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Thread: Stock repolish.

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    Default Stock repolish.

    My Mauser is 1913 Obendorf sporting rifle. the rifle has had little use and mint except for the stock which has faded and become very dull. I would like to re finish this stock to a high oiled / waxed shine. I don't know the best way to go about this. I have used Danish oil on furniture diluting the early applications with turpentine and gradually building up to full strength but I don't think it would be very good in rain.
    Can any one advise me on this .

  2. #2
    Dogs Like Him versifier's Avatar
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    Can you please post a photo?

    IIRC they used claro walnut on them? Boiled linseed oil was one of the most common stock finishes back then for both military and sporting rifles. I do not believe they began to use hard finishes until after WWII, but I know much more about Mauser mil rifles than I do sporters, especially one that old.

    Often in restoring an old walnut stock it is necessary to stain it, especially if it has been badly sun faded, but I am not sure from the way you phrased it if it is the wood that has faded or just the finish.

    Personally, I prefer to use a matte polyurethane finish on a hunting rifle as oil and paste wax is not particularly rain proof, nor is it very stable in a humid climate. Shiny stocks are not my first choice when hunting either.

    Sealing it with urethane inside and out will stabilize it so that it will hold zero much better with changes in seasons and varying humidity levels. Of course back then there was generally finish only on the outside of the stock, barrel channel, action mortise, and under furniture was left untouched.

    Birchwood/Casey makes a product called TruOil specifically for stock finishing, but I don't know if it is available there or not. It dries hard and seals very well. Multiple coats applied with fine steel wool, as many as you have time and patience for. It usually takes at least two or three to completely fill the pores in the wood, and a dozen coats or even more is not unusual if it is a really fancy stock blank. Careful light rubbing with 0000 steel wool after it has completely hardened will give you a nice matte finish which you can apply paste wax over. That way you can see the beauty of the wood but won't spook game from sunlight reflecting off of it.
    "Stand your ground.
    Do not fire unless fired upon.
    But if they mean to have a war let it begin here."
    - Capt. Parker, Lexington Militia, April 19, 1775

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    Many thanks Versifier, I will check up on the Birchwood/Casey true oil. and see if it is locale here.When I was a boy many years away. we shot with old English Hammer side by side shot guns Names like Hollis , Bonehill, West and I had two muzzle loaders, one Purdy 15 bore and one west 10 bore and a mate had a Pape 16 bore, the Pape of course had different choke barrels Pape being credited as the inventor of choke in shotties. The stocks on these guns were brighter and reddish than the Mauser but muzzle jobs had powder staining around the nipple area. in most cases the checkering was worn to fine lines and much of the browning of the older guns was gone or else the Damascus or English twist was very visible. modern guns were expensive and not available to school boys besides we fed quite well off the old guns anyway.Name:  388.jpg
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Size:  97.2 KBTrying to download pics of the Mauser, never tried this before.
    Best regards Ancestor.

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    Dogs Like Him versifier's Avatar
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    What a beautiful rifle! I'm drooling. What is the chambering? Do you know anything about the old girl's history? What are her favorite loads and how accurate is she?

    My 1917 military 98 came to me with a shattered stock and 6" hacksawn off the end of the barrel. Looked rough outside, but the bore was really good despite use in two wars. Rebuilt, reblued, trigger job, restocked. Now it wears a B&C synthetic stock and a scout mount forward of the action. If I do my part it shoots just under 2MOA, much better than many WWII vintage 98's I have owned and shot.

    Keep the steel wool away from the checkering, it's a bitch to recut. If it is still in good shape I would only remove finish from the uncheckered areas. Better to dilute a stain and have to apply more than one time rather than overdo. I have made both mistakes - and that's way too nice a rifle to repeat them on. I have seen more than one eager refinisher get so much of the finish onto the checkering that all the valleys were filled, but that can be easily avoided by blotting up any oil or urethane that slops over onto checkered areas as it's being applied. I have also seen more than one idiot unthinkingly sand all the points off a stock and then bring it to me to see if I could "fix" it afterward.

    Not much of a shotgun man, that's my brother's thing. Purdys I have seen and shot, the other names are new to me. I like the vintage rifles and milsurps.

    I'm not sure I would want to touch off a 10bore smokepole now. Sounds like a repro Brown Bess I once shot. My .54 caplock is abusive enough with hunting loads, with a recoil pad on it for comfort. We have a week before regular firearms (whitetail) deer season for muzzle loading, but most use .50cal inlines these days, very few of us left who shoot traditional caplocks or flinters and most are used strictly for hunting. Twenty years ago the club used to have regular matches for them, but no more.
    "Stand your ground.
    Do not fire unless fired upon.
    But if they mean to have a war let it begin here."
    - Capt. Parker, Lexington Militia, April 19, 1775

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    Good morning Versifier, Chambering is 8x57 js.It came from a hunting lodge in Europe, I have not tried for a favorite load as 196 grain ammo and reloading components are all that's available. I have tried some reloading but again 196 grain Norma Vulcan and Alaskan were all that was available. Now I see Hornady have a range of bullets which I should be able to source so will look into this. Properly loaded this caliber pretty well equals the 30 06 in performance. At 100m it is a 6 Oclock hold.group less than 21/2 inches which is as good as I can shoot anyway and that on a good day and most of my days are not that good believe me. I like a 6 Oclock hold over open sights it gives me a fast lead and back stop picture on running deer. I have seen a Oberndorf sporter of 1930's vintage 30 06 original barrel and an ancient Ziess sight mounted high to clear the safety. I would have fitted an aperture I think. I don't know if the rifle is still around As I regretted not buying it when I had the chance. I guess I have always had Mauser rifles since my first and only odd ball, at 17 years cutting down SMLE 303 Ex WW2 into a sporter, to my 30 plus year companion, a hand finished long bolt Belgian Mauser in 375 Mag which my son now has. Regards ancestor.

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    Dogs Like Him versifier's Avatar
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    You're quite right, there's no real difference performance wise between the 8x57 and the -06, just a much greater available selection of components in .30cal. I have been happily loading 8mm's for almost 40 years.

    Can you get Sierra bullets there? They make excellent 150 & 175gr 8mm's. My rifles love the 150's and they're a lot easier on the shoulder. Though I could launch them a lot faster, I get great accuracy around 2500fps and I have also loaded them for a bunch of friends. Recoil is minimal even with milsurp metal butt plates. No deer has ever complained about a few hundred fps difference and 100yds is a long shot in the thick cover around here.

    Mostly I shoot cast in them though and I'm quite happy with Lee's 175RNGC offering. Do you cast and can you get Lee molds?

    Tell us please about where you are, what the terrain is like, and what you can hunt there, large and small, seasons, bag limits, nonsensical regulations, gun laws, etc. NZ is a long way from NH and I am curious. Even if I'm not likely to ever make it there I'd still like to learn more about how things work there than I know now (which is not much).
    "Stand your ground.
    Do not fire unless fired upon.
    But if they mean to have a war let it begin here."
    - Capt. Parker, Lexington Militia, April 19, 1775

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    Hi, Well if you have a atlas or a map of NZ we live in the South Is West coast. Approximately 5 to 6 miles from the mountains as the crow flies bit longer by road. lat about 43 south.The coastal plane is more or less out wash from ancient glaciers and river erosion.We live over a subduction where the pacific plate is riding over the Australian plate. Our mountains are roughly 6000 to the highest being over 12,000 feet The great alpine fault runs virtually the whole length of the South Island and beyond, so the mountains are rising but very slowly and erosion more or less balances this. Occasionally a major top failure on the mountains can slip thousands of tonnes blocking a valley system until the water pressure or the dammed area over tops and lets go and the downstream effect is a disaster. A few years ago the top fell off a mountain I have hunted around and a whole farm was washed away and many damaged when she burst. Still there are not so many places where one can soak in a hot pool sharing a riverbed with a glacier fed river roaring past about 40 feet away. The prevailing winds are westerly and although warming has taken place we still get hammered from the south polar fronts. Rainfall in these conditions is measured in meters rather than inches or mm once the coastal plain is cleared. If one allows the fall in a river around 10,000 feet in say 5 or 6 miles these rivers are moving. The terrain from this side of the alps for hunting is thick rain forest steeply rising foot hills and mountain gorges and bluffs can be a sheer thousand feet high. There are walking tracks but why spend time lugging your gear for a week to get near the tops when it takes about 10 to 15 min in a helicopter. and there is plenty of the vertical stuff when the helicopter leaves one. Going into the high country from the east side of the mountains is much easier I was up there this week but not hunting.
    This is a brief on the area where much of our stalking takes place, though I do go to the North Is Volcanic Plateau for some hunting and the youngies are planning to go in east side later so who knows. Well sir If this is boring you just tell me and I will let it go. I will dig up a few photographs if you are interested.
    Regards Ancestor.

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    Hi versifier Just an odd pic or two.Name:  800px-Summit_of_Mt_Adams,_New_Zealand.jpg
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Size:  51.7 KBName:  P2180083.jpg
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Size:  69.2 KB The outside world goes away with the chopper.

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    Wow Beautiful photos
    Last edited by SkyKid; 11-21-2015 at 02:49 PM.
    Camper at RLB Fest 2006,2007,2008,2009,2010 and 2012
    Hosted 2011 in New Hampsha ya I did
    Proud owner of a 264RLB #4

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    Thank you, the top photo, the white bit is ice and not snow,Rule never step on to without Ice axe and crampons, otherwise if one starts to slide no recovery. Cheers.

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