was thinking about staining the Tanaka a while ago because in my mind the wood that was used for the stock just didn't look right, now before i get people replying to this post saying thing's like the "German's used lighter wood when making Kar 98k's" i know this i just personally didn't like the color.
Phase 1. The first thing we had to do before we began was strip the rifle down and remove all the metal this is easy to do in with the Tanaka and only takes a few minutes . Then we had to sand of all the old cheap varnish of that was already on the rifle and in doing this you have to use a light grade sand paper, this may take a while but it is worth it in the end. There is one good reason that you have to remove all the old varnish from the stock first and this is that the stain won't fully soak into the wood and you don't get runs and patches.
Phase 2. ok once all the varnish has been removed we had to coat the stock a dark wood stain we used a walnut stain so that it would darken the stock alot also it would bring out the grain of the wood. This process can be done as many times as you feel necessary untill you are happy with the end result. The best thing is to hang the stock up on something and leave it dry over night in somewhere that isn't to cold.
Phase 3. Once we had left the stock to dry and all the stain to seep in we began coating the stock in a water proof wood oil now this also can be done as many times as you feel that you need to, we only coated the stock two times because i have a skirmish this weekend and there wasn't enough time to let the stock fully dry. I started to just rub down the stock with an old (but clean) rag just to take some of the excess oil of and also give it a bit of a polish.
The final result this only took about two days and now the rifles looks allot better and its waterproofed against the Scottish weather.
comments welcome. Thanx to my dad for giving me good advice and the materials to finish the job.
I have posted this on the UKAN WWII section but i thought i would put it hear as well for anyone that wants to try this i know allot of people already have in the past. Thanx Craig.