T-53 cleaning

[NOTABIKER]

i have 2 T-53s i bought from a local Calguner still in the boxes. I get them out of dros in 10 days. My plan is to only clean the metal and wood. The wood on both of them has that light chalky color on the wood which is very dirty. I am NOT going to refinish the wood and try to make them pretty but i do want to wipe them down with something and maybe rub some linseed oil into the wood to prevent further deterioration. these will be shooters . I will not even touch the wood with 0000 steel wool, or light sand paper.
Which will clean the wood better de natured alcohol or mineral spirits. I am open to other ideas for cleaning but i am going to clean the wood and am not worried about the original finish coming off.
i have cleaned many Russian mosins but these chinese are made from different wood and i do not know if the chinese uses Shellac on them. One is a 1953 [ test ] and both have nice rifling. I already re did a T-53 last year but i did sand it and cover it in shellac and i do not want to do that again.

[Armistice]

I'm not sure if they used shellac, but the finish on mine was flaking off

[Chaos47]

The white haze is reportedly from CAI batch degreasing them which messed up the remaining shellac. There was a post here last year about someone rubbing WD-40 onto the white areas and it de-hazed it.. Sounds strange... but they said it worked.

The wood is purportedly "chu wood" and it does not take oil stains very well. So I don't know how well linseed oil will do.


BTW the "test" mark Chinese character is "shi".

[Enfield47]

If the finish is flaking off it's probably shellac. Try a heating up a little BLO, dip some burlap in it and rub the stock down. That should clean it up without doing damage to the finish.*

I haven't tried it on shellac because I don't own any rifles with that finish but it works well for other finishes so I think it would be fine on a Mosin too.

[shda5582]

I'm pretty certain that the Russians didn't use shellac, and here's why:


Recently refinished my rifle to a Russian Red color, and put shellac on it for an authentic finish. Well, was at the range for the last shoot and noticed that after a couple of shots that the shellac was starting to bubble on the handguard and the foreguard from the heat. This is a weakness of shellac, which leads me to think that the Russians wouldn't have used shellac to finish the rifles off.

[Chaos47]

I'm pretty certain that the Russians didn't use shellac, and here's why:


Recently refinished my rifle to a Russian Red color, and put shellac on it for an authentic finish. Well, was at the range for the last shoot and noticed that after a couple of shots that the shellac was starting to bubble on the handguard and the foreguard from the heat. This is a weakness of shellac, which leads me to think that the Russians wouldn't have used shellac to finish the rifles off.

huh?
1 We are talking about the Chinese T-53
2 From what it sounds like you stained the wood and then covered it with shellac. Thats not how the Russians did it they used tinted shellac.
3 You probably did too thick of coats.
4 You didn't let it cure anywhere near long enough.
5 How can you say that the "Russians wouldn't have used shellac to finish the rifles off." When they clearly did on all sorts of weapons in their arsenal...

[knucklehead0202]

I'd rub it down with DA, let it dry and then see what BLO does to it. Couldn't possibly hurt, and no doubt the DA will get rid of any crap on it. Don't worry about shellac, don't think the Chinese bothered with it.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

A pair of T53's you say?

[Beetle Bailey]

Picked up my Type 53 from a very cool Calgunner about a year ago (BTW thanks, it is a good shooter ) After cleaning off the cosmoline, I rubbed 1/2 boiled linseed oil 1/2 mineral spirits into the stock. Did it once a day for a week and then rubbed one coating of BLO ( no mineral spirits) with bee's wax. Dunno what the correct Albanian finish is but this has held up fine. I will bring it to the next WEGC C&R shoot.

[eagle eye]

Denatured alcohol, everything else also work , but what make it complicated as far as protection if shooters I will use polyurethane.

[shda5582]

huh?
1 We are talking about the Chinese T-53
2 From what it sounds like you stained the wood and then covered it with shellac. Thats not how the Russians did it they used tinted shellac.
3 You probably did too thick of coats.
4 You didn't let it cure anywhere near long enough.
5 How can you say that the "Russians wouldn't have used shellac to finish the rifles off." When they clearly did on all sorts of weapons in their arsenal...

1. I was replying to Enfield
2. Correct, I couldn't get the shellac tinted to get the color I wanted
3. Doubtful, I used a spray gun
4. At least a week
5. Because I had fired the gun prior to refinishing it and never got a bubbling issue due to heat, which lead me to the conclusion they didn't use shellac since I never had a problem with it before.

[peppermintman]

Denatured alcohol, everything else also work , but what make it complicated as far as protection if shooters I will use polyurethane.

Polyurethane on a T-53?!

Seen a few nice one's but never looked like polyurethane was used on them. There's only one oil I know of that has a thinner that would clean and put a nice thin film of oil that has a very small amount of luster. Rub it in a wipe off every hour or so. Cleans then treats the wood. Got turned onto the Milk 50/50 mix and use on all my rifles. I like it

[Bobby Ricigliano]

The red T53 I posted up is polyurethaned, but not by me!

[peppermintman]

The red T53 I posted up is polyurethaned, but not by me!

Different stroke for different folks I wasnt referring to any of yours

[Bobby Ricigliano]

Haha all good. I personally wouldn't have done it but thats how it came in the mail!