My new (to me!) M14--Before and After

Master-G

Master-G

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Hi folks:

I picked up NavyShooter's Norinco M14 last week with the original mystery wood stock, and although I'll probably replace it with a fiberglass or Boyd's stock in the future I wanted to see what I could do with the original.

I had originally thought of using one of Krylon camo paints on the stock, but after reading Skullboy's caution regarding painting wooden stocks I decided to sand and oil the stock (and although I do like--a lot--the look of some of the camo'ed fiberglass stocks on the board here I will confess to being partial to the "old school" look of an M14 with a wooden stock and black handguard). One advantage of the wood being fairly soft is that the old finish sands off fairly easily. Here are the results--I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out and was quite surprised how much grain was buried under that thick reddish brown finish. Once my Portuguese ammo shows up from Wolverine I'll be all set!

Original (complete with "speed holes" :lol: )

M14before.jpg



After a few hours' work:

M14after1.jpg


M14after2.jpg


M14after3.jpg
 
The stock looks really nice, I also like the warm look of wood.

I have a black vented USGI handguard that I put on my rifle from time to time. It looks really old school, but the vented handguards were removed from service due to heat mirage issues while shooting.

Looks good. :D
 
Looks great. Now go get a Rooster33 cheekpiece to fill those speed holes in. Adding one will improve the aerodynamics of the stock, helps when doing the rundown... :wink:
 
I oven-cleanered one of my "mystery wood" stocks, and then let 6 or so coats of BLO soak in. Then I sanded in a couple more coats (400 grit sand paper) so that the sanding dust would form a slurry and fill the grain.

Now the stock is almost as hard as a North American stock, is smooth as silk and has a little bit of a shine.

There is nothing wrong with the Chinese stocks that a little bit of elbow grease won't fix.
 
Makes me want to do that to my Norinco wood sitting in the closet (actually it's on my floor in my living room - I'm a single guy, give me a break).

You just sanded that ####er down until all the red came off? Do you think it would be easier to use Easy Off on it first or something like that to get some of that #### off before sanding?

What did you oil it with after all the sanding?
 
Archibald said:
You just sanded that ####er down until all the red came off? Do you think it would be easier to use Easy Off on it first or something like that to get some of that #### off before sanding?

What did you oil it with after all the sanding?
Click to expand...

Yes, I just started with 80 grit sandpaper then went to 120 and finished with 220 (it's all that I had!). I had really planned to paint the stock, although I was unsure how it would come out, and when I saw how quickly the old finish was coming off I decided to keep going. The sandpaper filled up quickly so I had to use a lot. It did not take too long to get most of the finish off...maybe a couple of hours? I had not heard of using oven cleaner before...I don't know it if would have made my work much easier since it was not a whole lot of work (and I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like work! :lol: ). With the sanding, the wood was nice and dry when I was finished--ready for the oiling. I used Minwax Tung Oil from Cdn Tire for the final finish...I'll confess to not knowing if it's best for rifle stocks or not. The way I figured it if it didn't work out I'd fire the stock in the garbage and get a new one!
 
The way I figured it if it didn't work out I'd fire the stock in the garbage and get a new one!
Click to expand...

Yeah exactly, resale value on a mystery wood stock is what? like $10-20?

That's if you can find somebody that wants to buy one.

You can't really go wrong with planing around with this stock a little.
 
I stripped my Norinco stock down last night with Easy Off. Two coats of that #### and all of that gross redness was gone. I washed off the stock in the bathtub after each blast of the Easy Off, and then washed it with dish detergent to get that greasy #### out. To get the stock dried out, I put it next to the dehumidifyer all night. I don't know if it's standard procedure, but like I said earlier - who cares, it's only a Norinco stock.

I'm pretty pleased so far, and I'm going to stain mine similar to what Master-G has done after some sanding. I would like to thank him for posting this thread and planting that idea in my mind. I'll post a pic up for anyone else who's wanting to try this.

I have a fiberglass USGI stock en route, but it'll be kind of nice to keep the wood stock just to get that retro look going.

Minwax Tung Oil from Canadian Tire is the ####? Should I consider anything else boys?
 
Thanks for your kind words, Archibald. I'm glad it's working out well for you so far. The tung oil doesn't actually stain the wood (the two-tone look on the left side of the stock seems to be the natural look of the wood) but just darkens it a bit. As you mention the your message, there may be other products that are better. Who'd have thought that there was such nice looking wood under all that gunk?
 
Afer using Easy-off, try a good soaking with lacquer thinner to remover the oils. Then follow up with bleach to really lighten the color.
 
Thanks for the info guys... and kudos to you, Master-G!

After reading your post, I ran out and grabbed some sand paper (80, 220 and 400 grit) and tung oil from CT. I used the wife's Black and Decker Mouse detailing sander with the 80 grit to get down to the wood. And yes, the red goo would quickly clog the 80 grit so I used a wire brush to unclog it 2 or 3 times or until the paper ran out of bite.

After obtaining a decent finish, I air-hosed the stock and gave it a liberal coating of tung oil. I let it sit over night and then went over it lightly with the 400 grit paper. Another coat of tung oil... let it rest for ten minutes... and buffed it down with a cloth.

This will surely hold me over until I get a fibreglass stock....

Once I figure out how/where I can host pics from, I'll post a couple.

Thanks again!
 
Hey Dave, bleach it, like with javex in the tub or something? If so than that's perfect as my tub is getting kinda grimey anyway, maybe the bleach will serve two purposes :)

Man, you know what, this is kind of fun.

Still no suggestions on an alternative to the tung oil?
 
Hope these show ok....

New in box, two weeks ago....


After sanding, tung oil....


The wood looks good but it's still pretty soft....


There's no way you can have this much fun with a "real" M14! I'd be sweatin' bullets doin' this to a big $$$ item....
 
Archibald said:
Hey Dave, bleach it, like with javex in the tub or something? If so than that's perfect as my tub is getting kinda grimey anyway, maybe the bleach will serve two purposes :)

Man, you know what, this is kind of fun.

Still no suggestions on an alternative to the tung oil?
Click to expand...

Regular ol' Javex in the tub will work!
I also use a Swedish furnature oil for a finish...
 
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