. USGI stock basically a very good cleaning as long as its of no real value. I have not had the time to inspect it yet. Its covered in years of dust and grime
2. Rock ridge Machine 1903A4 clone. has the typical brown finish AKA boyds/dupage/cmp finish....= fugly. I need to do some trigger work on this rifle so its a good time to do the stock.
2. Reproduction C stock on my Rock Ridge

my grand mother was a hobby wood refinisher.
she always told me if you have problems with any finish you did it wrong.
Here take was
Raw oils are goof for fences and stuff you dont care about dry time.
Pure tung oil and BLO for a nice finsish but takes time.
Shellac if you want a somewhat protective layer on the wood that can be repaired some what easily
Poly for the inpatient
My grandmother told me once you can tell if its dry if it still smells of oil.
I like pure tung oil ......although I use Minwax tung oil finish or tru oil on guns I actually shoot ...like my new wood M1 and my pellet guns.

Those fugly stocks are what I call "shoepolish" stocks. They are light in color and then some brown stuff is slathered on and viola! Finished stock. I've been successful in actually making some of them look pretty good but it takes a lot of work with materials not available to the average owner.

Clean your old stock with some 0000 steel wool and some lacquer thinner. That thinner will remove 90% of the petroleum based crap on the surface. That's all you're concerned about. Let it dry. If there is anything left on that surface then it'll respond to 409 or Fantastic or the like because it's water based. Don't soak it but spray a clean rag with the cleaner and wipe the stock down. That will prep it.

Get your Tung finish and/or BLO and apply it as mentioned earlier. One coat in 24 hours, next day same thing, and on the 3rd day (since this is an older stock with some finish in it just below the surface) a third coat wiped on and off and hung to cure.

Suffice to say these two major rules can never be broken: NEVER EVER put a stock in a dishwasher........and #2, NEVER EVER BATH a stock in ANYTHING, period. All that will do is water-log the stock with what's ever in the bath. If I've contributed one thing to this hobby over the past 20 years, I hope that this is it.

Rome