What I would like to find is the equivalent information in official Japanese Ordnance publications. So that "refinished" stock you see may actually be original and not refinished.) It sure removed proofs & cartouches …" It's not unreasonable to assume that other armies also followed similar practices. Army about once a year on a nice afternoon we (platoon) would scrape the old finish from our Garands (w/broken glass), bone the wood to close the grain & reapply linseed oil.This procedure had been done forever & probably accounts for some cases where metal looks better than the wood. (As I was finishing this article, I saw the following post on Tuco's Collectors' Forum. The stocks and handguards which have been accepted after the necessary machining operations have been performed are scraped, sanded and immersed in raw linseed oil and allowed to remain in the oil about five minutes, after which they are removed and allowed to dry." Small cuts and bruises are filled with shellac or a mixture of shellac and sawdust. and the patching of sections which have been badly cut or bruised. "The repairs found necessary on the stocks and handguards are. A., from Army Ordnance, July-August, 1928, Vol. The book also contains a reprint of the article "Overhauling the Service Rifle," by Lieut. The stock and hand guard or barrel guard should be removed from the barrel and receiver for such oiling." (, page 104)
Care must be exercised not to allow the oil to get into the mechanism of the rifle as it will harden and prevent functioning. The surplus oil should be wiped off and the stock polished with a clean dry cloth or the palm of the hand.
About once a month apply OIL, linseed, raw, with a CLOTH, wiping, to the wood. How was that finish obtained? Here I think is the answer from the official US Army source. It is then drained for a few minutes and next placed in a rack to dry for several hours - usually overnight." (, page 268)Īnybody who has used boiled linseed oil on a stock will realize that a single such coat will not produce the finish so often seen on '03 Springfields. "The oiling of the stock is effected by dipping it into a tank of boiled linseed oil. As background, here is the method used by the US in finishing the stocks for the 03 Springfield. The biggest difficulty with the boiled linseed finish is the time it takes to produce a truly water resistant finish. "Flax for seed is grown extensively in the United States and in Argentina, India, and Canada." (, Vol. The rate of drying may be accelerated by allowing the oil to to stand in air for a long period before application by blowing air through it by heating it, either alone or in the presence of certain inorganic substances such as lead oxide or by dissolving in it certain dryers, generally oil-soluble soaps of lead, manganese, and other metals." (,Vol. Raw linseed oil, which has been extracted from the flaxseed but has undergone little or no other treatment, dries rather slowly. "Linseed Oil, a yellow, vegetable oil obtained from the seed of the flax plant and used extensively in paints and other protective coatings. There seems to be very little factual information on what finishes were used, so hopefully this article can start some investigations into the actual finishes used on the Model 99 rifle stock.īased on the examples I have seen, it seems that all Japanese rifles used the boiled linseed finish until the introduction of the Model 99. In so doing I began some research into trying to discover what the original finishes were, since, if possible, I would like to use as close to the original type of finish as possible in restoring these stocks. After making the necessary repairs, I realized the repaired portions would have to be refinished to match the rest of the stock. Moreover, replacement stocks are getting harder and harder to find, especially in decent condition at a reasonable price. As I have done wood and metal working (as a hobby) for more than 40 years including considerable rifle stock work, I feel confident in my ability to refurbish rifle stocks. While it may be easier (and quicker) to simply find a replacement stock, I prefer to keep the original stock with the rifle, particularly if the stock is numbered to the rifle. Recently I have been trying to repair some Japanese rifle stocks. This article is from the May 2000 issue, pages 131 - 135. The Finish on Japanese Model 99 Rifle Stocks