hello, I have an old 1942 03A3
rifle, the stock is a little rough, i want to restain it.to look like orginal
question, should i rough sand it,steel wool 0000
then tack cloth, minwax prestain prep
minwax jacobean stain
2 or 3 times till color i want is achieved
then how to seal? tung oil?
if tung oil, whats procedure
any help would be helpful
frodo

sounds reasonable. thing I wonder about is, has the stock bleached from being wet too long, or is that just a surface aberration. I'd 400 sand it smooth as a baby's butt first, and rub with a rag soaked in mineral spirits. if the color is good, proceed as described. if it's still off color, the wood might have been mineralized and not willing to take stain, either.

personally, I'd start with a gunsmith and a few brews and brats on a football afternoon, and see what he thinks after he's ready to give an, ahhh, opinion not dependent on the profit motive

I trust you've already put a blank in there, or whatever your preferred safe procedure is, and bumped it a little on the floor to see if the safety and sear are still doing their job.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: swschrad,

yea, safety first. i tore it down
remo0ved all the metal parts. nothing but wood
i sanded with oooo.then prep and stained
i want to weatherise the stain job
i guess tung oil it is..thanks
frodo

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frodo,

you have a 70 year old gun that probably has some collector value. If you refinish it , the value will drop to zip. The problem with many antiques is that people feel that if they get it to look like new, it will increase the value, when the opposite is the truth. I would take the gun to an antique arms dealer and see what he offers you for it, then take the money and buy a modern rifle
I did a search for your model gun and found that its value is quite high. for instance: a remington 03a3 asking price is $1300 and a Smith-Corona $800
there are others , all in the same price range
I hope you didnt ruin the value of the gun by what you already have done

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nona,

it also has some hunting value, and we don't know what frodo had in mind.

my dad had an old Walther P38 9mm war souvenir, probably from an SS camp guard. had an antique dealer look at it, late model from Polish or Czech occupation factory, he could tell at a glance from the level of the finish. so there's no loss in cleaning that one up to preserve it. I was also told it was the German equivalent of a belly gun, sandbag test missed the target wide and random on the 3 he had bought at 50 feet.

no didnt ruin it a bit. what i did was sand only the top coat of stain and grime off
leaving [worked teadisley around] the military stamps and cartouches leaving the old character dings and dents
0000 steel wool, like a babbies butt
prestained with minwax pre treatment then a coat of minwax jacobbean stain
it looks like it was never touched, but was cleaned up
then, this is where your gonna flip out
i used veg oil on the wood to make it water resistant
i learned this trick from the phillipinos in the Pi
when i was over there. they use tobacco as stain and cocanut oil to weatherise
the end product was a deep red wood looking colar
just like armory did 70 years ago
the value has not been harmed.
appraised at $1200.00
by a gunsmith, and insured

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frodo,

ttttttttttttttttttttttttt

Hey Frodo, Just a thought. If you have a project like this in the future you might consider using mineral oil (sold at pharm as a laxitive) instead of vegetable oil. Sometimes the vegetable oil can turn rancid and spoil your project. Kathy

sounds like it may work thanks

Tung oil, linseed oil or mineral oil. Vegetable oil will get gummy and rancid over time.