Project by Jim55 | posted 04-06-2018 12:34 PM | 2605 views | 0 times favorited | 15 comments | ![]() |
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I acquired a model 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifle some years ago that was missing it’s handguard over the barrel. I’ve long meant to make a replacement- originals are almost impossible to find, well, I finally done it.
Originally a Russian gun, this one was taken by Finland and put in a stock of their making. The hand guards of this design are notoriously fragile.
I just used some western redwood I had laying around to make one as a test piece. I scorched the wood in places with a heat gun to simulate the Finn stock wood and stained it with, of all things, some bottled brown shoe ‘scuff coat’. I then finished it with linseed oil and wax mixture I whomped up myself. I imagine the original wood was birch. I’m thinking of trying to make another from hickory. Anyway, here is the finished product.
15 comments so far
FreddieMac
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163 posts in 1316 days
#1 posted 04-06-2018 01:21 PM
Nice looking work
Joe
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#2 posted 04-06-2018 01:30 PM
You did a very nice job matching the look of the stock. Thanks for inspiring
-- CurleyJoe, "You only learn from your mistakes"
Billfish
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#3 posted 04-06-2018 03:36 PM
Great job building and matching the finish of the stock thanks for posting
Bill
ralbuck
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#4 posted 04-06-2018 03:47 PM
Very fine refitting!
Making gun pieces is very challenging; I have tried and failed too.
-- Wood rescue is good for the environment and me! just rjR
Jim55
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#5 posted 04-06-2018 05:31 PM
Thanks all!
splintergroup
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#6 posted 04-06-2018 05:40 PM
Looks like a great fit and finish!
Those old stocks were usually oil saturated wrecks and getting a good arsenal rebuild with a new beech stock was difficult.
MilFlyer
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#7 posted 04-06-2018 06:05 PM
Beautiful!
-- VR, Richard "Fear is nothing more than a feeling. You feel hot. You feel hungry. You feel angry. You feel afraid. Fear can never kill you"--Remo Williams
Dave Polaschek
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#8 posted 04-06-2018 10:57 PM
Looks like that’ll do the job. Well done!
-- Dave - Santa Fe
Richard
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#9 posted 04-07-2018 01:50 AM
Very Nice Work & Well Done!
Regards: Rick
-- Richard (Ontario, CANADA)
Jim55
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194 posts in 3034 days
#10 posted 04-07-2018 12:19 PM
Mosins are not so bad as you might think. The Soviets generally slathered their rifles with a heavy coat of shellac which prevented the stocks from absorbing the cosmoline.
The Mausers vary. But there are ways to draw the cosmoline, heat being the most reliable. I live in Texas and I’ll take a cosmo drenched stock and simply hang it on the barn wall which conveniently faces south. The stuff literally drips off come late afternoon.
Some folks make a stock oven- a tube with a screen at one end and a heat lamp bulb at the other. Hang it vertically to let the cosmo drip out.
Some stocks however, will be so thoroughly saturated that nothing will ever draw it all out. There is still one recourse left (other than the burn barrel). Seal it in. As noted, shellac will block the passage of the cosmo. Thoroughly coat the stock with shellac inside and out. Put a bit of tape over stamps to preserve them first however. Then sand the shellac just to the wood’s surface then you can put a bit of oil finish for proper looks.
I am one of those that encourages these historic firearms. At today’s prices, there is nothing to be gained by sporterizing a firearm that’s no longer made. If you simply must, I would encourage any would be sporterizer to at least research the rifle in their grasp. Just a difference in markings or minor change in detail can render an otherwise commonplace rifle into a rather rare one.
splintergroup
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#11 posted 04-07-2018 01:32 PM
+1!
For old Garand stocks, I’d wrap then in some towels and leave them on my dash board, The heat then did the rest to sweat out the oil.
Those old Nagants are interesting rifles, I have several, including a 91/30 PU and M39 Finn. Great with cast bullets!
Jim55
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#12 posted 04-08-2018 11:21 AM
You can take that a couple steps further. For a really saturated stock, put your stock & hand-guard in a black plastic trash bag with some ground clay “oil soak” or kitty litter (not the clumping kind!) and put THAT in your car’s dash or rear window deck. Shake it up a couple or three times a day. Then after three to five days, no more than a week I’d say, you can take it out and give the stock a good wash in mineral spirits and you can give it whatever finish you want.
With that, I’ll say thanks and for more gun info, please visit “Gunboards.” I realize I’m veering pretty far from the wood working aspects of this topic. Thanks for the indulgence though!
Sasha
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1281 posts in 2181 days
#13 posted 04-08-2018 04:05 PM
After the restoration
-- Ganchik Sasha. Life is not a draft, tomorrow you will not redo......
Knothead62
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#14 posted 04-19-2018 01:12 AM
We had a 1903 and 1903A3. Held the stock over the gas range and let the cosmoline seep out, wipe down, repeat until all is gone.
Jim55
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194 posts in 3034 days
#15 posted 07-30-2018 11:29 AM
Sasha. Great save on those stocks. But, whatever in the world did they do to the metal??!!
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