I refinished my Mosin-Nagant M1891/30, glorious rifle/hammer/spear/club/walking stick/wolf-scarer/multitool of the proletariat. Nothing fancy about it, but it can take anything that the hardworking state laborer can dish out and more.
Look, Soviet chicks are all about it.
There was a brief internal conflict about the decision to refinish this. Collector types aren't gonna dig it, but I ultimately decided to go for it because:
a) There were ~37 million of these made. They're not exactly rare and probably won't ever be anyone's retirement. The only real value is in how much I like it; however, I'll preemptively apologize to whoever digs this up 1000 years from now, assuming we're still around by then.
b) I still made sure to carefully preserve all of the arsenal markings. Actually, more appeared after I stripped the original finish. Booya.
c) I'm sick of the cosmoline endlessly bleeding out of the stock and all over me.
d) It's mine, you nerds.
PHOTO JOURNEY TIME
They were finished with shellac and thoroughly slathered inside and out with cosmoline, a greasy preservative that acts as a super effective rust preventative and is the reason these are still usable after they've been sitting in storage bunkers or under an old Russian lady's farmhouse for 60 years. It's a mess and a pain, but also a blessing.
All of the metal on mine was manufactured in 1931 and assembled the next year. The stock is post-WW2.
It's so easy to disassemble that even the most malnourished and uneducated peasant could do it. Two bolts and a couple of bands hold the entire thing together, and you can use the firing pin calibration tool or the end of the giant screwdriver bayonet to do it.
I rubbed the stock with denatured alcohol to melt away the shellac, no problem. It only took about 30 minutes. Afterward I wiped on and washed away a small amount of Mean Green to get rid of as much absorbed cosmoline as possible.
Stripped. I VERY lightly sanded the stock to knock down the raised grain, trying to avoid messing up the markings in the wood. Some of them are barely stamped in.
The dyed stock, two coats from the same batch of dark walnut stain. I have a knack for taking blown-out, mistimed, poorly angled pics. The stain looks pretty dull until you slap some oil on it, at which point...
BAM, SON
With my new oil-wipin' knowledge it went on without a hitch.
Apart from looking fine as hell the oil imparts an iridescent quality to the wood. When the sunlight hits it dead-on, it gets all luminous.
The wood grain and markings are much more visible now.
No more greasy cosmoline, either, and it's no longer needed. Regular maintenance will take over from where it left off. You can beat the crap out of Mosins and they'll keep going forever.
Before/after
Although...that last one is kinda dark
