Refinishing my M1 Garand

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Quickdraw McGraw

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Not to copy FlyingBryans post but I also have decided to refinish the wood on my Garand. Using a mixture provided by the Gun Stock Doctor I gave it the first of several treatments. I used fine steel wool. It will probably get at least 2 more rubdowns before I apply the military guns stock wax. Because there is linseed oil in the mixture I need to give the stock another rubdown in a few days.

Leftside before treating
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Left side after 1 treatment
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Left side after 2 treatments
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Right side before treating
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Right side after 1 treatment
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Right side after 2 treatments
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aren't the pictures inverted ?

btw, this is how my Garand looks after refinishing :
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Pictures are correct, its a little lighter now. I scrubbed off 66 years of oil, dirt and grime. :D When I put the 1/3 gun stock wax to it that should bring out the natural grain of the walnut.

Nice gun Shung ~ did you do anything with the metal on yours when you refinished your stock.
 
I didn't notice it at first, but the forestock is much darker.
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Chestnut Ridge stain...

Brownells sells it. Its a reddish alcohol based stain. It you play with it, you can get a somewhat decent match. I did a Garand with it a while ago. It didn't come out a perfect match but it was much better than before.


Before stain
Before1.gif

After stain
After.jpg
 
Pictures are correct, its a little lighter now. I scrubbed off 66 years of oil, dirt and grime. When I put the 1/3 gun stock wax to it that should bring out the natural grain of the walnut.

Nice gun Shung ~ did you do anything with the metal on yours when you refinished your stock.
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I'm sure that rifle appreciates the love. :)

I used some Brownells Oxpho-Blue on my Garand as well. Some of the finish was completely gone and the metal was in the white. I figured it was better blued than bare.

Sorry if I kind of hi-jacked your thread... :eek: I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. There is nothing like working on an old gun and bringing the beauty back.
 
My '43 M1 has that "well-used/loved" look, it's not in bad shape at all. So I'm torn about refinishing it, I even have a brand-new set of Boyd's wood for it, but I just don't know yet. I'm in no hurry, I love her just like she is, but I love threads like this so I can gather as much info as possible. I only have one, and don't wanna mess it up.

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Sorry if I kind of hi-jacked your thread... I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. There is nothing like working on an old gun and bringing the beauty back.
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NC-Mike your not gonna offend me. Please join in and post any pics you have. I would like to make this as informative as we can. All input is appreciated.
My '43 M1 has that "well-used/loved" look, it's not in bad shape at all. So I'm torn about refinishing it, I even have a brand-new set of Boyd's wood for it, but I just don't know yet. I'm in no hurry, I love her just like she is, but I love threads like this so I can gather as much info as possible. I only have one, and don't wanna mess it up.
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I completely understand rondog. I was just sitting out on the deck one evening admiring my 43 M1 and I noticed that the wood just seemed to be real dark and dirty looking. There is even a cartouche on the left side. I wanted to find a way to clean up the stock with out sanding it. I think the mixture from the gun stock doctor will do that.

You can just barely see the cartouche

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Did you try any steaming of the stock to raise small dents?

It does seem to work fairly well.
 
That's another thing...my stock has absolutely NO cartouches or numbers stamped on it at all, NONE! So I don't even know what it is. I'm seriously thinking of just scrubbing it real good, give it a light cleanup sanding, and then rubbing it with BLO or Tung Oil.
 
Did you try any steaming of the stock to raise small dents?

It does seem to work fairly well.
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Might try that. What would be the best way? Probably a wet towel and iron?

That's another thing...my stock has absolutely NO cartouches or numbers stamped on it at all, NONE! So I don't even know what it is. I'm seriously thinking of just scrubbing it real good, give it a light cleanup sanding, and then rubbing it with BLO or Tung Oil.
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rondog when was your M1 born? You should look into the recipe I'm trying ~ no sanding involved!
 
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1943 Springfield. Sanding doesn't bother me.

Y'know, you can buy stamps to re-stamp that cartouche, if you can tell what it originally was. There's a bunch of different ones. I visited a website recently that has a buttload of repro stamps for sale. Can't remember where it was though, but I'm sure it can be found.
 
Nice gun Shung ~ did you do anything with the metal on yours when you refinished your stock
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only the wood-

I completely refinished this wood since it had NO history behind. It's a 30.06 Beretta Garand, from the Danish Nato contract. Built in Italy, with Winchester machine tools.

completely refinished means I degreased it, sanded it, and took all the bumps and scratch out steaming th wood, sanded it again, steamed again etc...

than I applied an adequate oil finish.
 
Quickdraw-
Since you asked, (and I hope you won't take this wrong,) I liked it better "before" than "after." Your cleaning system removed patina (oxidization) as well as grime.

But it's a very nice rifle and you should have it the way you want it.
Please show the finished pictures...maybe it will darken up a bit.

Just how I like my old military rifles.

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Tinpig
 
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I thought about it for a minute before I sanded my Garand stock but I only thought about which grit to use, not whether to sand it or not. :p


This is it after I blued it. I don't think there are a lot of blued Garands around...

CMPRight.jpg
 
Quickdraw - really intersted to see what your project looks like when all done.

My '43 M1 has that "well-used/loved" look, it's not in bad shape at all. So I'm torn about refinishing it, I even have a brand-new set of Boyd's wood for it, but I just don't know yet. I'm in no hurry, I love her just like she is, but I love threads like this so I can gather as much info as possible. I only have one, and don't wanna mess it up.
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Rondog - I wouldn't touch that at all - looks beautiful as is, and has 66 years of GI history (oil, sweat and blood) soaked into that stock. My personal opinion, usually valued less than .02...

FWIW, here's a shot of my two CMP Garands (`43 and `44), as is.

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wojownik those are 2 beautiful rifles! Do you know anything about the '143' on the bottom gun?

Mine has a '52' painted on the rear sight cover spring. CMP said that maybe it was a National Guard gun and painted on there.

52.gif
 
"I scrubbed off 66 years of oil, dirt and grime."

That happens to be one of my favorite things about my Garand. :) Scrubbing that clean would be like erasing all the adjectives from your favorite book.
 
Great thread and some nice looking Garands!
When cleaning dirt and grime off of old stocks while retaining the original "patina", I've had great luck with GoJo hand cleaner (without pumice). It does a great job, doesn't adversly affect cartouches and is available at any automotive store.

I cleaned the SA stock in the following photo with GoJo and had great results. The IHC and HRA are untouched except for an occasional coat of BLO. The WRA stock was literally black with dirt. It almost got tossed due to its condition, but after cleaning it and seeing that it had striping I decided to keep it as a project. It took lots of love and several repairs to get it in its present form.
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wojownik those are 2 beautiful rifles! Do you know anything about the '143' on the bottom gun?
Click to expand...

The 143 on that rifle is just a rack number, likely there from some National Guard unit.

The 52 on your spring cover could maybe be something put there from a National Guard or ROTC unit, or could have been a marking from a unit in a foreign country the Garand was lent to (such as Denmark).
 
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