Any Gunsmiths in the house?

[BigJake6904]

In addition to cigars, I also collect firearms. Recently I acquired a 1946 Israeli K98. It was re-chambered from an 8mm to become a .308

I took it and fired it....it's quite the beauty. I got the metal about half way polished up all nice again, but the stock needs a lot of work. The wood just looks old, dented, and dull. I heard several theories on how to bring it back to life, but am kind of nervous to try them.

One was to take the wooden stock, put it on a cookie sheet, and place it in the oven between 110 and 120 degrees, then, every hour pull the wood out, wipe the oils off, and turn it over.

Another theory was to get a heating pad and a towel. Wrap the towel around the stock and put the heating pad around the towel. The heat is supposed to make the wood sweat and the towel is supposed to absorb the oils.

Im not sure about any of these, does anyone restore or know how one can bring the wood back to life without sanding or defacing it?

 

[TampaSupremo]

I am not a gunsmith, but when I bought my Yugoslavian SKS 59/66 a number of years ago it had a lot of cosmoline on it. Cosmoline is a grease used to preserve weapons for long term storage (I'm sure the military men on this board are familiar with it). While cleaning it, I did put the stock in the oven and tried to sweat out some of the grease, but it wasn't big enough to hold the stock so it really never got hot enough. Prolonged shooting will heat up the stock enough to where some of the grease will ooze out, but then it's all over you.

In order to remove cosmoline, I used mineral spirits. The stock for the Yugo 59/66 is not fancy, just gets a light oil rub. I don't know what kind of finish your K98 has, but if you start using solvents on it, you will have to refinish it once it's clean if it has lacquer, shellac, or some other hard finish. Then there is the issue of determining what the original finish was. Different countries used their own blends of oils, finishes, etc in different proportions and some are difficult to recreate (i.e. tha Arisaka rifle of WWII-era Japan uses a special oil from a local tree which is a serious skin irritant if not handled properly). Depending what you want to use it for (shooter or safe-queen) you may not care to go through all the hassle.

Just my $.02.

TampaSupremo

P.S. Search for some surplus gun forums online. As long as the board is not about hunting or modern assault rifles, you will find plenty of how-to's, photos, information, and tales of trial and error related to restoring surplus military arms. I'd even bet that there is a K98 forum out there that has a subsection dedicated to the Israeli mod.

 

[BigJake6904]

Intresting, I appreciate the input. Cosmoline I believe was also used to preserve all of those Russian M44s that are floating around for cheap. I picked one of those up, but the stock was just so oily and uncomfortable, I purchased a black synthetic stock for it.

Im not sure if that's the same substance, but the gentleman at the gun store told me they basically dipped the whole rifle in that stuff. The K98, however, didn't look like it was soaked in anything, just had a really dull color tone...and when I took it out shooting in the texas heat....it just started sweating oils.

I may try that oven trick...the k98 stock isn't all that big.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Wurm]

Lots of great restoring tips on this website (And a lot of cool stuff as well)

http://www.theboxotruth.com/

 

[BigJake6904]

Wow, I just looked at some of those refinish jobs....these guys really know their stuff! Thanks for the link Wurm!

 

[gunsandcigars88]

Jake, one thing that helps in your restoration job is your choice of gun. if you do anything that was to damage that stock you can easily get another one cheap. So it really won't hurt to just try one of those methods. I personally would just try to find a new wood stock for a K98 mauser. They are easy to find and there are some beautifull ones out there.
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