I have an old Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1 '48 Maltby that I am about to restore. I want to put her back in as close to "Parade Condition" as I can get without replacing any parts (I'm doing this to satisfy myself, and don't care about "historical value," etc. I just want to put some TLC to the old girl and get her as strak as possible). I've heard that boiling old wood stock pieces can raise gouges and scratches significantly. Has anyone actually done this? And if you have, how much time per piece would you think for a No.4 Enfield? Thanks.
Boiling a No.4 Mk. 1
- Thread starter Corpus
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I have used an iron & a wet cloth. Place the cloth over a dent & place iron on. this drives steem into the wood & lifts dents some. You cannot lift out a gouge as by nature it means a piece is missing. I would try this first.
The whole stock is done now. 10mins. for the two, top, fore-stock pieces (they were the most damaged). 25mins. for the butt-stock. 18mins (9mins. each side) for the lower fore-stock. Everything is clean as a whistle, intact, smooth as baby's behind, and towel dried. It's now ready for a light hand-rub of linseed oil, and in a couple of days; stain. Then I'll do more linseed oil, and done. It worked damn well so far as I can tell. I'll keep you posted, and put a picture up of the finished rifle in a few days. Thanks all.
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actually a dish washes sounds better than a boil if you ask me. Plenty of contained heat and not actually being submerged in the water, so it would soak up less and possibly raise the grain less as well while rinsing off the crud as it leaches out. I'm just not sure I have the stones to try it on my stuff.
SAY NO TO BOILING AND DISHWASHING! Often, the wood will crack.
Also, back AWAY from the STAIN. There is no place in this world for stain on a lee enfield. Just use BLO, it will darken enough on it's own over a few weeks time.
Also, back AWAY from the STAIN. There is no place in this world for stain on a lee enfield. Just use BLO, it will darken enough on it's own over a few weeks time.
I de-bubafied my first SMLE with a beech forearm that was "new" but clearly it appeared to be cleaned in some manner. I suspect it had been soaked as it had a warp that was hell to get out and no amount of sanding, buffing and steel wool would get the grain down entirely. It looks good now, but but there are still visible imperfections in a couple places that are too deep. The fact it's on a gun that bubba owned, it's still a great improvement and my favourite shooter, but that's why I don't have the cahones to try such cleaning methods on an original piece.
We shall see, but so far so good. In-so-far as stain goes, well, ALL Enfields, were indeed stained originally just as all Enfields do have parkerization underneath all that Suncorite. Peter Laidler told me so personally, and he should know. He's Britians oldest living, working, armorer, and spent the early part of his career with the No.4's. Where do you think I heard about boiling the stock-set from? Yep, Laidler; he mentioned it once.
I'm just restoring this rifle strak, not bubba-ing it. Cleaning and re-staining with the proper stain might nix it's historical value for some, but since I'm using roughly the same methods, and very close to the original stain, then I still feel it's in the 90th percentile, and since it's my gun, that's going to be good enough for me.
A lot of guys drink and drive and never kill anyone, that doesn't make it the best method to get home at night 
Dishwasher treatments cand, and sometimes do, warp the stocks and it hurts accuracy. Sometimes handguards split from that too. I have used it myself on some nearly unrecoverable stocks, but it is NOT the "go-to" method for cleaning stocks, I view it as only a last resort for stocks that were one step away from the scrap pile.
Methods that remove cosmolene and crud, but do not hurt the underlying patina are the best.
Boiling has two serious problems IMHO.
1) The wood is far more likely to warp.
2) The cartouches are far less likely to survive the treatment.
Dishwasher treatments cand, and sometimes do, warp the stocks and it hurts accuracy. Sometimes handguards split from that too. I have used it myself on some nearly unrecoverable stocks, but it is NOT the "go-to" method for cleaning stocks, I view it as only a last resort for stocks that were one step away from the scrap pile.
Methods that remove cosmolene and crud, but do not hurt the underlying patina are the best.
Boiling has two serious problems IMHO.
1) The wood is far more likely to warp.
2) The cartouches are far less likely to survive the treatment.
