Restoring old rifles - what do the restorers do to the wood?

shredder

shredder

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I'm looking to start a resto project on a '39 Mosin 91/30 I have. The rifle shoots just fine, and I want to make her look like she did when she came out of the factory.

I read the Restoration Sticky, and while it shows some great before and after photos, what it DOESN'T say is exactly how the resto was done, what materials were used, and in what order.

The bluing on the rifle will be touched up with cold blue where necessary. I really need some good advice on how to restore the stock, as the finish is pretty beat up.

Can the experts help me out?
 
Depends on what you want to do. Most guys will strip the finish off - In the case of your Mosin, it's a shellac. Methyl Hydrate from a hardware store, soaked into 0000 Fine Steel Wool (nothing more coarse), lightly rubbed on the wood will clean it up. The 0000 (Four aught) Steel wool will not remove any markings and proof marks on the stock like sand paper will. Let the stock dry and you can go over it with dry steel wool. Then you have lots of choices for finish. You can go for red shellac again, tung oil, linseed oil.. Heck, skies the limit with the number of finishes.

Most would not consider this restoring as restoring implies making it original. It would be best to call it refinishing or refurbishing.
 
For taking off the finish from old wood, I use mineral spirits and rub it with a cotton rag. Takes time and a few applications, because mineral spirits are a fairly "gentle" solvent, but that helps prevent going a wee bit too far.

To re-condition the wood on a red, a Tung Oil rub would be fairly appropriate for East Block rifles.

Then to re-lacquer... I dunno... From what I've read, pretty much get the cheapest, gooiest lacquer you can find and lay it on - thick. A couple of the guys around here have figured out tinting mixtures.

Mostly, I've just had to do touch ups on my reds... Rubbing blank spots with mineral spirits cleans it up and rubbing down with Tung oil (3-6 coats, 1 day to set in between coats) reconditions and puts a bit of a shine on the worn spot.
 
To get the nicks out, one uses a towel over the area and a steam iron firing steam. This will restore the wood fibers. You do this before any finishing! My 1897 with Imperial markings, looked new.
 
I got my Mosin today and was watching a few videos on Youtube. A guy used Top Oil and the stock came out crazy good after four layers of that thing. (The original lacquer was stripped off.) I can't get to the video here (work restrictions on internet) but it's something about "Project Mosin" and it has two parts. First shows the entire disassembly, the other is the finished product after redoing the wood. Come to think of it you may find the video by searching for "Mosin Nagant disassembly" on Youtube.
 
If you want to restore it, then you'd use the same materials and process as was used originally. If you want to refinish it, then you do whatever looks good to you and suits your purposes. Your question was about restoring the finish, but everyone here has proposed methods of refinishing.
 
No Tung Oil on Warsaw Pact stuff. Shellac. Tung Oil cost too much and takes too much time to apply properly.
No cold bluing either. Few milsurp rifles were blued.
Wood is wood. Refinish rifle stocks the same way and with the same products used on furniture. However, battle rifle stocks were not finely finished. Shellac mostly on Russian stuff. BLO on just about everybody else's stuff. Book have been written about milsurp finishes. Huge arguements about it too.
 
sunray said:
No Tung Oil on Warsaw Pact stuff. Shellac. Tung Oil cost too much and takes too much time to apply properly.
No cold bluing either. Few milsurp rifles were blued.
Wood is wood. Refinish rifle stocks the same way and with the same products used on furniture. However, battle rifle stocks were not finely finished. Shellac mostly on Russian stuff. BLO on just about everybody else's stuff. Book have been written about milsurp finishes. Huge arguements about it too.
Click to expand...

Few milsurp rifles were blued? What were they?

Don't cold blue anything. That's just butchery.

I wouldn't use steel wool at all either. It will look aggressively cleaned. Use a rag. Can probably get half of it off with duct tape.
 
Enfield,Garand, mauser wood etc can be cleaned with ammonia, better than oven cleaner, no yellow stain. Put in a
spray bottle, 50/50 with hot water or 100% ammonia. Then rinse in hot water.
 
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