My recent Greek FG Garands

[30Cal]

Field Grades, all hand picked. The one on the left (in the Boyd's stock) at the Reno show, the two on the right from the North Store a week earlier.
5.4milSA, 5.4milSA, 5.8milSA

Before (corresponds to center and right hand rifles in the following pictures):


After





Still need to stain that Boyd's wood, but I'm pretty happy how well the cosmoline queen cleaned up!

Ty

[icormba]

Very nice!

p.s. what are you gonna do with those old beat up stocks?
I'll take them if you don't want them

[phish]

I actually like the un-stained look in imo.

Garands are like K31s, they do seem to multiply if you leave them alone!

[mj1]

Nice deck.

Two of my shooters.




MJ

[30Cal]

Nice looking rifles!

I'd send the beater stocks, but those are them!

I'm still debating whether I want to stain the Boyd's wood. I'm leaning towards "yes." Either way, it'll darken up in a hurry with some more linseed.

[ocabj]

Originally Posted by 30Cal

Nice looking rifles!

I'd send the beater stocks, but those are them!

I'm still debating whether I want to stain the Boyd's wood. I'm leaning towards "yes." Either way, it'll darken up in a hurry with some more linseed.

You prefer using linseed instead of tung oil or tung oil finish?

I have been using Behr's #600 Tung Oil Finish on most of my milsurp stocks, including some Garand walnut wood.

[NRAhighpowershooter]

I have been using BLO.... I tried the Tung Oil but didn't like the finish on it and went back to BLO.

[Whitesmoke]

Those cleaned up real nice...better than I expected. So...how do they shoot? Did you shoot any 100 yard groups?

[elsolo]

I just received a service grade greek return last week. I took it out and shot it yesterday for the first time. I was having no trouble hitting the steel plates at 200 and 300 yards.

Compared to the field grade rifles pistured above, it didn't look as bad when it showed up (mostly the wood gouges), but it is in the same ballpark appearance wise. The wood is three different types, the metal doesn't look much better, my SG rifle has some shiny spots. If I were to order another one ruight now, I would get the field or rack grade and go that route. Save the money and put it towards a new barrel, repark and new wood.

[30Cal]

Originally Posted by ocabj

You prefer using linseed instead of tung oil or tung oil finish?

I have been using Behr's #600 Tung Oil Finish on most of my milsurp stocks, including some Garand walnut wood.

I used a 50/50 coat of BLO and tupentine. When that's dry, I'll use Chestnut Ridge's alcohol based stain on the Boyd's wood to get the red/brown that I like. After that, I'll probably do a couple of coats of pure tung oil.

The refinished stock has two coats of BLO. I'll probably do a couple of more to further darken it before I use tung oil inside and out.

[metalhead357]

Hey 30~

I've heard others say it and now you just did-

One puts Alcohol based stains on AFTER the BLO (Or TO)????

How much of a difference is there if you do the alcohol based stains BEFORE the BLO????

NICE rifles BTW..... your stoocks turned out MUCH nicer than mine!!!!!!

[icormba]

Originally Posted by metalhead357

Hey 30~

I've heard others say it and now you just did-

One puts Alcohol based stains on AFTER the BLO (Or TO)????

How much of a difference is there if you do the alcohol based stains BEFORE the BLO????

NICE rifles BTW..... your stoocks turned out MUCH nicer than mine!!!!!!

It just goes on better after BLO or TO.

[metalhead357]

Originally Posted by icormba

It just goes on better after BLO or TO.

Couldya' Wouldya' explain "better" Less gloss, easy cleanup. darker finish, smoother finish............?????????

[icormba]

Originally Posted by metalhead357

Couldya' Wouldya' explain "better" Less gloss, easy cleanup. darker finish, smoother finish............?????????

From my expierence... less blotchy and easier to control the "darkness".

The alcohol stains are actually dies... The Chestnut Ridge is very close to Fiebings Dark Brown leather die. I buy the Fiebings at my local hobby store, D&J in Campbell. These dies penetrate really deep into the wood... more so than the oil based dies like Minwax or something. Having BLO or TO on first helps to slow the penetration down a tade and also makes it easier to remove darker shades of die if you think you went too dark (with DNA). If I feel I went too dark, I'll take a rag with DNA and rub down the stock in that particular spot to lighten it up a bit.

Clean up? the alcohol dies will STAIN anything! your cloths... the floor... your hands! it can be messy stuff, but DNA (Denatured Alcohol) is the best clean up. But watch out, that stuff can be nasty too... I'll try to use Rubbing Alcohol on my hands if I ever get any die on them, but that doesn't always work.

Positives about the dies besides mixing the right colors we want are that the little bottles will go a long long way.


One more thing... using a die on one type of wood may end up looking totally different on another... like a USGI Walnut stock may end up a nice brownish with a hint of red that we search for, but that same brown die might look bright RED on a Birch stock... (gee, how did I find that out?) haha

Trying to match a Walnut stock with Birch handguards isn't gonna work too well.

[metalhead357]

Thanks! that explained it well!

[30Cal]

Here's a shot of the minty 5.4milSA GK FG in the finished Boyd's stock.

I spent a couple of hours slimming it down and shaping the grip and comb into more of a GI profile. Then a coat of BLO. 3-4 coats of Chestnut Ridge Stain, then another coat of BLO.




The label on the stain says "with a hint of red" which is a big understatement. It looks like an early war stock and I like it.

I need to get down to the range tomorrow or Sunday and see how these babies shoot!

Ty