Question - Milsurp Woodstock Protection?

PoiluRifleman

PoiluRifleman

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Hello fellows, I have a question for you pros. I was handling one of my milsurp rifle and I accidently chipped a small piece of the woodstock, and that got me thinking... Are there any products which we can coat on the wooden parts of the stock to make it water and damage resistant? I used to apply Breakfree CLP on the metal as well as the woodstock, but I'm wondering if there's like a coating of some solution we can coat and harden on the woodstock so it does not chip easily? Does such products exist? Or are there other kinds of products with similar function and if so can you tell me what and where I can get it? Thanks so much guys, appreciate it!
 
A real pity nobody here actually have any knowledge on this subject, considering how many milsurp collectors there are on this forum heh. Good thing I did pick up a few tips from another forum, might as well paste them here for your benefit:

There are products to make soft and rotting wood hard but really nothing to make reg. wood harder.
One thing that you need to stop doing is putting gun oil on the wood stock. It will break down the fibers in the wood over time making the wood soft. Ust BLO, Pure Tung Oil, Toms 3/1 mix or Howard's Feed n Wax on your wood stocks and you can also p top coat of paste wax on them.
Check the stickies at the top of this sectino of the forum for a repair post on how to repair chips in your stock.

Possibly the polyurethanes, although not historically correct, have the ability to protect the wood better than the more correct BLO's and such. The wiping of oil onto the wood phenomena is something I've seen done a lot. My dad after cleaning a gun and wiping some oil on the metal, continued onto the wood. I was able to convince him this was a bad idea, citing the old guns you see that had been excessively oiled and stored in the butt down position with the black nasty oil stain area where the stock met the metal.

Thanks for pointing that out candyman, as the problem warrants more attention, as I think it's a fairly common misconception.

Mike

I ordered two more cans of the Tom's 1/3 mix on line last night, I love the stuff.
 
A complete re-finish using tung oil will make your stock nearly water proof and protect the wood, but nothing will keep wood from chipping if it gets bashed on something hard.
Breakfree won't do anything for wood.
Polyurethane belongs on cheap furniture. Not rifles. It won't stop chipping either.
 
It's not so much lack of knowledge, but lack of motivation some times. ;)

Those are all lousy ideas if maintaining originality is a factor. If you're out shooting it (and banging and scraping it), then loss of collectibility and value doesn't seem to be important, in which case those ideas might work.

Otherwise, the idea is to carefully clean the stock without removing the original finish and patina - that's the best approach. You can "restore" damaged finish using the original product, which is much better than was is suggested below, but then you have a restored, not original finish.

PoiluRifleman said:
A real pity nobody here actually have any knowledge on this subject, considering how many milsurp collectors there are on this forum heh. Good thing I did pick up a few tips from another forum, might as well paste them here for your benefit:

There are products to make soft and rotting wood hard but really nothing to make reg. wood harder.
One thing that you need to stop doing is putting gun oil on the wood stock. It will break down the fibers in the wood over time making the wood soft. Ust BLO, Pure Tung Oil, Toms 3/1 mix or Howard's Feed n Wax on your wood stocks and you can also p top coat of paste wax on them.
Check the stickies at the top of this sectino of the forum for a repair post on how to repair chips in your stock.

Possibly the polyurethanes, although not historically correct, have the ability to protect the wood better than the more correct BLO's and such. The wiping of oil onto the wood phenomena is something I've seen done a lot. My dad after cleaning a gun and wiping some oil on the metal, continued onto the wood. I was able to convince him this was a bad idea, citing the old guns you see that had been excessively oiled and stored in the butt down position with the black nasty oil stain area where the stock met the metal.

Thanks for pointing that out candyman, as the problem warrants more attention, as I think it's a fairly common misconception.

Mike

I ordered two more cans of the Tom's 1/3 mix on line last night, I love the stuff.
Click to expand...
 
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I have an excellent article on DIY rifle stock finish with linseed oil. I recently followed this recipe for my Lee Enfield no4 mk2 that was really badly damaged. You start with 80 grit sandpaper and a wood file and work up to 1000 grit, then de-whisker the stock, apply egg white to fill the pores and finally linseed oil and bees wax. It was a very satisfying excercise, because I put something of myself into that rifle.

If youre ineterested I'll re-type the article tommorrow.
 
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