what have you used to finish off your wooden stock?

For my STG44, I sanded it down and revarnished it dark wood, then smeared it with mud and left it outside for a few days. After that i took some of the mud off (but not all) and then filed down the edges:

I dye my stocks a suitable colour and then use finishing oil. They come up lovely!

A friend got me the chemicals from a furniture store. I suggest going and having a chat with one near you...

I have been looking into various finishes but still undecided on my latest K98

basically what Im trying to do here is put together a thread of what people have used and there techniques to make a good reference for other people to decide on the finish they want

think I should re-title the thread

I used an oak colour garden furniture wood stain on my K98 and MP44 - just the colour I was looking for and already on the shelf in my garage!

what did you use to seal the stock?

I have 2 tins of Ronseal Polyurethane varnish here, one in matt and the other in satincoat, undecided what finish would look better

I didn't - I just used it like I do on the garden chairs. I dilute it 1:1 (else you get more of a varnish finish rather than a stain and so not as robust) and rub it on/in with a cloth. I don't think polyurethane varnish would look particularly authentic (unless you are slapping it on a PPSH stock or AK47 furniture!)

was going to use the Hales express gun oil that I used on my other K98 but want to try something different on this one really needs to be sealed for winter use with it being a springer version, I use my gas version in the summer

I used an oak colour garden furniture wood stain on my K98 and MP44 - just the colour I was looking for and already on the shelf in my garage!

I did a similar thing on my Marushin GBB M1, it was painted a horrible (almost black) brown which i completely stripped back. It's a lovely colour now

looks really good

Don't use polyurethane, it will eventually crack and flake off and look awful.

As suggetsed by Yith, choose the colour you want to stain the wood (if you want to stain it at all). You can get stain from a big DIY shop (Colron was sthe brand I used) , once stained go over the stock with a finishing oil (a few coats for the first time). The correct oil for Garands was boiled linseed oil (readily available). Some people use tung oil, I used danish oil (for floors) but I found it a little satin/shiny once it dried.

You should ideally re-apply finishing oils like linseed oil once a year or more often if the rifle gets very wet, just like a cricket bat. Just rub it in with a cloth and wipe off any excess.

thats superb chaps
I use the colron wood dyes as well, one K98 is just american walnut and the other is peruvian mahogany with american walnut over the top

Looks like a trip to the local hardware store this weekend for linseed oil

definatly linseed oil but it takes about a week ,a few coats on the first day then daily for a week untill it'l take no more ,then as was said earlier an anual coat unless it gets really wet then allow to dry in a cool place and re oil.one bottle is all you'l ever need unless you go comercial.

cheers

forgot to ask, is it boiled linseed oil or raw???

have done a bit of reading round the net and most gun owners go for Boiled due to it drying a lot quicker

another product I have found is this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Liberon-Finis ... 568wt_1163

also recommended on a few gun smith forums

That Liberon stuff looks like what I've been using...

I think thats the stuff im gonna go for