What to do with RC K98 Wood finish?

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-DeerStalker-

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Just purchased a RC Mauser from the EE. I don't have the rifle yet, but it will be shipped to me soon.

However its clear in the pictures, and description provided that the shellac that the Russians slapped on the stock is in terrible shape. I'd say close to 30-40% of it has been scrapped/flaked off.

My question is; Being as it is a RC and they put shellac over the original BLO that the Germans used, should I...

Strip the remaining shellac and re shellac the stock.

Strip the remaining shellac and hit the stock with a few coats of BLO.

No sanding will be involved in the process obviously. Don't worry.
 
I have a RC that is in a similar dilemma, the shellac is falling off and it just doesn't look right. I plan on stripping the remaining shellac and previous owner's varnish finish off and applying a new BLO finish to the wood. I will probably get burned for it as some collectors would say "Its a RC and should be kept in its RC configuration". To tell you the truth, my Kar98k looked really terrible. When I received her, she had no cleaning rod, missing lock screws, 20-30% of the black paint on the recoil lug and take down disc remaining, and partially falling off shellac finish not to forget a sticky varnish and/or previous BLO attempt. In my mind, the stock has already been brutalized and there is no harm in trying to fix her up. Since that day, eight months ago, she is looking a lot better with the black paint removed and her recoil lug and take down disc back in the white and the parts whipped down with some 0000 steel wool and re oiled. All that remains is the stock.

I'm interested in hearing what you do exactly if you do it before me as I am waiting for the weather to improve a bit before attempting this in my outside garage.
 
Your going to get mixed answers here. The RC r98's are considered to be authentic historic rifles, so any refinishing other then basic maintenance would be considered Bubba. One thing that i read, is if you take a rag with a little de-natured alcohol on it and rub the stock, it will "melt" the shellac and allow it to be smeared and smoothed out. If its really that bad, You could strip it and apply a correct shellac or if you want a BLO finish. But I do believe the Germans used beeswax not Linseed oil on the K98's.

Its a tough call.
 
Refinish with BLO.

If its already flaking off I clean off that bolshevist mess with antique furniture stripper and 0000 steel wool, then hit it with BLO. Turns out beautiful.

Fun fact: German soldiers would sometimes rub motor oil into the blond stocks to darken them up.
 
Just be careful though. I have a laminated stock and alot of the WaAs and stock marks were stamped in black ink, not pressed into the actual wood so steel wool might strip these right off. My experience with steel wool is that it does an extremely good job at removing crud from the metal pieces while keeping the original bluing and any patina intact. I have not tried it on wood though.
 
Hmm, I suppose I'll just have to wait until the rifle is in my hands to make up my mind. I'm glad I'm not the only one giving this some thought.

One of the awesome advantages of shellac is that it can be coated over a previously oiled surface and still adhere. So one could remove the old shellac and oil the stock. Than if you're not happy with the results you could shellac over it. Or down the road if you want to return it to the Russian "spec" than you could always add shellac.

Did the Russian do anything to the metal surfaces? All the metal on the rifle is matte black and doesn't appear to have any wear. Did they paint all the metal, or is that the original way the Germans had it aswell?

Case in point.

Picture034.jpg
 
My experience has been that the Russians did have a habit of putting black paint on the metal surfaces during the refurbishment process. I think I have also seen this on M91/30s as well as SKS 45s.

Yours look like it is still in the original blue without any paint. You can usually pick the paint off because it is either chipping or extremely glossy and an uneven finish with some bumps in the texture.
 
I'd say that if the shellac is already in such a crappy state, you might as well remove the remaining.
You can then buy an almost identical shellac and re-apply if you desperately want the rifle to remain "russian."

Or you can wipe clean and rub a bit of Howards Feed 'n' Wax to bring it as close to the way it looked before coming into Soviet possession. This will clean and mildly oil the stock, but will not darken the wood or make it tacitly different the way BLO would.

You can always finish it with BLO if you like, but remember that this will severely darken the stock. Personally I wouldn't put BLO on a K98k stock that I wanted to restore to Nazi-era configuration, nor would I put it on one that I wanted to maximize the resale value of...
 
Agreed. As far as I understand it, oil was hand rubbed onto the stocks to give them a smooth, darker finish then if they were left unfinished. I only know of the Russians using Shellac as a finish on their stocks for their firearms.
 
You're already making the rifle incorrect by adding the cleaning rod. Some people also add retaining screws to the guard screws. I will admit, I have one that came with the retaining screws from Tradex. I have never seen one with an intact cleaning rod.
As far as finish, on the couple dozen RC 98s I've looked at, they have all been shellacked. You don't have to remove anything to refinish the shellac. The shellac used can be duplicated by buying the shellac crystals in a paint store and mixing them up as per instructions. By mixing the solution on the weak side, you will effectively cause the shellac on your stock to dissolve and mix with the new stuff. This can be wiped off with flock to remove dirt and new shellac be applied, while a bit of the old stuff stays behind to blend in.
 
Well if I ever wanted to put it back into "RC" condition, simply remove the lock screws, cleaning rod, and the sling and there you have it :D. Nice to know the shellac can be easily replaced and at little cost too.
 
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