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- Thread starter Irons78
- Start date
They look good now. The "original" look can rarely be attained after refurbs and bubba. I am not into refinishing military surplus rifles, but sometimes, as it seems to be the case here, something could be done. Enjoy your old rifles. Pick them up and listen with your mind and soul.
I've had a couple issued non-refurb WW2 91/30's - both were hand selected when Finland dumped its Mosin rifles on Canada bout 10 years ago. These were rifles the finns picked up and put into storage, they had not SA capture stamps or anything.
In both cases, the stocks were just oiled - no shellac. They looked like a WW2 birch-stocked Savage Enfield.
My opinion is the garnet shellac is a cold war "thing".
In both cases, the stocks were just oiled - no shellac. They looked like a WW2 birch-stocked Savage Enfield.
My opinion is the garnet shellac is a cold war "thing".
I've decided to do a test run on the M38 at recreating the wartime factory finish. I found a post from milsurps.com where it was mentioned that the original factory finish was linseed oil and "sometimes" shellac, although there are cases of many Soviet rifles being oil finished only. The red/garnet shellac is pretty much exclusive to refurb conditioned rifles for anticipated long periods in storage (and even then, linseed oiled stocks did darken due to oxidation of the oil, same with the shellac coating, which was also covered in a red brown layer of Cosmo!). The info I read up on seems to peg a lot of the red/brown colour of refurbed red milsurps on the cosmoline more than anything.
So I'm going to "annoint" the m38 stock in warm raw linseed oil and see how it looks (as this is apparently the wartime finish of many red guns), and then may follow up with a coat of Amber or garnet shellac. Will post pics of the linseed stock for feedback.
So I'm going to "annoint" the m38 stock in warm raw linseed oil and see how it looks (as this is apparently the wartime finish of many red guns), and then may follow up with a coat of Amber or garnet shellac. Will post pics of the linseed stock for feedback.
I agree, the shellac is such a crap finish that I'm doubtful they would waste the time on it when rifles needed to be leaving factories as quickly as possible. I've always thought it was applied to keep the cosmoline from destroying the stocks in storage.
I agree, I am betting the wartime finish was some type of oil. look at a picture of a range used 91/30 and you can tell obviously in photos where it has worn off/ flaked/ chipped in areas just from use. Look at the thousands of images/ footage of them actually being used in WW2 and none of this is noted, and you cannot see the shininess of a shellac.
Not only that, if you've shot a shellac covered mosin until it gets hot, the shellac... becomes glue.
Ok so poured 1/2 a Mickey of Smirnoff over ice and got to work...
Here is my M38 with 2 coats of raw linseed oil. Both coats were allowed to soak and then hand rubbed in until heat produced and the shine disappeared. The result is a completely matte finish. But it was worth it, stock looks identical to when the shellac is removed with steel wool or alcohol. Leads me to believe that the oil finish was original and shellac might have been done during refurb only??
Here is my M38 with 2 coats of raw linseed oil. Both coats were allowed to soak and then hand rubbed in until heat produced and the shine disappeared. The result is a completely matte finish. But it was worth it, stock looks identical to when the shellac is removed with steel wool or alcohol. Leads me to believe that the oil finish was original and shellac might have been done during refurb only??
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