Gun Stock Restoration | Cleaning, Repairing, & Refinishing Milsurp Wood | No.1 Mk.III Lee Enfield DP
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2024
- I've begun restoring a Ishapore No.1 Mk.III Enfield Musket using a DP rifle for parts. I'm tackling the wood first, cleaning, repairing, and refinishing the stock. Cosmoline was the biggest issue. We took care of that the "Easy" way with Easy-Off oven cleaner. There were some cracks that needed to be corrected so we knocked that out with some Acraglas. Finally it needed a new finish and as usual boiled linseed oil was the go-to. This is just part one of this restoration project so stay tuned for a video on cleaning up the metal. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product and of course getting it out to the range with original round ball ammo.
Thanks for Watching!
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Gun Stock Restoration | Cleaning, Repairing, & Refinishing Milsurp Wood | No.1 Mk.III Lee Enfield DP
@centuryarms
Using a dental pick to removing cosmoline is one of the most tedious parts of conserving a gun but, it definitely is one of my favorite steps. It helps me appreciate it that much more when it’s finished.
I can't wait to do this with the ishapore enfield I just bought, super excited 😁
@@brandonf3727 enjoy it man. Put on some music or a podcast and just let the good times roll.
I love listening to military history audio books while cleaning.
Agreed. It is therapeutic almost.
I love the smell of Ballistol and use it every chance I get. Excellent for neutralizing corrosive ammo salts.
I have to say that you almost made me cry several times.
I’ve been doing stock repair and restoration for almost 34 years. I also teach stock repair and restoration.
It would take very long to go over everything done wrong in the video so, I’ll just cover the finishing of the stock.
There is more then one way to skin a cat and even more ways to apply a BLO, and other oil finishes.
A lot of time things will very, depending on the type of wood, condition of the wood, the climate, and the oil that you are using.
Every time I here someone quote, “One coat a day for a week, one coat a week for a year and one coat a year for life.” I cringe That’s good advice if you’re trying to oil soak a stock and make it heavy.
Your basic oil finish is oil that is rubbed into the wood and cures just below the surface and is then protected by a wax top coat.
You were correct that sanding is not needed but you do need to smoothen the surface and compress the surface for a better feel and finish. Boning is the best way to go. Boning is rubbing down the surface with a smooth bone, or hardwood dowel to smoothen and compress the surface. This is done on older military stocks so that you don’t sand away the patina, which is the aged surface of the wood.
A basic BLO finish should take no more then a week or two to finish. The key is to not over oil the stock and allow drying time between coats.
When I say coats, I’m not talking about applying layers on top of layers. A coat just refers to another application of oil.
If you’re stock is smooth, start off with a wet coat. This coat is applied very wet. You will want to rub it in but keep the stock wet as you keep rubbing. Do this by hand with some type of thin gloves. After you have rubbed it in good, set the stock aside to rest. Give it 30 min. to soak up some of the oil. Now take a look at the stock. You will see one of three things. A wet stock. A stock with wet spots, or a dry stock. These three things have to do with the condition of the stock. Some stocks will soak up more oil then others.
Now wipe the stock dry. Even if the stock looks dry, wipe it down. I like to use paper towels for whipping down the stock.
Now you need to allow the oil time to dry. In most cases this will only take 24 hours, but can take longer depending on the climate. It is not that important that the oil in the stock to be completely dry at this point.
Now rub in another wet cost, but not to wet. Rub it in good until you start to feel your palms getting warm. Once done, let the stock relax for 30 min. and then wipe dry and let it dry for 24 hours. Remember, your time may very.
Now you’re ready to start putting the finial touches to your finish. Remember, you’re not trying to soak the stock. What you want to do now is a polish coat. A polish coat is very easy and takes very little oil. You want to put just enough oil on the stock to get it slightly damp. This is best to do in sections. Apply a little oil and rub the hell out of it. You want to feel the wood getting hot. This will cause the color in the wood to come out. Once you have finished hand polishing the coat of oil in, the stock should look almost dry. Let it relax for 30 min. and wipe it down. And let it dry. You can apply another polish coat, or go to a wax top coat. If you want another polish coat, wait 24 hours.
Your final step. The wax top coat. This is what will protect your oil finish and will need to be reapplied depending on how much the rifle is used.
You want to be sure that the oil in the stock is dry before applying a wax top coat. If you apply the wax to soon, it will turn milky in a few days. The wax will need to be removed, another polish coat done and the apply the wax top coat when the stock is dry.
To tell if your stock is dry, let it sit for 48 hours. Then rub a few spots on the stock with a dry paper towel. If oil comes off the stock, wait another 24 hours and do another test rub. Once the oil does not rub off, it has cured and you are ready to apply the wax top coat.
For military stocks I prefer Tom’s 1/3 Mix Military Stock Wax. It will give you that nice wax coat without the shiny finish. You can use a paste wax, but they tend to give you a shiny finish.
Note: I didn’t forget about the oil scrub. The oil scrub is used for a couple of reasons. One is when you’re dealing with a stock that is a little rough but you want it a little smoother, or if you have a laminated stock that is not quite smooth. A scrub coat is like a wet coat but rubbed in with 0000 Steel wool. Just remember not to scrub to hard.
Now over the years I’ve had several people tell me that I didn’t know what I was talking about, or didn’t know what I was doing. Just about all of these people had very little experience in applying oil finishes. I’ve done close to a thousand oil finishes in the last 33 years.
I’ve used two names on gun forums, Candyman and GunnyUSMC. You can find plenty of my post with pics and detailed information over at The High Road forum where I go by GunnyUSMC. The easiest way to contact me, or ask questions is over at THR forum.
I hope this information helps you and your subscribers.
Thanks for the info!
His money his stock,dont be that annoying type of guy who pushes himself in every story
@@TheJole88 Maybe you should look and see the comment before yours and who posted it. And don’t be the annoying guy that feels like he needs to defend people that don’t ask for his help, even when nothing was done wrong.
I have been collecting for many years and have hundreds of guns in my collection. Been thinking about down sizing and was thinking about offering the guy some at reasonable prices, unlike the over priced stuff on the market.
Solid advice
I must agree. It is not only annoying, but a major disservice to dispense How To advice to such a broad audience when you really don’t know what you’re doing. Think of all the people that will be out there DAMAGING, not “restoring” items when following videos like this.
tip for the acraglass if you take some sawdust from an inconspicuous spot on the stock and mix it in without the die it makes for a great color blender that matches the stock better than just a black line
Nice tip!
I have used 0000 Steel Wool to gently knock the grain back down after stripping or clean up. Looks great so far.
Yeah that's a nice addition. I've done that before between coats of BLO for a more shiny finish.
Very comprehensive description of the cosmoline removal process. Thank you. 👍
You are very welcome. Thanks for watching!
man that went from crusty to nice in a few short minutes the power of film great job
It took most of the day and a couple of hours the next lol. Totally worth the effort though and the easy off really did save a ton of time and labor.
I did the Easy-off and BLO treatment to my 1950 Long Branch No.4 Mk.I* stock about 20 years ago. I did 2 or 3 applications of the oven cleaner and it got ALL that crud and cosmoline out without scraping but it really wasn't too dirty on the inside to begin with. I think with mine the dirt on the outside of the stock was mostly from handling over the years. It turned out nice and I have never had any cosmoline bleed out.
Now on my Yugo M48 the wood was practically full of cosmoline. I used the heat from two halogen work lights to sweat the cosmoline out because I didn't think Easy-off would cut it. So much heat for so long that it warped the stock! I couldn't tell from looking at it that it was warped, I found that out when I reassembled the rifle and the barrel didn't fit the barrel channel very well. The second mistake was using Formby's low-gloss tung oil for a stock finish. This looks awesome on some stocks but not on the M48's wood. BLO would have made it look more original and that's what I used for the replacement stock I had to buy to replace the stock I ruined. Of course, the replacement stock does not have a matching serial number. Lesson learned.
You live and you learn. I could have easily made the same mistake.
I just picked up a DP ishipore from Black Market Arms to replace parts and stock on a sporter 1918 SMLE. I couldn't be happier with how good of condition the DP rifle is in. Stock is very nice with almost no dings. If you're still looking for DP's, they've got great ones.
Finally got some real results. I’ve tried everything but your method was easy and very effective.
Looking really good so far man! I do my linseed oil though the way the arsenals did it by taking a large 5 galling tank full and heating using a double boiler system I made so that the oil is hot (about 130-140F) then submerged the cleaned and stripped stocks in it for 15 minutes and allow them to come up to temperature and open the wood grain and soak up the oil. Then I let them hang and drip over the tank for about an hr then wipe off the excess. Once that’s done I buff the stock using a cotton or wool pad to get that hand rubbed finish. The final product you get is unmatched and makes the stock look like it just rolled out of the Arsenal.
Awesome! I'd love to have a set up like that one of these days.
I purchased an Enfield .410 Musket from Century Arms a few weeks ago. I received it about 5 days ago. The wood is almost solid black due to the sheer amount of oil that soaked into this rifle. Amazingly though, the pitting on the metal parts, including the receiver as at the very minimum and almost all of the orange preservative paint has remained on the barrel beneath the wood, which I want to preserve, not remove, so I plan to just use some gun oil and a light bristle brush on what little rust there is on the muzzle end of the barrel, so as not to damage that original paint. Long story short, the rifle was only missing a front trigger guard screw, the front rear hand guard, the safety and an extractor spring. Nothing else was missing on this rifle which totally caught me off guard. These rifles were advertised as not having a bolt, missing parts and the stock possibly being broken. Now, the upper hand guard was included with this rifle, however, it was split completely in half down the center and off the to the side. I realized that with some downward pressure, the two pieces come together perfectly with no evidence of a crack even existing, so the hand guard will come together nicely with some bedding glass. Now, to my question. With the level of grease and oil that is saturated this wood, will a heat gun damage the stock if I should try to bleed some of that oil out, or would it be better to just hit it with the Easy Off. The stock doesn't match to the rifle, so I would not feel as guilty as I would if I did it to a stock that was matching with the rifle.
I hit mine with a heat gun a little and I didn't like how it reacted. It was smoking and bubbling and seemed to be burning.
yesterday i spent the better part of 8 hours with just a bottle of linseed oil and 0000 steel wool and completely cleaned everything on a 1912 sht le no1 mk 3* . I gotta tell you this thing never looked better since 1912 . the cosmoline kept everything well preserved this whole time original blueing is intact only to very small negligible spots of pitting on side of receiver and sight base this thing is pristine and the stock is great looking now . love hate relationship with cosmoline. I'll tell you
Very nice! Sounds like a beautiful rifle.
You did a great job on that. Ever since I saw Mark Novak use Danish Oil on his channel, that's been my go to, but still do the BLO or tung oil on occasion.
I want to give both tung and Danish oil a shot at some point. Just have all this BLO to use up lol. Enfields were originally finished with BLO too so for this project it just seemed right.
@@ReadinessReviews Very early (Pre-WWI)Enfields were finished with what was called "stand oil", linseed oil that had been heated in an airtight retort. This was the original BLO. Later guns were dipped in raw linseed oil in heated tanks, presumably on cost grounds.
I followed the whole video for reference for my k98 and holy cow I couldn't be happier! ballistol smells delicious btw😆
Glad it was helpful!!
I have soaked stocks up to where the barrel band is. (To get rid of oil stains and to degrease.) I then use accruglass to repair cracks Then I use linseed oil. Many times you can’t even tell I partially refinished the stock. Ballistol works great to remove copper and lead from your barrel. The secret is to let it sit for five minutes. On another RUclips channel I guy tested it. It was the only aerosol spray cleaner that removed copper,lead and carbon. Didn’t work however if you didn’t let it sit. I use the oil as well as the aerosol spray.
Ballistol is fantastic stuff!
I like your videos, they remind me of my younger days haunting pawn shops and gun shows for milsurps. I have a hack for a dark rich stain for these old rifles. Fiebings or Tandy oil dye meant for leather. It dyes color consistent across a wide range of wood types which is a common occurrence on these late British Enfields. Dark walnut color is a good choice. If the color has too much red in the color you can lighten or adjust the color with steel wool, or if the color has too much red tones, chlorine bleach on a rag will yellow the red down to a pleasing color, wear rubber gloves. Make sure you neutralize it after with a water.
in india still some Police stations using this 303 Gun, it's very accurate and reliable.
Excellent informational video, thankyou, greatly appreciated. 👍🇦🇺
Thank you for checking it out!
Nice, love these vids, just nearly done with refinishing a pair of CETME C wood stock and handguard. Got one in walnut, and thinking of doing the other in a nice Tangerine stain.
I have a CETME wood stock project I'll be working on in the future.
@@ReadinessReviews oh awesome, what do you plan to do with it?
Outstanding video👍 Have some of those projects waiting in the wings .
I have Accu-glass , bought it so I could repair a duffle cut on my Arisaka type 38 , just have not done so yet . I have refinished 3 rifle stocks ,a Mosin 91/30 , Mosin M44 and. Spanish Mauser in 7.62x51 NATO . I used several coats of BLO on each of them
It does the job well and gives you plenty of time to work with it before curing. I'm sure those rifles look great.
Awesome job. Looks great. Awesome video RR
Thanks Marilyn! Hope you are doing well.
Great job, RR ! Interesting technique. Good looking wood. Peace, John.
Thanks brother! Take it easy.
You should do a video listing all the various websites, stores etc that deal in Mil Surp guns, surplus items etc
I actually want to but I can't think of a way to do it without getting in trouble with RUclips. It's against the rules to promote anything like that and even if I was just talking about it and not exactly promoting I think they wouldn't like it very much.
Great job on the restoration!
Thanks! The metal has been kicking my butt lol.
@@ReadinessReviews Metal sure is a pain to restore lol. Anyways I’m exited to see how it all turns out!
I use raw linseed oil, drys way faster
I have always used Kerosene to remove Cosmoline. Its not as harsh on metal and wood.
I've used diesel on metal.
If the wood is not gouged out bad.I put my stocks in a wallpaper tub,added water and pool chlorine ,Put the stock in it.holding it underwater with a piece of wood in the mag well and two heavier pieces of wood (2X6) on top of the wood in the mag well Walk away Check every 30 minutes of so.When done it comes out bleach white. hang it up to dry..Most if not all markings on the wood will be clearer after bleaching.
While it's drying thats the time you clean medal parts, re-blue parts as needed, clean out the bore,oil the parts..
Once dry start light sanding.staying with the grain,.Once it's where you want it.Use tru-oil or pick the stain you want,stain it,Give it a coat or two of satin polyurethane. Let dry, Once dry.. Then reassembly,.
Never heard that method before. Sounds like it would work very well if you were wanting to do a full refinish.
Simple green is the best thing for cosmoline.
I've been meaning to pick some up for my ultrasonic.
@@ReadinessReviews It degreases better than anything I've ever used and it has no harmful fumes. I soaked a Carcano that was mummified in cosmo and it even pulled it out if the wood just needed lots of rinsing to get it washed away
I have a Isapore 410 Enfield that has a crack in the buttstock. Will Acraglass help fix that?
GOD Bless you and your family
I've had success with wd40 to get globs off of metal parts. For wood I've used heat or dawn soap. (Good enough for oily ducks, good enough for gun wood?)
I almost said that exact thing about the Dawn in the video lol.
Ah I see somebody else had my idea I got mine in March but didn't get to tearing them down until last week. Also for cosmoline I bought a harbor freight heat gun and it literally melted the cosmoline away
That's mostly how I do the metal lol. Same heat gun too.
I use ballistol
Tells his audience about how dangerous and nasty the oven cleaner is, *Immediately proceeds to spray it all over the place with barehands*. :P Nitrile gloves are cheap, usem!
Love your vids, first time commenting, but I have to disagree with the use of oven cleaner. The only way to get that original dark oiled finish that has depth is through grunge, oil, and most importantly, time.
Oven cleaner strips the wood for sure, of everything of value. Wipe it down with mineral spirits, and then dab some citristrip on the paint sections, or just keep using more mineral spirits on those sections. The paint will flake off, and you can use a razor to peel it away. Yes the wood will be lighter colored underneath the paint strips, but then you preserve the original oil finish that's taken decades to mature/accumulate over the whole rifle. Sometimes if its really bad, you can also just spray the whole thing down with citristrip in general, and it will accomplish a similar thing as oven cleaner without raising the grain like the oven cleaner did, and in some cases, if you do it lightly enough, you can preserve some of the underlying oil finish while still removing most of the cosmo.
I've done this for dozens of DPs I've used to restore sporters over the years, and it looks much better than a full strip and re-BLOing a gun. 95% of the time. Sometimes it does just need to be taken back to wood, have to admit. But in almost zero cases would I advocate for Oven Cleaner. Go with CItristrip instead!
I know you're cobbling two rifles together, but it just hurts to see all that beautiful original finish stripped away. Had to say my peace. Carry on, love the vids and that you're sharing our hobby!
I have no doubt your way works fantastically. I like trying as many new methods as possible. I just used the oven cleaner on this one because it was DP and I was already making an abomination. Plus it saved me tons of time which is something I'm very short of these days. To be honest I can barely find any time to actually work on restorations.
Has anyone taken off those side stock bolts with a spanner? i have a Berthier rifle that had considerable rust on the bolt and i was just wondering if it is a bad idea.
From what I've seen taking those out can cause a good bit of wood to chip out. I'm sure there is a professional way of going about it but I'm unaware of that method.
@@ReadinessReviews Thanks thats nice of you to take the time to answer my questions. love the vids as well ofc too :)
I got a b-grade 1916 smle and my stock is wobbly and the upper hand guard is not keep on very well. I think I got a c-grade instead. Should I keep it?
Another good video!
A few critiques however,
Enfield stocks should not be finished with boiled linseed oil, they should be finished with raw linseed oil (or flaxseed oil). Modern boiled linseed oil contained various chemicals and drying agents, this does result in a different shade then the proper RLO.
The part where you applied ballistol to the inside of the forend is completely uneccisary. Lee Enfields were greased below the wood line with a mix of beeswax and mineral jelly (this is the correct stuff for an Ishapore or subcontinent rifle) melting some of this and conservatively applying it with a rag to the metal will do the trick. Ballistol is a poor wood finish, and applying it to the wood will do nothing but leave the wood slightly shiny. It does absolutely nothing to prevent corrosion with the metal it's contacting.
Otherwise, good video. Happy to see a Commonwealth rifle come back to life
Interesting. I've never heard of those woodline coating before but sounds like a good idea.
Enfield woods, Britain walnut and beech, Canada walnut, Savage birch, India rosewood and teak and Australia Queensland Maple and legacy walnut from the UK.
I am restoring a Carcano M38. I tried refinishing with just linseed oil but the wood looked too light, so I decided to try an oil mahogany stain. My wood color now has spotty dark splotches. Do you have any thoughts? Thanks for the great video.
Hey I have a smle with that same dp stock I was wondering what would be the easiest way to remove the painted markings from the wood
It's going to be really hard to remove them without messing with the wood finish. Like I showed the Easy off takes the paint right off but it takes everything else with it too. Maybe try some mineral spirits.
@@ReadinessReviews okay sounds good I will give the mineral spirits a try thank you for your help and I really do appreciate the work you put in especially your no1 mk3 restoration guide it helped me out a lot with assemble of the rifle keep up the good work
What are your thoughts on using a dremel?
It's very useful for certain jobs. I rarely find myself using one on a gun though.
Why not steam out some of the dents while you're at it?
Sounds like a Mickey Mouse gun tutorial
Washing a gun stock with tons of water, hot or cold, just doesn't make sense.
@@pegheadit's crap & what he did is the ONLY way to restore something in such terrible condition
make sure you get all the soap off of the wood or it will interfere with the new finish.
can i please, have the bad parts you replaced?
Try Simple Green 🍏 Grease Remover from the Home Depot in a Spray Bottle. Non Caustic,water clean up.
I use it in my ultrasonic
why would you clean off the unique markings? don't those have value?
I'm not very concerned with the marketing on a Drill rifle that I specifically bought to use for parts. Plus I have another with the paint marks still in perfect condition.
Someone somewhere is screaming about ruining the rifles because people are idiots
Someone is always mad. In general I'm very conservative about what I do to the rifles as to not mess them up. When it comes to DP and broken rifles I don't mind cutting corners here and there to make the job easier though.
@@ReadinessReviews I'm a firm believer in restoring firearms unless they are particularly rare or something about their current condition marks them as rare. I'd argue it's our duty to restore these poorer condition rifles to ensure that future generations will have them. I also understand that eventually with these types of rifles the only option to keep them around for future generations is to turn to aftermarket parts
@@JohnDoe-nf7up couldn't have said it better.
on a side note oven cleaner destroys the wood fibers . great for getting off stuff but terrible for the wood itself
This wood was already toast so I wasn't too worried about it.
true . I feel the same about my mosin nagant m9130. did a linseed finish on that as well as the oven cleaner method red schalak sucks balls
Try kerosene. Works great, just do it outside. Cosmoline melts right off.
I had a really hard time finding it the last time I looked. I bought diesel instead. It does basically the same thing.
First
Nice!
I don’t know where you purchase your Milsurp rifles but you’re getting the absolutes bottom of the barrel. Also, using chemicals like Ez-Off is a mistake.
Господи как же ты много говоришь
Got to be honest …. That’s one of the worst stocks I’ve seen…….. I personally would have looked for better furniture……… love your patience though😅👍🏼
Have you seen milsurp rifles before?
They get far worse than this video.
Imo it's not even really that bad.
I dunno what he paid. That plays it it.
Never......ever........use oven cleaner on a gun. Ever.....