Garand stock questions

[Tim the student]

Ok ladies and gents, two part question here. I have a field grade Garand with a field grade stock. It is an original stock though (SA/GAW). It's a 5.8 mil, so it's not a correct stock.

I would like to clean it up a bit, and give it the respect that it deserves. I have mixed feelings about this though. I don't want to take apart all of it's character though, and I don't want to do anything that might damage it. I have thought about trying to sell it, provided I can get enough to get a new stock with metal, and have some left over to apply towards a "new" Garand. Then again, I really like the fact that I have an original stock. It's part of the mystery for me - who knows if this fought on Normandy, or if my grandfather ever held it. I like that about it.

The cartouche is very faint on it, but visible. Additionally, the circle P isn't quite fully encircled like some I have seen. I don't know if this is common or not.

So what would you do: leave it, try to sell it, clean it only with something like Fairtrimmers, or clean it completely (not sand, just clean) and refinish?

The second part of the question is that the rear stock swivel screw is seized up. I don't exactly want to dump penetrating oil down in there - I can't imagine that would do anything but damage the wood. It looks like it has been seized up for some time judging by the marks on the buttplate bolt. If I do decide to do anything to the stock, what should I use, and how should I use it to loosen it up so I can take the buttplate off?

Please ignore the black wildebeast that jumped on the bed right when I was taking that photo.

 

[CZguy]

This is a really personal decision. But I would leave it as it is.

 

[61chalk]

I put new CMP wood on my Field Grade. I have played around with the
old stock, pretty rough an couldn't be used for shooting, deemed unsafe
by CMP. Probably Greek? Looks like walnut though....I would take an post picture
but last several attempts won't go on here at THR for some reason..but what I did
made the old stock an wood look 100% better, an didn't damage the wood.
I took Oven off cleaner an sprayed it on, steeled wooled off after several minutes, then rinse with water, used a hair dryer to dry. Repeated this several times until all oil was out. On one side I put 2 coats of red Cabernet wood stain by Varathane. Dry. Then put
2 coats of Boiled Linseed oil. I just put Boiled Linseed oil on the other side. Both sides came out great. I then put 2 coats of Cabot wipe on polyurethane. ......but its up to you,
after doing what I did, I wouldn't be afraid of doing another for fear of making it worse

 

[krs]

Tim,

That mark is so far gone if it was original that most anything you do will degrade or lose it altogether.

You're right - it isn't original to a rifle with a serial number higher than 3,200,000 and in the condition it looks to be it won't be all that interesting to a collector. So you might as well refinish the stock to look how you want it and if any of that cartouche is left after that just consider it a plus, a freebie.

That swivel bolt - what'd you do, try to cut a new notch with a Dremel cutoff wheel? It's messed up the bolt and it's messed up the buttplate too.

To get it out you can try to run some liquid wrench type stuff down the sling swivel - that should get the threads soaking without hurting much of the wood. If that was mine I'd probable take out the upper screw, bend up the buttplate until I could use it as a wrench to turn the bottom screw. I wouldn't worry about trying to preserve the thing - just get it off to make room for another one.

One of my rifles has been through all of something. It's a 1943 receiver, barrel, and all parts are Springfield though somewhere it got later sight parts and a cut oprod. Still has it's solid gas plug though and when I first took it apart I found a bunch of sand in the bottom of the magwell. Iwo sand? Who knows? But the rifle looks like hell and probably isn't worth $500. Sometimes they're just too battle worn to be what collectors want.

 

[Tim the student]

That swivel bolt - what'd you do, try to cut a new notch with a Dremel cutoff wheel?

Nope, it was how it came from CMP. The rifle shoots great, but isn't all that much to look at.

 

[offthepaper]

It sounds as though you don't have that much to lose. It's a matter of making the stock look as good as you can to suit only yourself.

With that said, I would try the dishwasher method. It's not something I would recommend for a collectable stock, but for one that is going to be replaced, what do you have to lose.
disassemble the rifle, remove all cosmo from it, remove the meatl from the stock, place the stock in the DW. Run the stock through the wash cycle, BUT STOP IT BEFORE IT REACHES THE DRY CYCLE (this can dry the wood too quickly and may cause it to crack/split). Do not use any type of detergent. The very hot water /steam will raise most of the dents to their original contour. Repeat this no more than 3x. allow the wood to dry completeley for 2 days. rub the wood down with 3 diff grades of steel wool, finishing with 4-0000 stel wool. mix a batch of 25% BLO and 75% mineral spirits, give it 2 coats of this, mix another batch of 50-50 blo and mineral spirits -2 coates of this. use 1 coat at 75% BLO and 25% mineral spirits. After each coat is applied, wipe off any excess. allow to completely dry before handling.
Afterwards you might decide to keep that stock after all.
Don't use polyurethane. The BLO will protect the wood. It was one of the original finishes on the Garand stocks at one time.
**POST PICS WHEN YOU'RE DONE

 

[Tim the student]

Offthepaper, wouldn't the dishwasher also raise the already faint cartouche though?

 

[Dave P]

Would you put your prized wooden heirlooms in the dishwasher? I wouldn't.

In case no one told you, the stocks with gaw cartouches are highly prized. Yes, yours is faint - but I would not refinish it or anything else that could destrroy the cartouche.

I bet you could sell the stock as is on ebay for a couple hundred bucks.