Some Examples Of Refinished TC Hawken Stocks

[jdixon]

Roundball:
Looking at your work - excellent I might add brought me to ask your opinion on a project I have going at present. I have taken on the task of re-finishing 10 M-1 Garands that we have had donated (at work) from the Army. Some of these go back to '39, some are in fair shape, and others look like they were picked up on the beach at Normandy. When finished the better ones will be used for parades, funerals and other such ceremonies by a police honor guard. I have gotten several stripped of all of the 3 in 1 oil that has been plastered on them over the years and am in the process of steaming out some dents (going slow I might add). Question is, you mentioned you didn't use any stain just went straight to the Tru-Oil for a finish. I have read two different schools of thought on this regarding the M-1 stocks (walnut). One to use a dark leather dye to stain the stock, the other Miniwax Natural Stain just to seal the wood then Tung Oil. I am leaning toward the lighter natural stain side, which would you do with this project?

 

[roundball]

Roundball:
Looking at your work - excellent I might add brought me to ask your opinion on a project I have going at present. I have taken on the task of re-finishing 10 M-1 Garands that we have had donated (at work) from the Army. Some of these go back to '39, some are in fair shape, and others look like they were picked up on the beach at Normandy. When finished the better ones will be used for parades, funerals and other such ceremonies by a police honor guard. I have gotten several stripped of all of the 3 in 1 oil that has been plastered on them over the years and am in the process of steaming out some dents (going slow I might add). Question is, you mentioned you didn't use any stain just went straight to the Tru-Oil for a finish. I have read two different schools of thought on this regarding the M-1 stocks (walnut). One to use a dark leather dye to stain the stock, the other Miniwax Natural Stain just to seal the wood then Tung Oil. I am leaning toward the lighter natural stain side, which would you do with this project?

First, let clarify...I am no authority on wood working, finishing, etc...I simply managed to stumble around and refinish a few TC Hawken stocks that I was fortunate enough not to screw up.

I had a 70's Springfield Garand for many years myself up until just last fall...it had the characteristic dark walnut stockwood and was a very dark stained oil finish...and for me personally, I don't like strong dark colors on gunstocks particularly if there's any grain or figure to be exploited such as the Hawken stocks above.

I've become a fan of Tru-Oil and found that several coats of Tru-Oil by itself darkens walnut quite a bit as it is...ie: for my first ever refinish job I dutifully stained the walnut stock until it looked pretty darn good...but by the time I finished several applications of Tru-Oil on top of that I was sick at how the stock had turned almost black and all grain/figure had disappeared from view...have not "stained" another one since...Tru-Oil only.

Just a guess here but as old as those stocks are, short of steam cleaning, bleaching, or sandblasting, you'll probably never be able to get their color lightened back up to their original virgin walnut color anyway, so adding any more stain back to them at all would just keep them very dark IMO...if it was me I'd just go with several coats of Tru-Oil.

Repeat...however, not an authority on the subject.
:thumbsup:

 

[Todd Rickard]

Nice work on the stocks guys!
I'm looking for an old TC stock to rebuild a hawken with a 15/16 barrel. Anybody have one they want to part with?

 

[stalkerhawk]

Sorry just got mine.The one on the blue cloth in the pics for 86.00 off #-bay :grin: you might try there. lots of them.

 

[Twowithone]

Awesome stock :hatsoff: