Refinishing a Walnut Stock

The following is a simple method for refinishing a walnut stock.  I have used this on M-1's, 10/22's and Enfields, and have been very pleased with the results.

You will need:

Easy Off oven cleaner

dish washing gloves

3M green scratch pad

old tooth brush

00 very fine steel wool

0000 super fine steel wool

rags (old t-shirts)

Your choice of finish:

Tung oil for a lighter finish

Linseed oil for your standard GI finish

Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil for a somewhat glossy finish

Birchwood Casey walnut stain + Tru-Oil for a darker somewhat glossy finish

I like linseed oil for a surplus rifle, and Tru-Oil for a commercial rifle.  

Stripping the stock:

Remove all metal parts.  For the Garand, I recommend getting handguard clip pliers, $19.95 from CMP.  Put on some dishwashing gloves and safety glasses, go to the sink and spray the entire stock with Easy Off.  Don't leave it on for long.  Use a green 3M pad and scrub the stock under hot running water.  I like to use a tooth brush gently over any cartouches, rather that the scratch pad.  Be careful with the oven cleaner.  It is sodium hydroxide (lye) and it will burn you and can seriously damage your eyes.  Breathing it can irritate your lungs, so open a window or run the range hood if it is nearby.  Repeat this process if it does not look like all the finish came off.  

Let the stock dry for about two days.  You want it bone dry before you proceed.

Sand the stock with 00 steel wool.  Put your thumb over any cartouches to protect them during this process.  Repeat with 0000 steel wool.  Dings can be raised with a wet cloth and an iron, or sanded out with sand paper.  Wipe off any steel wool fragments when you are done.

For tung or linseed oil, just wipe it down, let it dry for a day, and repeat until it looks right.  For Birchwood-Casey products, follow the instructions.  Test the finish on the inside the stock where it won't be seen to check if you like it before proceeding.  

Fitting an M-1 Garand Stock

Replacing the stock set on your Garand first involves buying a stock set.  Which set to get is an entire debate unto itself, but I like the set from CMP for $118.95.  The CMP web site says "may require minor fitting."  This is a bit of an understatement.  The first step in fitting is getting the trigger guard to fit and clamp down with the right amount of pressure.  Tom Findley has an excellent resource on this:  http://www.trfindley.com/pgtgfix.html  Read Tom's page before you do anything.  To inlet some of the areas it is handy to have a set of small woodcarving tools.

This set is $9.99 at Harbor Freight.  Not fine tools, but they will work just fine.  Work slowly.  Remove only a little bit of wood at a time, and frequently test fit the parts.

When you get to the part in Tom's instructions where you are ready to start sanding the long surfaces that the trigger housing clamps against, you will need a sanding wedge, a block of wood that has a 10 degree incline.

This is the one I made from a block of 4x4.  You could cut it on a miter saw, but I prefer to use a table saw with a sled.  The base is a scrap of 1/4" plywood.  I used a protractor to draw a 10 degree line on the base, and then attached a scrap of 3/4" plywood along that line with brad nails from underneath.  Use the miter gauge to push the sled.

Use a phone book to adjust the height of the wedge and a block of wood to hold your sand paper.

It is very important to clamp the forend of the stock to your work surface.

Once your trigger guard is clamping down correctly, there are a few areas you want to inlet.  On commercial stocks, the inlet for the foot of the clip latch may be too far back.  Put a thin coat of grease on the foot of the clip latch to see if it is rubbing.  You may need to do some inletting here:

Be careful that you don't remove too much wood such that the inletting is visible when the stock is on the rifle.

Another problem area if the foot of the firing pin.  Use grease to see if it is hitting the stock and inlet here as needed:

Again, be careful that the inletting does not show when the stock is on the rifle.  Inletting for the clip latch and firing pin can be done with a Dremel tool and 1/8" flat bottom cutting bit (#194).

You also want to check that your op rod is not rubbing the stock.  Use a thin coat of grease as before to check.  The pencil sits in the area of interest.  The area near the point is more likely to rub.

Use a Dremel with a 1/2" sanding drum to clean up this area.

If either of your hand guards is too long, remove wood from the rear of the hand guard.  The buttplate may not be centered evenly on the butt.  Draw a pencil line all around the buttplate.  Then remove it and sand the stock until there is an equal amount of wood all around the line.  I had to use 60 grit sandpaper to remove a lot of wood on mine.

This, along with Tom Findley's page covers the basics.  There are a lot of finer points as well.  If you want to be well versed on the fitting of M-1 stocks, go the the M-14 forum and read everything that Gus Fisher, MGySgt USMC (ret.),  has posted on the subject:  http://m14forum.com/gus-fisher/  You are unlikely to find anyone for knowledgable on the M-1 or M-14.

AR-15 Ejector Removal Jig

If you need to remove the ejector from the bolt of your AR-15, like when you are checking head space, it helps to have a tool to compress the ejector spring.  You can get tools to do this that run in the $20 to $50 dollar range.  I made my own for about $10 with hardware from Lowes.

 I started with a 4 x 8" piece of 3/4" plywood and a 1.5 x 1.5 x 4" block of wood that was a scrap of 2x4 in a previous life.  I drilled a hole in the plywood 2" from the end and centered, and inserted a 5/16-18 x 3/8" T-nut and a 5/16-18 x 2" brass screw.  Then I drilled a hole in the block 3/8" from the bottom and centered.  I inserted another 5/16-18 x 3/8" T-nut and a 6" section of 5/16-18 threaded rod.  A bench vise was use to press in the T-nuts.  I added a 5/16-18 knob on one end, and a piece of 5.56 mm brass, with the tapered part cut off, to the other end.  The cartridge case fits a bit loosely, so I used some masking tape around the end of the threaded rod to make it snug.  I cut a a small recess in the plywood base with a Forstner bit (you could use Dremel or standard drill bit) to give the ejector pin room to come out.

Here is the underside. I nailed the block to the plywood with 1.5" 16 gauge finish nails. Alternatively, you could screw it in place.  Note the countersinking of the screw head.

Side view.

Jig in action.

The brass screw fits nicely in the hole for the cam pin and will not mar the bolt.  Keep in mind that the ejector pin is not perfectly vertical in this configuration, so you will have to hold your 1/16" roll pin punch at a slight angle when driving out the pin. When you release the pressure on the ejector, turn the handle slowly and hold your hand over the bolt. Otherwise, you ejector may shoot across the room.