How to restore the stock finish or look ?

[fourbore]

Or is it possible. About 1/2 the Krags I see have a dark red/brown color and shinny gloss look. I belive the look is from soldiers rubbing gun oil over the stock and 100 years of time. What ever it is I like the old glossy 'look'. The other 1/2 of the guns appeared to have been cleaned at some point. They look lke any other old gun on the rack. I am looing for a nice 1902 ish rifle with the 02 stock and 02 sight and 02 serial number. I found one locally and everything is perfect, good bore, crisp cartouche - BUT !! at some point some one improved it with a good cleaning. I could hold out, or I could give this orphan a home.

Is there any way to get that old look back? I heard tricks like Mystery Oil or Liquid Gold and lots of time and rubbing. Note this is not a preservative, it is to replicate what we know today is bad practice of using petroleum product on a wood stock. That is for the gloss. Then there is the color. Were these stained? The unmolested guns have a deep redish tint.

Can these ever be made to look right again?

[butlersrangers]

The American walnut Krag stocks were stained at Springfield with 'logwood' stain, which gave them a pleasant reddish-brown color.

When woodwork was completed, they were subjected to a soak in hot 'vats' of linseed oil.

There were also 30,000 Krag stocks made from Italian walnut blanks. These are lighter in color, but, sometimes were stained locally to better match the other Krags in a unit.

'Marvel Oil' has no place on a wood stock, use Linseed Oil thinned with turpentine.

Howard's Feed & Wax, Carnauba wax, or Furniture polish like 'Pledge' or 'Liquid Gold' should do no harm to a rubbed Linseed Oil finish.

IMHO and experience, discussion of wood finish and wood care products, will often start a Holy War.

Never use Marvel Oil or Oven Cleaner on wood!

[Whig]

I work on a lot of stocks from general cleaning to restoring and matching varnish and aging colors.

I have used Howard's Feed and Wax for years for cleaning and some restoration work but this will not darken the wood. I use Boiled Linseed Oil when I am trying to restore the aged look and fix stocks that needed some staining initially.

We all have our secret ways of working with our mil surp stocks. The old adage of "Do No Harm" plays well with this kind of work. Strong petroleum products and some chemical cleaners will ruin nice wood so be careful.

If you have a specific problem, post some pictures and let us see. We might suggest a certain approach.

Good luck and keep us informed!

[fourbore]

It appears this forum will host photos. If I get the rifle I will post a picture.

Is there a stain available today that will match the logwood color?

[Whig]

Honestly, with the wide variety of different colors or appearance of authentic, aged, military configuration Krag rifles and carbines, I don't think you need to reproduce the exact original stain used 120 years ago. I have a number of Krags, as do many others on this forum, and most of them, side by side, look different. I use staining to try to best match the specific firearm stock I am working on for consistency of the different parts. I hate seeing a Krag that has a dark stock and a light hand guard. I have actually passed up purchasing some nice Krags because they appeared to be mismatched in their stock parts. That's a dead give-a-way that it has been pieced together at some point.

So, you don't have to reproduce the original color of stain to be authentic or correct.

Others can chime in to help. I have not studied the original staining process as much as some other Krag-philes, so, your question may be answered better by someone else. I just wanted to add my 2c worth of experience!

[Doco Overboard]

I just rubbed wax from an ordinary toilet bowl ring into the woods of a No1 rifle I just restored. Seen it done elsewhere and along with a couple of good doses of flax seed oil, sunlight and turpentine it worked like a charm.
That barbaric thick gooey yellow wax brought it around very well for for what I wanted to achieve after scraping the stock to iron it out some. It's like a hundred years of dirty wax build up in a very short time, glad I found out about it.
This was, however on a rifle that's been around some. A really nice piece of wood probably wouldn't be subjected to such a desperate measure unless it was broken or needed some patch work and blending.

[butlersrangers]

Was it a 'used' toilet seal ring or a new one?
I'm sure that a 'used' ring would have some interesting added ingredients! :D

(Sorry, I could not help myself).

IIRC - The main ingredient (on a new toilet seal ring) is Bee's Wax.

Bee's Wax is also a large component part of 'Howard's Wax & Feed' and many other antique wood polish and final finish recipes.

Mixtures of Bee's Wax or Carnauba wax are benign wood treatments and nicely restore luster and a slight sheen, when hand rubbed and buffed with a soft cloth.
They help protect wood and are easily thinned or removed with turpentine, mineral spirits, or a turpentine & linseed oil mixture.

[Whig]

Doco's toilet bowl wax treatment really makes the stock look like sh*t!

[Capt. Frank]

Not sure if they still are, but toilet ring were made of bee's wax.

[Doco Overboard]

I use to go with flaked and then melted bee's wax mixed with a little turps and BLO but realized I was just playing with my....well you know what. One thing is for sure sandpaper is probably the worst enemy of stock wood.

If you can create a barrier to allow some polymerization to occur with most oils that have driers added without successive coats congealing is where you can get some good results especially on a working rifle like this one.