Hey 1K, I don't want to hijack this thread, so I'll post photos of my two complete Garands tomorrow (I never tire of looking at Garands) when I have some good light for photos.
For now, as to what I did to the stock, I started out by lightly sanding it in my swimming pool using 400 grit and then grits through 800. I went more heavily with some 220 first to get the finish down to wood, but switched to the 400 once I was getting to any bare wood. There was only one stamp on the stock, a "2" under the "pistol grip" (which remains) so I wasn't too concerned. I also went very, very lightly around those bullet dings from clip loading. I found that with the stock so wet (soaked and in the water for a couple of hours) with water sanding the wood puckered just a bit and some light dents did go bye-bye, but very subtly. By the time that I got it to 800 grit (no GI stock ever saw 800, or even 400 grit) it was looking almost like a new CMP stock. I let it dry in the hot Georgia sun and some oils even seaped out of it. I then let the stock dry out competely and gave it a final cleaning with denatured alcohol and started oiling. I have found that using both Watco's Danish oil Finish and tung oil, alternating between the two, really works well. The Watco's makes for an incredibly durable finish, but tends to be a bit too dull. The tung oil has a nice sheen, but not too glossy. I'll do maybe three coats of Watco's and then a couple of tung oil, alternating back and forth for maybe 20 coats total. This wood really soaks it up. While the bare wood looked like a new stock, the oil really darkens it and brings out the wear marks darkening them, giving that used look that I love. I stop once I get to the point where I have reached the sheen that I want, sometimes with a last coat of tung, other times it's Watco's. By that time it doesn't really matter. Then, I top it off with a good coat(s) of Birchwood Casey gun stock wax, which does nothing to alter the finish underneath. It's completely nuetral.
Water sanding seems to allow me to somewhat refine the appearance of a heavily used stock while not altering the evidence of use in any way that would approach defacing it. It's a fine balance that I think can be accomplished with a light hand and caution. If you saw this stock in person you might not suspect that it had been restored as much as it has.
