Fun with wood, stock touch up!

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My Finn M39 has a post war stock, in fact it’s a post war configuration. It’s had a few blemishes and since the rifle’s stock is not war time period I decided to do a few minor corrections. Not to hide imperfections, but just repair minor defects in a manner similar to what Finns did. One of the thing I noticed was Finns sanded the stock not with the grain, but perpendicular to it. Since I am working only on a few spots this is important. I’ll post a few pictures as I finish with them. Here’s the first few. The Finns used plugs to repair potential weak spots and didn’t care too much about minor blemishes. Using some birch I matched the grain and fixed a chipped plug. Some minor cracks received some varnish and fine birch sawdust. Dried, light sand, a dab of stain, dried again and pine tar mix for finish. I’ll continue with the pine tar until it’s absorbed a satisfactory amount.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.
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Re: Fun with wood, stock touch up!

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Some progress shots. Currently just letting the wood absorb the tar mix. First picture is of the worst damaged area. Second picture is after steaming, and now undergoing tar mix treatment. Third just shows the variation on the stock color. I’m not going for perfection.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.
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Re: Fun with wood, stock touch up!

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Pics of areas which had steam lifting or damage that was stabilized or slight cosmetic. Like I said this is a post war stock and this rifle was last rebuilt in the armory in 1968.
Last edited by sikacz on Mon Apr 08, 2019 7:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.
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Re: Fun with wood, stock touch up!

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shinzen wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:36 pm That turned out nice!
Nice enough. It’ll age naturally and I can periodically treat it with the pine tar mix which is a pretty good water repellent from my testing. I left slight dimples in the two cross bolt areas. The depressions were at least 1/16” or more.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Fun with wood, stock touch up!

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highdesert wrote: Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:22 am Good job! What's the wood used for the stock? 1939 was the winter war with Russia, wonder how may were in service for that war.

Guns.com likes them.
https://www.guns.com/news/review/the-mo ... ld-the-m39
The stock is birch post war. None configured as M39 were in the winter war. The M39 came out for the continuation war. I wouldn’t have fooled around with a wartime stock. This particular M39 is Westinghouse receiver and bolt, that makes it from around 1917. If it could talk it would have an interesting story to relate. One reason I wanted to take the rifle off it’s stock was to find out about the receiver. This last configuration for this rifle was in 1968. What it’s been through is a huge guess from it’s origins in Meriden.
This bolt and receiver was either part of the batch of New England Westinghouse rifles sent to Imperial Russia or could have been one carried by US forces during the Archangel “Polar Bear Expedition “. I looked through the roster, some Finnish Americans in that bunch too!
https://bentley.umich.edu/research/cata ... n-history/
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Fun with wood, stock touch up!

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sikacz wrote: Mon Apr 08, 2019 7:10 am
highdesert wrote: Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:22 am Good job! What's the wood used for the stock? 1939 was the winter war with Russia, wonder how may were in service for that war.

Guns.com likes them.
https://www.guns.com/news/review/the-mo ... ld-the-m39
The stock is birch post war. None configured as M39 were in the winter war. The M39 came out for the continuation war. I wouldn’t have fooled around with a wartime stock. This particular M39 is Westinghouse receiver and bolt, that makes it from around 1917. If it could talk it would have an interesting story to relate. One reason I wanted to take the rifle off it’s stock was to find out about the receiver. This last configuration for this rifle was in 1968. What it’s been through is a huge guess from it’s origins in Meriden.

This bolt and receiver was either part of the batch of New England Westinghouse rifles sent to Imperial Russia or could have been one carried by US forces during the Archangel “Polar Bear Expedition “. I looked through the roster, some Finnish Americans in that bunch too!
https://bentley.umich.edu/research/cata ... n-history/
Very interesting, yes if only your rifle could talk. Didn't know about the Polar Bear Expedition, sounds like something that spy Sidney Reilly would have been involved in along with White Russians.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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