Hello!
I took all of the input that was so thoughtfully provided by folks who followed this thread and sent it, along with the known history of the original owner of this rifle (gun collector, oil company employee deployed overseas in the 50’s and ‘60’s), to a firearm auction house that I respect very much.
I wasn’t even sure I would get a response but I got a really nice thoughtful one that basically supports many of the responses on this thread. I am providing their response below in case there is interest:
Thank you again to everyone who contributed. Please know your thoughtfulness is most appreciated!
“•On the overstamp: The “Kokura” stamp over the Imperial chrysanthemum would be consistent with a rifle that left the Imperial Japanese inventory the “easy way” (sold/gifted to another country, seconded to academy/training use, etc.) versus one that left the “hard way” (handed over to occupation authorities); the latter is more typically a fast and dirty job, either a few hard chisel-like strikes or a few taps on a grinder, before tossing it onto the pile.
Most Arisaka rifles of both the Type 38 and Type 99 configuration that made it to the U.S. were done in that rougher style. The nicer ones tended to get left over wherever they were sent, places around the Pacific or further abroad who kept them in service for some time.
While never achieving the same hype level as the Mauser 98, the core Arisaka design is very rugged and capable, and were a perfectly suitable option for any force that hadn’t made the leap to semi-auto or select fire battle rifles.
•On the finish: It does appear some sort of top coating was applied to the rifle, with the wood in particular almost looking painted. Varnish is the most likely candidate; many collectors used varnish top-coats as a way to protect guns from moisture, especially back in the days before specialty products like Renaissance Wax weren’t on the market.
While a bit crude looking, varnish was one of the best options available in the average hardware store for keeping a gun preserved long-term without a lot of intervention; an oiled gun needs regularly re-oiled, but a varnished gun can just be hung up and left alone.
Further, the varnish wouldn’t soak into wood the same way oil would, reducing the risk of unsightly dark stains where the wood soaked up too much oil. Getting it off the metal is just a matter of cleaning, as the varnish generally won’t impact the underlying metal finish. Soft cloths, light gun oil, and possibly some gentle heat will go a long way towards getting it off the metal.
The stock is a bit trickier, since it’s hard to tell if it was painted or just received a whole lot of varnish. Similar light cleaning is a good place to start, possibly with a wood cleaner (Liquid Gold is one we use in-house to freshen up gunstocks, and has shown good results on a number of woods). Heat can also help in this case.
As far as preserving the item afterwards, the aforementioned Renaissance Wax is good for protecting collectibles; for the most part we don’t bother with waxing up the guns in inventory here (we would need to repeatedly clean the wax off for photos, gun show trips, floor display, etc.), but I’ve personally used it on a number of firearms, melee weapons and hand tools at home to good effect, and has a much cleaner, fresher look than older coatings, much closer to fully transparent than the brown tone of a varnish or shellac.”
