What Wood Did They Use On M.-Nagants?
I've refinished the wood on the 1942 Mosin-Nagant I bought for $99; I took out the old stain and finish all the way to bare wood with Zip-Strip and acetone, and after thoroughly cleansing, drying and (light)sanding, I used my usual lemon oil on the stock and hand-guard. The odd thing is, the handguard's come out darker than the stock! Did the Russkies use a different wood for the handguard? And what the heck kind of wood DID they use on these rifles, anyway? The lemon oil seems to bring out a reddish-brown color on both the handguard and the stock, with sorta gold highlights in some regions of the stock. Vas ist?
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during the war, I think that they used what ever wood they could find. I have a 1944 that I bought for a song, but had a really terrible stock-couldn't touch it without getting a splinter in your hand. I sanded and sanded and sanded and the thing never did smooth out. it now has 10 coats of auto filler-primer on it....
some of the earlier rifles have some really nice hardwood stocks, I have a friend who has one with a nicely figured piece of walnut, but it was made by westinghouse here in the states.
My border collie is smarter than your honor student.0 -
In addition to walnut, the other hardwoods used were Birch,Beech, and Sycamore[Same woods the British used].Some were also made with a type of Fir, which is a softwood.I'll bet this is what you ran into richbug.-Bob
Gun control is a steady hand0 -
typical pre 1945 MOSIN-NAGANT russian production (TULA or IZHEVSK) stocks were made from solid arctic birch, oil finished and varnished, stained with chromium permanganate.
finish guns (SKY, etc...) are most often laminated birch or elm, finished is a near copy of the russian wood, often lighter in color.
best regards, mike.
What other dungeon is so dark as ones own heart, what jailer so inexorable as ones own mind.0 -
That's really interesting, mrmike---especially the part about staining the wood with chromium permanganate. Y'know, I've always been told to be reeeeeal careful about putting oxidizing agents (like permanganate ion) on organic materials like wood...I guess the solution must have been puny enough not to react significantly. Still, that strikes me as a damned odd thing to use as a stain!
I sealed the wood (after the lemon-oil treatment) with satin-finish spray polyurethane, and I must say: It looks very nice, but for a "fast-drying" coating, that crap is taking FOREVER to dry...I put the last coat on at 7:00 pm last night, and at 6:00am this morning it was still a bit tacky! I'm gonna go bac to using Minwax's spray Polycrylic, which dries a HECK of alot faster....
Does anyone here know: If I use this rifle to bag wolves, do I have to have it wrapped in a rag like Vasili Zeitsev's granddad did? Or is that only if I'm hunting in Russia? (Just kidding!)0 -
Did ypou notice in the movie that his grandfathers rifle had a sniper bolt handle and the rear sight is covered by the rags... that makes him all the better in my eyes using only the front sight????????
My border collie is smarter than your honor student.0 -
No, richbug---I didn't notice that! I guess I'm going to have to spin the movie up again tonight!
Dang! How could I have missed something like that?
Funny thing is: I thought Stalin had basically disarmed everyone (except his goons and the Army) in Russia during his reign---so what the heck was Gramps doing with a MILITARY RIFLE in the first place?
Odd, now that I think about it...0
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