Hey there Tom. I to am a South Carolina rifle builder who can’t leave a good rifle alone. My biggest problem was with the tru-oil never drying on the ebony. Ended up waxing the fore end to finish it. I just finished a 6.5x55 small ring stock - labor of love.
Love our old Mauser rifles! I have 2 husqvarna rifles and an Interarms mark X and replacing and refinishing stocks, replacing recoil pads. Rifles can be a thing of beauty and also shoot accurate! Love the videos keep them coming Tom
Tom, where did you find those recessed studs? I have my own 1903 project I’m working on and I’d love to use this type of stud to class it up a bit. Thanks
Very nice Tom, I’ll be waiting with baited breath to see the finished project.🤗 I loved your magic video edit in this video, very well done! Best wishes as always my friend. God bless
You've put a lot of effort into this project so far. A classic sanded in oil finish using only boiled linseed oil is called for. Yes, it's time consuming, waiting for each coat to thoroughly dry but the results are spectacular.
Excellent work, I'm thinking that stock is gonna be beautiful...wondering about how the stain is gonna take on the lighter pieces like where the pistol grip is scabbed...its an interesting project and looking fwd to seeing it progress...
Have been watching your videos for a while Tom but first time ever leaving a comment on RU-vid. You do a great job and always leave me feeling good. Lots of great information and value your experience. Keep it up!
"Tung oil" yes that's how it is spelt. unfortunately the process of application is more time consuming. The results, protection are superior to , well everything. As always there is a price to pay- somewhere. if you are inclined to cheat a "lill" bit then "Danish oil".. if you want to produce a good field grade working protective layer then, Boiled linseed oil is the way to go- for a working"everyday or every other day " chunk of wood in the shape of a firearm stock with a barrel and other metal bits screwed into it.
@@markhaywood7307 Mark, I don't know if you're on Facebook but you can contact me through Facebook messenger if you are. And if not shoot me an email at trsimpleliving@gmail.com.
@@TomRiverSimpleLiving it takes very little epoxy . Since wood likes to compress it is good to spread out the compression surface and snugs them up in the stock. No matter how hard we try with our drimmel tools and sand paper, we cannot match the mating surface of an epoxy mold. That is why we glass bead our rifles. It makes the lock , stock and barrel act like a stress free mono component piece.
I hope so??? I have the stain on it now and it is dark and I mean dark. I'm just hoping it will have a lot of depth to it after I get the linseed oil on and build up a shine?
Stain the whole thing and wipe off excess stain on the ebony. I think that the ebony won’t show color but may make it a bit darker. Masking off might bleed under the tape from capsular action anyways. If worried about it test on scrap piece of ebony. Good work.
I can't wait to see how the work takes the stain and the finish, and what the wood grain will look like. But just like the old cliffhanger endings to the weekly Lone Ranger TV show, we will have to tune it next time to see what happens. Love the show and the stock shape looks wonderful. P.S. If you want to sell the rifle when your done, I think I can get my better half to let me spend $350, $450 is pushing it these days in her eyes for ANOTHER HUNTING RIFLE. Good Luck on the project, I can't wait to see you shoot it!!!!!!
LOL, I know what you mean about pushing it. I have the stain on now and it's really dark in places. I'm hoping the BLO gives a little depth and makes it a classy looking dark color?
This may not be the right time to ask this question but I am going to ask did anyway I am wanting to refinish my Winchester 1896 with the red finish like Turnbull uses. What do you recommend?
I would say Ebony is not going to be an issue if you stain it or not. If you are concerned, test it inside the barrel channel. It is likely going to have a different luster or shine than the stock may have which is normal. Ebony is very stable and is somewhat oily naturally. I used a dowel pin when mounting forends on the ones I have made. Some ebony has brown tints and streaks of color in it. You can color it black using stain as well. Forends made of ebony also prevent movement of the barrel channel. There more than just decoration and sever a purpose. You do not want the barrel to bed on the forend if you use a three point bedding system. The barrel must be bedded behind the forend cap. Likely, you are going to free float the barrel and that isn’t an issue you need to worry about. 🙂
Thanks for the info there Gizmo! And yes I'm going to free float this one. And I did use a dowel and some acraglass mounting. I went ahead and masked it off for the staining but like you I don't really think mattered.
Enjoy your videos. I own a couple of original military configuration 03A3s and every original one I have ever seen had a straight stock with with no pistol grip. It looks likes someone may have added to pistol grip to this stock? I believe some of the 03A4 sniper rifles used a "C" stock with a pistol grip and a longer length of pull, however these are fairly rare. Keep up the good work.
You are exactly right about someone adding the pistol grip. And that was one of the things that drew me to this rifle. They did such a good job doing it and they had a higher comb. And I point all of that out in the next video when I try to cover over the different wood colors with stain.
I'll have to keep that in mind Mike. It could come in handy in the future. And that would also be a good way to plug and old hole if you could match the wood and grain.
