Faulkner
Member
I went to the recent Tulsa gunshow not looking for anything specific, except ammo. Regardless, I ran across a M1 carbine that seemed only a real carbine addict could love. I suspect it is a CMP carbine that's changed hands several times because it's so ugly. The price was significantly lower than the going rate of other carbines at the show, and the owner said he'd had a lot of lookers but no takers. So, dadgummit, I had the money in my pocket and I'm just a sucker for a carbine needing a home so I negotiated another 25 bucks off the asking price and it went home to Arkansas with me.
The barreled receiver is a very nice matching Saginaw S.G., when most people see a carbine with ugly stock they see a beat up carbine. Not so, it's the barreled receiver that makes the difference. I stripped this one down and found I had a winner and decided I would photo record the cleanup process.
BEFORE: Here what she looked like as I brought her home.
I gotta admit, the stock was a bit nasty. Once I got inside, though, I found someone didn't know how to clean one up. The inside of the receiver and the trigger housing was still packed in cosmoline. That's probably what is smeared and stained up the stock.
Here is the stock after a full strip and cleaning. While naked as a jaybird I steamed out all the dents that didn't break the grain of the wood. I had a spare stock I considered putting on it, but this one cleaned up very nice.
I put the metal parts in my gun cleaning tray and let it soak overnight in mineral spirits. This will loosen most of the 60+ year old grease and gunk so that it'll brush off much easier.
The receiver and exposed barrel was just about brown, but after cleaning off the gunk the original gray parkerized finish resurfaced. Highlighting the lettering adds a nice touch to it as well.
After gently buffing the naked stock with 0000 steel wool (never use sandpaper on a USGI stock), I mixed up 2/3rds Boiled Lindseed Oil with 1/3 mineral spirits.
After a few more hand rubbed coats of BLO mix over a couple of days the black walnut starts to take on a darker shade. You can see the crossed cannon 'cartouche' on the stock. During cleaning, to save these markings I just put a piece of Scotch tape over it.
I used an original finished USGI stock as a color guide for the right shade. The project stock is shown with an IBM carbine from my collection. I added one more coat of BLO after this picture.
One week later, here's the finished product. The stock has been stripped, cleaned, dents removed, lightly buffed, and refinished with half a dozen hand rubbed coats of BLO. The barreled receiver and trigger housing was stripped and degreased, brushed and cleaned and properly lubed with white lithium grease. Compaired to the original picture at top, she cleaned up pretty good.
The barreled receiver is a very nice matching Saginaw S.G., when most people see a carbine with ugly stock they see a beat up carbine. Not so, it's the barreled receiver that makes the difference. I stripped this one down and found I had a winner and decided I would photo record the cleanup process.
BEFORE: Here what she looked like as I brought her home.
I gotta admit, the stock was a bit nasty. Once I got inside, though, I found someone didn't know how to clean one up. The inside of the receiver and the trigger housing was still packed in cosmoline. That's probably what is smeared and stained up the stock.
Here is the stock after a full strip and cleaning. While naked as a jaybird I steamed out all the dents that didn't break the grain of the wood. I had a spare stock I considered putting on it, but this one cleaned up very nice.
I put the metal parts in my gun cleaning tray and let it soak overnight in mineral spirits. This will loosen most of the 60+ year old grease and gunk so that it'll brush off much easier.
The receiver and exposed barrel was just about brown, but after cleaning off the gunk the original gray parkerized finish resurfaced. Highlighting the lettering adds a nice touch to it as well.
After gently buffing the naked stock with 0000 steel wool (never use sandpaper on a USGI stock), I mixed up 2/3rds Boiled Lindseed Oil with 1/3 mineral spirits.
After a few more hand rubbed coats of BLO mix over a couple of days the black walnut starts to take on a darker shade. You can see the crossed cannon 'cartouche' on the stock. During cleaning, to save these markings I just put a piece of Scotch tape over it.
I used an original finished USGI stock as a color guide for the right shade. The project stock is shown with an IBM carbine from my collection. I added one more coat of BLO after this picture.
One week later, here's the finished product. The stock has been stripped, cleaned, dents removed, lightly buffed, and refinished with half a dozen hand rubbed coats of BLO. The barreled receiver and trigger housing was stripped and degreased, brushed and cleaned and properly lubed with white lithium grease. Compaired to the original picture at top, she cleaned up pretty good.
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