Milsurp After Hours

First off I know what the objective is before I start as well as my limits.





Typically it will be to reduce the dents and minor dings. Anything beyond that I consider a repair of some sort and will avoid getting in to that type of work. My objective is to make a rifle as handsome as possible, leaving any and all other original service related dent for posterity.





OK so what do I do?





I call it a “hot towel treatment”. Or better yet a boiling hot water towel treatment. It can take up to an hour per treatment and three to four one hour treatments (per side) at most.





Naturally I need lots large towels as well as a few smaller hand towels (I use those to pick up the larger boiling hot towels and then use them so I can apply pressure at points on the stock where I am trying to reduce the size of the most noticeable dings and dents). As for the water about 5 or 6 gallons of boiling hot water will do to properly soak my larger towels.





I’ll put dry towels beneath the stock and will completely cover the side I am working on with hot-wet towels. Mind you these towels are dripping wet and very, very hot. The first application is just to soak the wood, as is the second application. I am merely applying the soaked towels so as to evenly apply the water over the side I am working on.





By the time I am at application number three I can tell where I will need to apply pressure. That’s where the small hand towels become handy. I take a dripping wet and boiling hot towel and lay it across the side I am working on and then apply pressure using the heal of my hands directly over the points where I want the most heat, water and pressure.





Rotating the towels so as to keep them hot and preplanning where you want to apply


the pressure point is the secret. Trust me constantly applying and removing the towels


and apply pressure to the points you are trying to clean up will keep you very busy.





If you have lots of deep dents at the butt, this method will not eliminate the deep dents.


Frankly I would bother it it’s that bad. I have used this method on two stocks; one walnut and one beech both were quit nice however both disserved the time involved.





Drying is actually quit rapid as the moisture and heat from the towels evaporates very quickly. Never the less I’ll wait about 12 hours once I am satisfied I have eliminated as many dings and dents that this particular wood with allow me to revive.





Once dry I give the wood a very light #000 and #0000 steal wool rub down.





<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>THAT’S IT ON INVASIVE WOOD WORK.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->





As for reviving a natural finish I use WATCO Danish Oil Finish in Medium Walnut and the same product name in Natural finish. The oils can be located a Ace Hardware or Home Depot.





It is a constant work in progress!





Why?





Because it takes weeks for the oils and wood to properly dry, absorb and season. All that and lots and lots of elbow grease! That means every time you pick that rifle up, take it to the range or what ever. I have a circa 1936 that I cleaned over 2 years ago and recently applied another couple of coats of WATCO Danish Oil Danish Walnut and I am now just satisfied that the rifle is finished.





Below are links to bothe leff and right sides of the 1936 K31 as of today...





<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Left Side</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/8 ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->


<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Right Side</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/8 ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->





One point about the photos: The flash from the camera produced a false bright sheen. Actually the finish has a rather dull glisten which is more in keeping both the age and original finish of the rifle when I purchased it.





As for beech wood, for me it was much more difficult to get the original reddish-orange color, provably never will, but she is gorgeous in my eyes and she is a great shooter so she will always be part of my small Swiss Armory.





Hope some of you find this useful.





yote <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)">;

<p>Fighting The Good Fight From The Once Great State of California





**God Bless Our Right To Bear Arms!**


Life Member NRA


Life Member California Rifle and Pistol Association


7th Division Korea 1966-1968

Looks like you've got a system Yote!

<p>wh12725





LECS 03C1016

How do you clean off the old grease? I cleaned mine, but it still had a lot of black spots. I think the black is part of the Arctic Burch wood used on the stock, but the metal had black grease that I removed...so:





How do you tell if the spot is natural or a grease stain?





Thanx Dante'

<p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p089.ezboard.com/bmilsurpafterho ... um>speared um</A> at: 5/14/05 11:14 am

</i>

speared um





HERE ARE THE FIRST OF MANY "KEY" POINTS YOU WILL NEED BEFORE WE GET TO YOUR RIFLE!





I was going to post another "how-to" on cleaning up your K31, then I thought it might be a bit more constructive to point out some of the KEY areas that MUST be maintained in thier original state least your "refirb, clean up, recon" or what ever you wish to call it will distroy key areas of the original rifle.





First on my list is the <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Federal Crest</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> located approximately in the center on the right rear of the stock.


Note the dents around the crest, if you look carefully they are not all shallow dents. Had they been sanded away so would the creast been destroyed!


<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/8 ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->


******************************************


<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Next</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> is maintaining the orignal tip of the pistol grip. Note the sharp and well defined edges around the base of the grip. That to a collector is another dead give away that none of the stock was sanded.


<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/8 ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->





<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A second view of the Pistol Grip...</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/8 ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->





<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The finger grips</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


Easy to destoy or disfigure are the finger grips on the left and right side of the stock. I hope I called them by their correct names. The point is that far, far too often grips are sanded and again the nicely grooved area is widened at the ends or its just plain old sloppy craftmenship that will leave obvious sandpaper marks.





If you need to do any "sanding" and if in that event you feel compelled to remove a mark; then with anything more course then #000 steel wool; then it is best that you don't touch it at all. That is if you want to maintain your rifle in its original condition.


<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/8 ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->





<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Right finger Grip...</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-9/8 ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->





I hope what have tried to convey in this post helps a few folks (mostly to our newer members) the next time they plan on doing a "refirb, clean up, recon".





Typically you want to reduce the dents and minor dings. Anything beyond that I consider a repair of some sort and will avoid getting in to that type of work. My objective is to make a rifle as handsome as possible, leaving any and all other original service related dent for posterity.





OK so what do I do?





I call it a “hot towel treatment”. Or better yet a boiling hot water towel treatment. It can take up to an hour per treatment and three to four one hour treatments (per side) at most.





Naturally I need lots large towels as well as a few smaller hand towels (I use those to pick up the larger boiling hot towels and then use them so I can apply pressure at points on the stock where I am trying to reduce the size of the most noticeable dings and dents). As for the water about 5 or 6 gallons of boiling hot water will do to properly soak my larger towels.





I’ll put dry towels beneath the stock and will completely cover the side I am working on with hot-wet towels. Mind you these towels are dripping wet and very, very hot. The first application is just to soak the wood, as is the second application. I am merely applying the soaked towels so as to evenly apply the water over the side I am working on.





By the time I am at application number three I can tell where I will need to apply pressure. That’s where the small hand towels become handy. I take a dripping wet and boiling hot towel and lay it across the side I am working on and then apply pressure using the heal of my hands directly over the points where I want the most heat, water and pressure.





Rotating the towels so as to keep them hot and preplanning where you want to apply


the pressure point is the secret. Trust me constantly applying and removing the towels


and apply pressure to the points you are trying to clean up will keep you very busy.





If you have lots of deep dents at the butt, this method will not eliminate the deep dents.


Frankly I would bother it it’s that bad. I have used this method on two stocks; one walnut and one beech both were quit nice however both disserved the time involved.





Drying is actually quit rapid as the moisture and heat from the towels evaporates very quickly. Never the less I’ll wait about 12 hours once I am satisfied I have eliminated as many dings and dents that this particular wood with allow me to revive.





Once dry I give the wood a very light #000 and #0000 steal wool rub down.





<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>THAT’S IT ON INVASIVE WOOD WORK.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->





As for reviving a natural finish I will go into that as soon as you post detailed photos of your rifle..





It is a constant work in progress!





Why?





Because it takes weeks for the oils and wood to properly dry, absorb and season. All that and lots and lots of elbow grease! That means every time you pick that rifle up, take it to the range or what ever. I have a circa 1937 Walnut that I cleaned over 2 years ago and recently applied another couple of coats of WATCO Danish Oil Danish Walnut and I am now just satisfied that the rifle is finished.





GET ME DETAILD PHOTOS OF YOUR RIFLE.





And I will be happy to provide you with a detailed method that will wook for your rifle.





By the way the it was the Finns that used Arctic Burch wood. They used it on thier M39s. The Swiss used beechwood starting in the early 1940s and continued using beehwood up until 1958 then the last of the military issued K31s rolled out of the Swiss Armories.





Beehwood is a very, very hard wood and requires custom work for EACH and EVERY rifle.





Most people that post instructions and information about what to do with beechwood tell you what they did to their rifle.





Trust me the issues that we need to address are about YOUR rifle and its partular issues.





I have been working aroud wood sense I was very young. Having been very lucky to have grown up at the beach I have worked with boats woods for over 40 years. And beech wood is one of the most dificult wood to work with, partularly when you need to clean up dirtly oil soaked beechwoods.





Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....





If you want to do a GRAET job I MUST see detailed photos so I will be able to address the needs that you are asking about.





If I am going to help you that is what I must have!





Think of it as going to the doctor to get yourself checked out for some illness. Would you see an M.D. or would you go to the butcher?





I can help you must I MUST see what your problems are. do that and I can help.





THat sir is what these boards are for help and information and then a few jokes as we all grow as collectors and care takers of history.





POST THE PICUTERS ON THIS STRING WITH A NEW MESSAGHE and I will do all that I can to make your rifle took as best as it can.





yote <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)">;




<p>Fighting The Good Fight From The Once Great State of California





**God Bless Our Right To Bear Arms!**


Life Member NRA


Life Member California Rifle and Pistol Association


7th Division Korea 1966-1968


</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p089.ezboard.com/bmilsurpafterho ... shooter</A> at: 5/16/05 8:17 am

</i>

You're WAAY beyond me....so drive on! I admit to sandpaper on my K-31....bought it several year ago and the bottom 2" or so was dryrot! I touched it with a palm sander (outside, the flying four-like dust was the pits). I know the purists among us won't like that....but pieces the consistancy of cardboard were breaking off. It looks quite good and has stood up for several years now. I only touched that first couple of inches and matches very well with the remainder.Other than that I use Murphy's Oil Soap to clean and either BLO, Tung Oil or Lemon Oil to treat.

<p>wh12725





LECS 03C1016