Wireguided Marine
Member
In 2014 I bought a service grade M1 Garand from the Civilian Marksmanship Program. When it arrived I was very pleased; it was all 1953 Springfield Armory except for the trigger assembly which was HRA. It came with a brand new Boyds walnut stock and looked great. All for $730.
The only thing I didn’t like was the raw wood. I wanted to protect the stock but also treat it like the Marines did when it was in service so I decided to use pure tung oil.
I used a citrus based cleaner to prep the wood, thoroughly rinsing it and letting it dry.
I then built a jig or a stand for the three pieces. Some on the internet used coat hangars or other jury-rigged methods to allow the pieces to dry. I didn’t want to handle anything anymore than I needed to.
I used scrap wood and some hinges to make a rig that allowed me to put oil on the stock; the hinges allowed it to go horizontal or vertical easily.
The only piece I bought for the stand was a short wood dowel that I cut in two to fit snug in the cleaning kit compartments. That supported the stock on the stand.
I then made a 50/50 mix of tung oil with pure orange oil so that it would soak into the wood well for the first couple of coats, which it did very quickly, as well as dry fast. And my basement smelled great with the orange oil.
The next few coats were straight tung oil. Those took longer, as expected, but I enjoyed seeing how the wood went from dry and raw in the beginning to something more durable and beautiful.
The last coat took almost a week to dry out. Just to be thorough I applied some tung oil on the inside of the cleaning compartments since that area never got oiled and propped the stock nose down.
Now assembled with cleaned and oiled metal parts and a tung-oiled stock it looked great. And every year or so I take it apart and put a thin coat of tung oil again.
The only thing I didn’t like was the raw wood. I wanted to protect the stock but also treat it like the Marines did when it was in service so I decided to use pure tung oil.
I used a citrus based cleaner to prep the wood, thoroughly rinsing it and letting it dry.
I then built a jig or a stand for the three pieces. Some on the internet used coat hangars or other jury-rigged methods to allow the pieces to dry. I didn’t want to handle anything anymore than I needed to.
I used scrap wood and some hinges to make a rig that allowed me to put oil on the stock; the hinges allowed it to go horizontal or vertical easily.
The only piece I bought for the stand was a short wood dowel that I cut in two to fit snug in the cleaning kit compartments. That supported the stock on the stand.
I then made a 50/50 mix of tung oil with pure orange oil so that it would soak into the wood well for the first couple of coats, which it did very quickly, as well as dry fast. And my basement smelled great with the orange oil.
The next few coats were straight tung oil. Those took longer, as expected, but I enjoyed seeing how the wood went from dry and raw in the beginning to something more durable and beautiful.
The last coat took almost a week to dry out. Just to be thorough I applied some tung oil on the inside of the cleaning compartments since that area never got oiled and propped the stock nose down.
Now assembled with cleaned and oiled metal parts and a tung-oiled stock it looked great. And every year or so I take it apart and put a thin coat of tung oil again.
