Restoring a No4 Mk1 Enfield

[Officers'Wife]

Posting pictures of naked rifles? Have you no shame sir????

Refinishing the wardrobe of that old war rifle is a heroic and compassionate act. My compliments on your sense of duty to this veteran.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Posting pictures of naked rifles? Have you no shame sir????

Refinishing the wardrobe of that old war rifle is a heroic and compassionate act. My compliments on your sense of duty to this veteran.

Yep, what she said...

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Spent a little more time on the stock clean up. You would be amazed at how much is hidden by crud.
I know that there are those that will flame that the original finish has been removed. But there are some that know very little about oil finishes or what was done to keep wood stocks clean in the military.
An oil finish is not a one time application. It is a finish that needs to be reapplied. Wax is used as a top coat to protect the oil finish, but it wears off with use. You are not supposes to apply oil on a dirty surface unless it is being used as a cleaner.
My neighbor, Jim, is an old Marine. He went through boot camp in the 60s. He told that his Company was issued brand new M14s. He said that some had nice oil finishes on them ans others looked like raw wood.
After being issued their new rifles they were marched back to the barracks. They then stripped the rifles down and took the stocks to the wash racks.
This is a wash rack for those that don't know.


They then used laundry soap and scrub brushes to scrub the stocks.
After the stocks were dry they started applying oil. They applied oil to the stocks every day. He said that his rifle must have gained four lbs buy the time he graduated.
Jim carried the M14 in Vietnam. I asked him about how they kept them cleaned. He said that rifles had to be kept cleaned and oiled or they would start to rust. When asked about the stocks, he said that if they didn't have a paste wax, they would rub the stocks down with a candle. He said after a patrol the would strip down the rifles, wash the stocks with whatever they had, dry re oil and wax.

Here is another thing about oil finishes. If wax is not applied dirt and grime will collect on them. Some people think that this build up is patina, but the truth is, it's just dirt. Patina is caused by the aging of the surface of the wood. Now things that come in contact with the surface will have effects on the aging.
So when cleaning a stock do not sand or scrape the surface. It is also best to do the less abrasive type of cleaning.
This old stock was filthy and smelled bad, like old cigarette smoke. So a good cleaning was needed.
Here are a few things that I found hiding under the crud.

Before:


After:



Before


After


Before


After


When I finish the stock it will have that BT,DT, but well taken care of look. For those that are not familiar with BT,DT, it stands for Been There, Done That.
It will have a smooth surface with some of it's old ding and dents, but no sanding will be done.

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

Awesome thread!

 

[Coop45]

It's scary when the Corps gives you something new.

 

[Officers'Wife]

Good, maybe I'm overly romantic but to me removing all the dings and dents is a tragedy. That ding may have been the result of being brushed against a fence the day it was used to harvest the animal that feed a family for the winter. The dent could easily be from a frantic grab for the weapon that meant life or death. Those aren't scars they are memorials to an honest living, remove them and you strip the weapon of it's honorable past which is an atrocity. If I may be so bold as to quote Kipling...

Don't call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She's human as you are - you treat her as sich,

 

[Bwana John]

I think that the restoration so far is being very tastefully done.

To clear my conceince and gain atonement for my "relationship" with a certain M1917 Enfield in the early 70s I should find something to restore as you are doing with this one.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Good, maybe I'm overly romantic but to me removing all the dings and dents is a tragedy. That ding may have been the result of being brushed against a fence the day it was used to harvest the animal that feed a family for the winter. The dent could easily be from a frantic grab with the weapon meant life or death. Those aren't scars they are memorials to an honest living, remove them and you strip the weapon of it's honorable past which is an atrocity. If I may be so bold as to quote Kipling...

Don't worry. No sandpaper will touch this stock. No steam will be used to raise a dent. To smooth the surface, while leaving the dings and dents, I will Bone the stock with an Ash dowel.
I removed the last of the crud and rust from the, the ends of the handguards, inside of the action, butt and socket end of the stock. I'll take some more stock picks tomorrow.

Here is the butt plate.
Before


After soaked with oil over night.


Then scrubbed.

Closeup of the markings.




Now I don't want to put lipstick on a pig so, the exposed surface of the butt plate was lightly cleaned.

 

[boom boom]

Nice thread. Just out of curiousity, ever use stock whiting powder and a solvent to absorb old cosmolene. On a heavily greased stock, I find it useful from time to time.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Nice thread. Just out of curiousity, ever use stock whiting powder and a solvent to absorb old cosmolene. On a heavily greased stock, I find it useful from time to time.

Yes I have, but only on stocks that are heavily soaked.
This stock didn't have a lot of oil in it, just a lot of dirt. I'm letting it relax right now. That is, letting it sit so that soaked in oil will weep to the surface. The only ares that weeper oil to the surface so far hat been the top of the wrist.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I think that the restoration so far is being very tastefully done.

To clear my conceince and gain atonement for my "relationship" with a certain M1917 Enfield in the early 70s I should find something to restore as you are doing with this one.

Rest easy, I've got you covered. Here is a P14 that I'm working on. Your sins shall be washed away.

 

[boom boom]

Yes I have, but only on stocks that are heavily soaked.
This stock didn't have a lot of oil in it, just a lot of dirt. I'm letting it relax right now. That is, letting it sit so that soaked in oil will weep to the surface. The only ares that weeper oil to the surface so far hat been the top of the wrist.

I've had to use heat guns on a few oil soaked stocks from India, Greece, and Spain. I really dislike how that much cosmolene softens the stock and I like that you let the wood rest in between applications.

One old WWI era 1917 walnut stock was so oil soaked and darkened that at the end of it, the stock turned out to be one of the lighter open grained honey colored walnut stocks made toward the end of that war when I thought it was going to be a deep red at first.

One thing that you might find useful is a very gentle stripper of finishes that I have used in woodworking--Soygel stripper which is made out of soybean oil in part. No smell, very low toxicity, and the stuff flows like slow honey and keeps for years. It also doesn't appear to strip the wood of its natural oils when you get rid of the cruddy varnish or poly on the surface. Keeps working for hours and is gentle on the skin if you get some on you. Rocklers or Woodcraft have had it in the past and you can buy direct. A gallon last forever.

 

[boom boom]

Rest easy, I've got you covered. Here is a P14 that I'm working on. Your sins shall be washed away.
View attachment 760719

Nice. Have an early no-starred P14 receiver picked up from Numrich waiting for a barrel transplant with its sister P14 that has a full length original barrel. That sister gets a shortened P14 original barrel (someone apparently couldn't remove the front sight so they cut it off there). The sister P14 is in a cutoff OGEK badly sportered (Ogden Arsenal Elmer Keith) 1917 stock where they cut the butt about one inch and cut the rest of the stock at the front band.

 

[Bwana John]

"Rest easy, I've got you covered. Here is a P14 that I'm working on. Your sins shall be washed away."


Forgive me father for i have sinned.

There was this primo M1917, a 14 year old boy, a bench mounted grinder in ol man Murphy's garage, a copy of Williams "Sporterizing Military Rifles", and the ears of the receiver glowing red under the wheel as old man Murphy watched on in horror.

Next it was a hacksaw to the barrel and a booger picker finger with sandpaper technique to crown.

Then 7 holes and 3 shims into the side of the receiver for the scope mount ( of which only 3 holes lined up).

The forward upper handgaurd was then attached to the top of the comb of the stock with wood dowels to make a raised cheekpiece for shooting with a scope.

Topped off with a Weaver 10x AO scope and a young boy stepped towards adulthood as Bubba.

I'm so ashamed.

 

[ontarget]

Those pics of the wash racks really took me back. Oh and the rifle is looking good too. SEMPER FI.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Here are a few more pics.
The socket end of the stock.
Before:

After:


Before:


After:


The action area:
Before:


After:


Front of the fore stock.
Before:


After:

Front handguard tip.
Before:


After:

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Here is a little info on this stock. They were taken from a demilled No4 Mk1. The rifle was drilled from the top of the chamber and a rod welded in place. The rifle had been neglected for some time and was badly rusted in areas.
As you can see from the pics, there was a good bit of rust stuck to the inside of the stock.if this rust was left on the stock it would have made the new rifle rust.

Here is the next step in the restoration.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Here it is after Boning.

 

[boom boom]

Did you replace wood in for the draws in the forestock or was that already done?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Did you replace wood in for the draws in the forestock or was that already done?

They were already done. They are secure and the action fits tight in the stock.

 

[AlexanderA]

Lots of arsenal patchwork there. The British philosophy seems to have been to repair rather than replace, while the American philosophy was just the opposite. In a depot rebuild, the Americans would have trashed that wood rather than painstakingly grafted patches into it.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Lots of arsenal patchwork there. The British philosophy seems to have been to repair rather than replace, while the American philosophy was just the opposite. In a depot rebuild, the Americans would have trashed that wood rather than painstakingly grafted patches into it.

That's correct. One of the reasons is that we have always had an abundance of lumber here in the US.
US stocks with arsenal repairs were most likely done in other countries that we supplied weapons to.
For many years, here in the US, Collectors would replace broken stocks on surplus guns. This is because you could get good replacement stocks very cheap. Back in the late 80s I could see that the endless supply of stocks were going to dry up. That is when I started studying on arsenal repairs. My mentor that had started me on stock repair thought that I was crazy for repairing stocks that were just cheaper to replace.
I find it rewarding to save history that others would have thrown away.

 

[boom boom]

That's correct. One of the reasons is that we have always had an abundance of lumber here in the US.
US stocks with arsenal repairs were most likely done in other countries that we supplied weapons to.
For many years, here in the US, Collectors would replace broken stocks on surplus guns. This is because you could get good replacement stocks very cheap. Back in the late 80s I could see that the endless supply of stocks were going to dry up. That is when I started studying on arsenal repairs. My mentor that had started me on stock repair thought that I was crazy for repairing stocks that were just cheaper to replace.
I find it rewarding to save history that others would have thrown away.

Most of what I know about No. 1 and No. 4 stocks comes from Peter Laidler's and a few others posts on milsurps.com. Seen your posts on other forums and always learn something as well.

These days, most of my woodworking is rebuilding the exterior of my house and before that building cabinets, bookshelves, desks for my significant other's office. I am running out of room and time for fun projects to my regret. Restoring old milsurps is also getting a bit rich in price.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Not long ago I was buying complete Enfield stock sets, with hardware, for $40. Now days the price has more then doubled.
I do have to admit that some restorations I've done in the past have cost more the what I could have bought a complete rifle for. But I have more fun restoring a rifle then just buying one.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Today I applied some BLO to the stock.