Yesterday's Weapons Forums

A few years ago, after I had three consecutive recoil crossbolts get hammered back into/loosened in their formerly cosmo-soaked K98k stocks, I decided to look around for some backup stocks, and so wound up buying a few Norwegian K98k stocks. They all look to be in pretty good shape, some even with all matching metal, but where the YC and RC stocks were soaked with cosmo, these look a bit on the excessively dry side, so I'd like to know if there is anything that can be done to shore up the wood, and also to prevent further drying.

I've often read that the Norwegians applied a varnish or some other similar finish coat over the K98k stocks after they got them .. did they do this with ALL of those stocks, or just some?
All of mine have a bit of a shiny surface to them, but I can't tell if that's just due to the dryness of the stocks or an extra finish coat.

Any way to tell for sure by the appearance whether they've had varnish applied post-war?

If it IS varnish of some sort, any way to safely remove it?

I'm thinking Howard's Feed 'n Wax would be a safe enough product to replenish the wood a bit with or without the extra varnish coat?

If varnish you will need a paint remover, for shellac use denatured alcohol.

Rad

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AMA Life Member
Tri-State Gun Collectors Life Member

Kleen Strip antique in a spray can will do fine

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

The bayo lugs, crossbolts and buttplates on all of these stocks match their stock serials, so I don't want to be the first after all of these years to try to remove them;), plus every stock except for one is laminated. Safe to use all of these chemicals on laminated stocks? I'm thinking if I can't find an effective cleaning agent that isn't quick to evaporate I'll probably leave the stocks 'as is'.
Long shot here ... I think I read somewhere that kerosene is a good wood preservative?
Also, maybe not exactly a popular topic among serious collectors, but does anyone know what Mitchell's Mausers uses to clean their stocks?

I haven't a clue what they use, but just the mention of Mitchells Mousers made me laugh. The self-styled "experts on the 98K forum of a popular milsurp site get a real knot in their dental floss and their panties all bunched up at the mere mention of that company.

They seem to feel morally obliged to act like real a$$ hats to n00bs who inquire after them. Froth at the mouth, they do. I've always been tempted to bait the jerks, but they are just not worth the trouble.

I own no Mousers and have exactly no plans to ever acquire one ( just got rid of a mouser bayonet right here a couple days ago) so I don't get too revved up about it. I do think they are over priced for what they are, but we are all free to poop our $ away on things that please us.

tHere's a demotivator I made for another site - feel free to lift it.SW


zMM2.jpg [ 144.2 KiB | Viewed 5307 times ]

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Slava Ukraini!!

If you look at the MM stocks you see that are sanded rather heavy.

The red glue is supposed to be a lot better than the white glue. Some say don't get the white glue wet.

Rad

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NRA Benefactor Member
AMA Life Member
Tri-State Gun Collectors Life Member

The Kleen-Strip Antique spray is what I used in the past on an RC laminated stock with no ill effects. It is very gentle on wood, especially old wood. Laminated first came into play via lack of good stock blanks, then it was found that they weren't prone to warpage due to moisture. Basically the glue that binds the layers of wood made them nearly impervious.

If you have a fear, then use the gentlest method first. Denatured alcohol. If that does not work (which I doubt they are shellacked) use mineral spirits. If that fails then move on to harsher methods.

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

Plenty KleenStrip products on the shelves here at the local hardware stores, but neither 'KleenKutter' nor the 'Antique' spray in sight within the past few years
The WaA's & serials stamped on the Norway stocks are there, but they're not clear .. even if the stocks were sanded down beforehand, it looks like a fairly clear coat of something or other was applied afterwards over them ... by comparison, I have a few RC stocks that have much sharper WaA stamps visible through the reddish finish.
Looks like none of my 'beater' laminated stocks are held together by the pre-war white glue, so I'm tempted to experiment a bit beyond OMS and DNA with the whole lot .....