wood finish on refurb Nagant

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peteg

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I just purchased a Mosin Nagant 91/30. It's a 1934/46 MO marking hex receiver for those interested.

I find the wood finish scratches very easily compared to my 1945 LeeEnfield or .22 Cooey. Is the typical Mosin like this? My friend got one aswell and the finish is the same.

Do people generally refinish the wood?
 
I did and it did turn good take a look... JP.
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the lacquer or whatever is on the refurbed mosins basically would fall off on my hands, it got really scaly. So I am currently stripping it to refinish it with some tung oil :)
 
Avalonthas said:
the lacquer or whatever is on the refurbed mosins basically would fall off on my hands, it got really scaly. So I am currently stripping it to refinish it with some tung oil :)
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Yup, the finish is basically scaly and scratches way to easy. It seems like it's such a thin layer.
 
Caramel, I really like what you've done with the Mosin. Can I ask what you used to refinish.

My main concern is loosing all the markings on the stock.
 
Scrapped all the flaky finish with a Rapala knife very sharp sand with 180 after i sand to 400, this wonderfull stuff is called Minoax Shade Shellac, Reno -Depot have it for both the Mosin and the SVT i used Black Cherry, 3 coats apply with a cloth let dry 24 hours between coat sand slightly with 600 between coat, a perfect hydrofuge nice dark color finish, here is a picture of a Swedish Mauser Finish the same way but with light Pecan finish, just beautifull... JP.
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DON'T SAND. Sanding removes wood, changing the shape (only slightly but still) and removing markings.

Get a good furniture stripper, (I use Circa 1850 avaliable at Home Hardware) strip all the wood. You can maybe do this 2 times.

As for finishing I've seen all kinds of options. I've seen or read about each of the following on a Mosin. Probably the most 'accurate' would be the 1/3 mix.
-Boiled linseed oil
-1/3 mix - equal parts beeswax (melted), boiled linseed oil, and turpentine
-straight pine tar
-tung oil
-coloured stain with a polyurethane top coat
-higher quality shellac's

Let me look around and see if I can remember where I saw these.
 
You have to sand to really get the deep beauty of the wood 70 years have past and the wood is oxideded coated you have to get rid of that coat to discover a treasure of nice old wood, that the way i do it those pictures speaks by themselves... JP.
 
caramel said:
You have to sand to really get the deep beauty of the wood 70 years have past and the wood is oxideded coated you have to get rid of that coat to discover a treasure of nice old wood, that the way i do it those pictures speaks by themselves... JP.
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The trick is to get it to look good without looking sanded.
 
An oiled stock on a Russian Mosin may look nice, but it's out of character. Shellac is the original stuff. Easy to refinish, recoat, so there's an alternative.

Lou
 
louthepou said:
An oiled stock on a Russian Mosin may look nice, but it's out of character. Shellac is the original stuff. Easy to refinish, recoat, so there's an alternative.

Lou
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Do you take the original coat off and recoat, or just recoat the whole thing over? I think I will start small and touch up the scrapped areas.
 
The Soviets army used shellac on the Mosins. It comes off beautifully with 'Circa 1850', which takes off just the shellac, and leaves the nice petina of the wood.

But don't sand! Instead of sanding, take an old cloths iron and a wet cloth, and steam clean the wood carefully. Just place the wet cloth over the wood and run the hot iron gently over the wood. Any remaining gunk just saps out of the wood and into the wet cloth. Then finish.

I'm just refinsihing my ex-sniper, and so far, its turning out very nicely. I'm taking my time with it, and it'll be completed by the end of this coming weekend I hope.
 
louthepou said:
An oiled stock on a Russian Mosin may look nice, but it's out of character. Shellac is the original stuff. Easy to refinish, recoat, so there's an alternative.

Lou
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Very true. I guess it depends on whether a person's goal is to preserve its character or not. For me, since I'm planning to hunt with this rifle, I'm thinking more about giving the rifle a better finish. The Soviet didn't use shellac because it was best for the rifle. But I completely understand that in many cases a person would want to have the collector's preservationist mentality when it comes to the idea of refinishing a gun.
 
Here's what I did with my refurbed ex-sniper. Its my first attempt at a refinish job. It's still a work in progress.


The original shellac finish was so dark and thick you could barely see the grain. Westrifle sold it thinking it was a hardwood stock, but its actually a laminated stock. Also, there's a Tula star on the stock that couldn't really be seen. It barely shows in this picture which was made with a flash to make the wood underneath a little more visible.

before_refinish_01-0.jpg



Here's the stock stripped of shellac with 'Circa 1850' furniture stripper and steamed with a hot clothes iron and wet cloth. NO SANDING.

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Here it is so far. I would appreciate some opinions, particularly on the type of finish. I plan to hunt with it, so I'm thinking of using a conditioner to make the now glossy finish more satin. Glossy is harder to hold and would tend to reflect too much light. But I'd like to know if people here agree with the decision to go satin. It's a Tru-oil finish, and they make a special conditioner to polish and leave a satin finish. The actual color is a bit more redish than the pictures show. I used a cherry wood stain, with 21 shots of additional red mixed in.

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ghostntheshell said:
If you re-shellac over old shellac, it will mix/melt with the existing finish and become one finish.
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But it will still sit ontop of the wood and scratch off just the same. If you want to keep it historically correct then yes that is the way to go, but if you want something that will stand up to the weather better, definatly do something else.

Here are those videos I was talking about earlier. Now they both sand their stocks, but again, I don't advise to do that.
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Jump to 10 minutes to see the Minwax done one. Ignore the duracoated one. Unless you want something truly impervious to the weather.
[youtube]3PQUDmINoPM[/youtube]
 
Not to be difficult but when you say stand up to the weather do remember what these things were originally used for. BTW, I have not found the much vaunted urethane to be any tougher than shellac.
 
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