Spanish Mauser refurb, progress report...

louthepou

louthepou

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Hi everyone,

Well I'm a few days from the family camping trip, but I thought I'd post a few pics of the refurb I'm doing on a Spanish Short Mauser. I often forget to take "before" and "during" pics, this time I thought about it! :)

It won't be finished before the trip (still need to get some metal parts for it). But the wood is getting there.

1. What it looked like when I got it:
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj180/louthepou/Mauserbefore1.jpg

2. What the metal looked like when the stock was removed (mildly yucky, I've seen a lot worse).
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj180/louthepou/Mauserbefore2.jpg

3. Stock after it's been stripped from its varnish and steamed to remove many bumps (not the deepest ones, and some scratches are left too.)
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj180/louthepou/mauserstrippedandsteamed.jpg

4. Some nice features from the wood show up after a few coats
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj180/louthepou/mausercloseup.jpg

5. Almost done; final reassembly in late August...
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj180/louthepou/mauser10thcoat.jpg

Cheers!

Lou
 
Stock is way to shiny, Spanish Mausers like most military Mauser should have dull slightly rough finish low sheen texture. Try using Pumice or car paint polishing compound to tone done the shiny finish. Actually, same thing goes for the Enfield stock besides it.
 
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Thanks JP, good to know.

Maybe I'll give them a light rub of the smoothest steel wool I have?

The flash makes these parts shine more than they actually do but even so I currently would not qualify the finish as "dull", so...

Lou
 
Steel wool with some regular colgate toothpaste might do the trick, it contains a lot of Pumice. For a light sheen on old wood, natural colour shoe shine wax is quite good.
 
I find that when milsurp stocks are refinished they have that very uneven coloring due to differences in the absorption of dirt/stains/oils. Why did you decide to refinish the wood?
 
In the case of the Mauser, it's hard to tell on the picture but the varnish on it was uneven in thickness, missing / flaking in some spots, and poorly applied.

Gave me the opportunity to raise some dents with the iron / steam method... There were many.

Re. uneven colour: you're right, it happens a lot. I found, though, that the cleaner the wood, the better it turns out wrt this problem. Thorough cleanning is key, I guess. With this Mauser wood, some scratches show darker colour, but I believe it still looks better than the ugly varnish and the numerous dents of a week ago :)

Lou
 
What finish are you applying? looks like tru-oil. You should only be applying boiled linseed and then buffing it off.

Is that the one Wilke sold?
 
Phew, it's linseed oil ;)

That's not Wilke's rifle; it came from a Trade - with a member in Nova Scotia. Interesting firearm; my first Mauser. As I read more about it, I find that there are way too many variations! And I thought Enfields were diverse and numerous.

Lou
 
OK Varnish I can understand. That's not original. I would apply a dark stain before the linseed oil to simulate patina/dirt/age/oxidation. Something like Minwax Ebony is good on walnut. It will even out the light/dark spots and look untouched/original.
 
Well, I think it looks pretty good! I'm frankly amazed at the number of milsurps lou gets repaired and de-bubba'd, considering the speed at which most of my projects go at.
 
Of course. I've just never, personally, been satisfied when trying to restore stocks to "new" looking. A blotchy finish just doesn't look "right" or natural.
 
H Wally said:
Well, I think it looks pretty good! I'm frankly amazed at the number of milsurps lou gets repaired and de-bubba'd, considering the speed at which most of my projects go at.
Click to expand...

Thanks Wally :) I may have to slow down an bit this month though, some other projects around the house need some attention.

Skirsons: Re. new look on old rifles: I tend to agree, depends on the individual situation though, in my opinion anyways.

Dings and scratches need to stay on the wood, for sure, and somewhat rough finish, when the wood is original. Touch it as little as possible. So I will very likely follow JP's and your advice on this project.

But, if the metal for a refurb project looks like it never actually did see some real action and the rifle is a Bubba'ed rifle? If the rifle was bought out of surplus stocks that never saw actual combat, or very little, then it was Bubba'ed in the 50's and 60's... then new-looking full length stock in my opinion means more than sporterized stocks.

Still though, this rifle, the Mauser, had the original wood. So my approach for it was to strip the stock clean of the un-original varnish and give it some deeper-penetrating dark-ish finish. I have to admit, I did less research than with the Enfields, so I may have steered myself in a muddy environment. So I'm more than happy to learn about the rifles of the Spanish Civil War and how they could have looked like pre-Bubba-Varnish :)

Lou
 
I personally CANNOT recommend stain. The Military in spain never used stain, and neither should you IMHO.

If you absolutely HAVE to darken it, forget stain. Use either alkanet root (best) or leather dye (works, but is harder to apply smoothly).

Stan is AWFUL stuff and will bleed through subsequent coats of BLO, staining the oiler's hands for years to come.

Personally, I would just BLO the wood and leave it out in the sun for a few days - that will darken it enough on its own.

I'm not sure what you did to get the wood that bare though lou: did you only use furniture stripper? Ususally with poly strippa or circa 1858, it doesn't go that bleached. Did you steam bathe it or run it through the dishwasher?

For your reference, next time, if you need to remove surface oil and grime but don't want to lose color, try scrubbing the wood with a brush wetted with dilute tri-sodium phosphate (TSP). Works great.
 
PS: In this pic, it looks to be darkening nicely. Honestly, try setting it in the sun a while. The sun will oxidize the BLO a bit darker. Just the stock, not the metal :)

mauser10thcoat.jpg


Also, I notice you are not oiling the inletting. Make sure it gets at least one coat to impart some weather resistance ;)
 
Here's what I did (not to far from the above-stated reccomendations, I am glad to report).

Stripped it with furniture stripper. Worked great. Not too much stripper, varnish was thin.

I used wet rags and a clothes iron in the kitchen to treat the bumps, the wood did turn out quite pale after this.

For the first BLO coat, I used commercial BLO, walnut-coloured; Circa1850 sells this stuff. I know it does have dryers in it and purists might object, but indeed as you state Claven, stains (at least the kind I have for furniture in my shop) can get lifted by the BLO, and the Circa1850 was the only one I found near my home that had the dark colour. So I started with it to darken it a bit, since the steam treatment made it so pale.

The rest of the coats was done with clear BLO.

I can't wait to shoot with it to see if I can hit paper :)
 
Here's another trick,

I decant some BLO into a glass jar, seal it, and leave the jar exposed to sunlight (through a window) for a few months - darkens the BLO right up. Then I cut with 20 or 20% turpentine and apply it. Gives the wood an already oxidized look.
 
Claven2 said:
Here's another trick,

I decant some BLO into a glass jar, seal it, and leave the jar exposed to sunlight (through a window) for a few months - darkens the BLO right up. Then I cut with 20 or 20% turpentine and apply it. Gives the wood an already oxidized look.
Click to expand...



I knew if I looked hard enough I would find some worthwhile tips here. :dancingbanana:

This is something I'm going to try. Sweet advice..thank you!
 
Ok, well here's some more. DO NOT start with BLO. Get some Raw Linseed oil and apply it first until the wood stops drinking it like crazy, THEN switch to BLO. The finish will come out better and be more weather resistant.

Also, when cutting with Turpentine, only do this for the first few coats after you switch to BLO. Then use straight BLO for the final few coats, otherwise the wood may take on a turpentine-like smell.
 
Claven2 said:
Ok, well here's some more. DO NOT start with BLO. Get some Raw Linseed oil and apply it first until the wood stops drinking it like crazy, THEN switch to BLO. The finish will come out better and be more weather resistant.

Also, when cutting with Turpentine, only do this for the first few coats after you switch to BLO. Then use straight BLO for the final few coats, otherwise the wood may take on a turpentine-like smell.
Click to expand...


So, if I go back to your original advice in post #17 the process is as follows:

- super clean stock, apply raw linseed oil and repeat (and repeat...etc),
- "sun ripened" BLO, cut with turpentine for the next few coats,
- straight BLO, until I get the finish I'm after (tone, depth of colour)?

Should I be doing anything between coats? "0000" steel wool for cloth fuzz, dust?
 
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