My new International Harvester M1 Garand Rifle. new pics!! restoration help!!
- Thread starter coldcashandcolderhearts
- Start date
Nix the dishwasher. That will remove the oil and finish no doubt, but the overall hot water treatment is just too harmful to the wood fibres. It will expand them, then they will compress after they dry giving you a loose fitting stock. A loose fitting stock is ruinous to accuracy.
My recipe after re-doing many Garand stocks to produce a matte military finish is:
-remove old finish/oil with successive applications of Minwax Antique Stripper. Use a synthetic pot cleaner/sanding pad to apply this.
-steam out dents with an iron and water soaked piece of facecloth
-fill remaining gouges with a mixture of white carpenters glue and fine sawdust with a texture about like peanut butter
-sand and file as necesary to even out fillings being careful not to remove original military markings
-stain with alcohol based leather stain which will penetrate residual oils
-finish with 2-3 coats of Minwax Tung Oil Finish making sure that excess finish is rubbed off so that the finish is in the wood, rather than on the surface
-from start to finish this will take 10 days or so to allow ample time for the stock to dry between stripping, steaming/filling, staining and finishing
From your pics this does not appear to be an original IHC stock. You can verify this by checking for a 4 digit number in the barrel channel. This is a Julian date stamp which is unique to the IHC stocks.
If the stock is loose fitting (allows fore and aft movement with the trigger housing removed and /or allows the trigger guard to close easily w/o resistance), you should tighten up the fit after stripping and before finishing. Fore and aft movement can be eliminated by glueing thin wooden shims on the vertical surfaces which bear against the rear legs of the receiver. Lack of trigger guard tension is fixed by glueing shims on the edges at the bottom of the stock which bear against the trigger housing.
My recipe after re-doing many Garand stocks to produce a matte military finish is:
-remove old finish/oil with successive applications of Minwax Antique Stripper. Use a synthetic pot cleaner/sanding pad to apply this.
-steam out dents with an iron and water soaked piece of facecloth
-fill remaining gouges with a mixture of white carpenters glue and fine sawdust with a texture about like peanut butter
-sand and file as necesary to even out fillings being careful not to remove original military markings
-stain with alcohol based leather stain which will penetrate residual oils
-finish with 2-3 coats of Minwax Tung Oil Finish making sure that excess finish is rubbed off so that the finish is in the wood, rather than on the surface
-from start to finish this will take 10 days or so to allow ample time for the stock to dry between stripping, steaming/filling, staining and finishing
From your pics this does not appear to be an original IHC stock. You can verify this by checking for a 4 digit number in the barrel channel. This is a Julian date stamp which is unique to the IHC stocks.
If the stock is loose fitting (allows fore and aft movement with the trigger housing removed and /or allows the trigger guard to close easily w/o resistance), you should tighten up the fit after stripping and before finishing. Fore and aft movement can be eliminated by glueing thin wooden shims on the vertical surfaces which bear against the rear legs of the receiver. Lack of trigger guard tension is fixed by glueing shims on the edges at the bottom of the stock which bear against the trigger housing.
the wood is tight, the hand guard is two different types of wood, to get the lighter wood darker would you recommend a stain? or perhaps more coats of tung oil? im not terribly bothered by it tho. this gun is a mut, i think a little bit of every M1 manufacture has contributed.
From your pics the front HG and stock appear to be the lighter walnut sapwood, while the rear HG is darker walnut. You would have a very tough time trying to stain the lighter pieces to match. Best bet is to strip them first and then see what the difference is then. If you are looking for a match, you most likely will need to find a lighter colored rear HG. Some of the lighter birch ones can be re-stained to match the walnut sapwood,which is always on the light side.
so now that you have seen even more pictures of my new Garand i will give you a breif description of what i have observed. The receiver is pitted in areas, trigger group looks mint as does the barrel. my biggest concern is the wood, it has a high gloss finish and what seems to be an unmatched top had guard. The wood does not have any manufacture dates codes etc. This is my plan: strip it, apply boiled linseed oil. Im after a flat issued finish look. Im not planning on reparkerizing as i like the issued look. i think ill fill the writing on the receiver/sights with white paint... cool?? This rifle will the a shooter. i spent 700 on this and i got 8 enblocks and 16 rounds of handloads. The sling is a repro 25$ leather 1907 eBay purchase. If anybody could share Garand wisdom with me it would be appreciated!!! BTW this is my first rifle as i just got my PAL on Friday!! whooohooo thanks!!
autocrash
CGN Regular
Your first rifle has more history than my first rifle...
Nice find!
Matt
Nice rifle !
...and a hearty congrats on getting your PAL !!
I'd probably want to strip off the clear coat too , and give it a good rubbing of BLO.
One of the best ways I found to apply the first coat of BLO , is to use a scotchbrite pad , lot's o' juice , and let sit for a week (...It's really hard to let sit that long ... I know ) . After that it's all hand rub.
Very fine steelwool will work too .
I'd leave the patina/colour tones ( wood and steel ) the way it is ....gives it "character"
I bought a ventable gas plug so I can use a more variety of ammo.
...and a hearty congrats on getting your PAL !!
I'd probably want to strip off the clear coat too , and give it a good rubbing of BLO.
One of the best ways I found to apply the first coat of BLO , is to use a scotchbrite pad , lot's o' juice , and let sit for a week (...It's really hard to let sit that long ... I know
) . After that it's all hand rub.Very fine steelwool will work too .
I'd leave the patina/colour tones ( wood and steel ) the way it is ....gives it "character"
I bought a ventable gas plug so I can use a more variety of ammo.
State side or Province side? iv found some shops selling them in the US, any Canadian retailers?
thanks
"...this is my first rifle...got 8 enblocs..." Nice way to start. You need 2 more to fill an ammo belt. And a bayonet.
"...a run through the dishwasher..." Don't. It'll raise any cartouches there are. Steam any dents out.
"...high gloss finish..." This'd be the one time you hope for polyurethane. It'll come off without too much fuss. Alcohol eats it. Tung oil will not come out. Looks like a birch/beech stock with a walnut rear hand guard. Cost you less to buy one, if you can find a birch/beech guard.
You can stain birch/beech to try and get the stock close to the hand guard. Tung oil will not darken it. The stain must go on before the first coat of pure tung oil(NOT Minwax Tung Oil Finish. Isn't the same thing) too. You can't bleach walnut enough to come even close to birch/beech.
"...does not have any manufacture dates..." Not unusual. Likely a post war rebuild. Those stocks didn't always have cartouches etc.
"...16 rounds of handloads..." Pull 'em.
Buy a copy of Hatcher's Book of the Garand. History and a trouble shooting chapter.
Surplus Rifles M1 Rifle pages are pretty good too. http://www.surplusrifle.com/index.asp
Free .pdf's of the U.S. Army TM and FM manuals are here. Note the need for the provided UN & PW. http://www.biggerhammer.net/manuals/
When you get that far, think 150 or 165 grain hunting bullets and/or 150, 155, 168 or 175 grain match bullets with IMR4064, IMR4895, H4895 or Varget with regular primers. You must full length resize every time and watch the case lengths too.
"...a run through the dishwasher..." Don't. It'll raise any cartouches there are. Steam any dents out.
"...high gloss finish..." This'd be the one time you hope for polyurethane. It'll come off without too much fuss. Alcohol eats it. Tung oil will not come out. Looks like a birch/beech stock with a walnut rear hand guard. Cost you less to buy one, if you can find a birch/beech guard.
You can stain birch/beech to try and get the stock close to the hand guard. Tung oil will not darken it. The stain must go on before the first coat of pure tung oil(NOT Minwax Tung Oil Finish. Isn't the same thing) too. You can't bleach walnut enough to come even close to birch/beech.
"...does not have any manufacture dates..." Not unusual. Likely a post war rebuild. Those stocks didn't always have cartouches etc.
"...16 rounds of handloads..." Pull 'em.
Buy a copy of Hatcher's Book of the Garand. History and a trouble shooting chapter.
Surplus Rifles M1 Rifle pages are pretty good too. http://www.surplusrifle.com/index.asp
Free .pdf's of the U.S. Army TM and FM manuals are here. Note the need for the provided UN & PW. http://www.biggerhammer.net/manuals/
When you get that far, think 150 or 165 grain hunting bullets and/or 150, 155, 168 or 175 grain match bullets with IMR4064, IMR4895, H4895 or Varget with regular primers. You must full length resize every time and watch the case lengths too.
sunray thanks for the info! After much deliberation i think i will keep the wood unmatched and leave it as is. I don't want to muck about with stain and matching etc. The Rear hand guard has a small crack tho i will attempt to re-glue from the underside prior to applying boiled linseed. Oh btw whats a good retailer who caries BLO? i think i found some on the home depot site but i want to make sure its the right stuff: http://www. homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=912219&Ntt=912219&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber
The rear handguard is also a little loose and moves a bit. Will the BLO soak in enough to expand the wood? If not i will do some shimming. When i start my restoration project i think i will make a thread documenting start to finish to help out others in my situation.
The rear handguard is also a little loose and moves a bit. Will the BLO soak in enough to expand the wood? If not i will do some shimming. When i start my restoration project i think i will make a thread documenting start to finish to help out others in my situation.
To repair the rear HG you first need to remove the oil, flush the crack with methyl hydrate/acetone/laquer thinner and then apply super glue to the crack from below. Flex the HG slightly to make sure the glue penetrates the crack. You can re-stain by rubbing on and off some alcohol based leather stain(it will penetrate residual stock oil whereas a water or oil based stain will not).
A loose rear HG is not detrimental to accuracy, but a tight fitting one is. There needs to be some clearance between the bottom of the HG and top of the stock as well as between the rear of the HG and the face of the receiver(about the thickness of a business card).
A loose rear HG is not detrimental to accuracy, but a tight fitting one is. There needs to be some clearance between the bottom of the HG and top of the stock as well as between the rear of the HG and the face of the receiver(about the thickness of a business card).
All supplies are purchased: i got Circa 1850 stripper and pure tung oil (it say pure both on bottle and web page so i assume it is) from Home Hardware for the stocks. I decided to go with tung oil 1 because i found good quality low luster stuff, 2 im not going to be rubbing the stuff in all the time (BLO), and 3 my rifle is post war so it would be appropriate to use tung oil.
The unmatched rear HG will stay walnut for now, with superglue to seal the small crack. This weekend i'm going to completely disassemble, clean metal in a WD40 bath then scrub with toothbrush, followed by a degrease bath, then all parts regressed. Stocks will be stripped twice 24hr between each session. Tung oil will then be applied until desired finish is achieved, im guessing 4-6 hand rubbed sessions (haha). Im not going to stain, as the natural wood grain is rather nice as are the colors. I will post results, thank you all for your input and directions
The unmatched rear HG will stay walnut for now, with superglue to seal the small crack. This weekend i'm going to completely disassemble, clean metal in a WD40 bath then scrub with toothbrush, followed by a degrease bath, then all parts regressed. Stocks will be stripped twice 24hr between each session. Tung oil will then be applied until desired finish is achieved, im guessing 4-6 hand rubbed sessions (haha). Im not going to stain, as the natural wood grain is rather nice as are the colors. I will post results, thank you all for your input and directions
