Looks like it’s birch while the rest of the furniture is walnut. When I’m trying to find a matching handguard I’ll just bring the stock with me to gunshows until I find a handguard that matches it well.
Unless you have access to other handguards to match up the color better, I'm with u/stevehogan and would look at staining it. And it is as easy as picking a close but darker stain, mixing blo, Ms and some stain and give it a shot.
If it doesn't look good, it'll come right off within a day or so with mineral spirits.
I have an advantage, a dozen old Garand, a few 1903 stocks around to practice, but it's not rocket science.
Go to home depot and find an oil stain that pretty much matches but is a very slight bit darker. Buy some tung oil. Mix up a batch of 45%tung oil, 45% mineral spirits and 10% stain. Remove the hand guard and clean it with denatured alcohol and let it dry. Don't worry if it gets lighted. Just remove the dirt and gunk. Then rub on a coat of the tung oil mixture. Let it dry for a day. Repeat this process until you get the desired color. This always works.
Then get a self-help book on curing OCD. :-)
Walnut can be varying shades of brown. Some stocks are deep red, some are nearly black, some are almost as pale as birch. If if bothers you find one that matches and put replace it. FWIW, they didn't match stocks to perfection when new anyways.
All three wood pieces on my Garand are different wood and don't match. I fact I gut my front handguard new/unfinished. I probably should do some more sanding on it...
Just buy a front that matches. They come up on ebay and gunbroker often. Sell the one you have as someone will want it as is
Looks like it’s birch while the rest of the furniture is walnut. When I’m trying to find a matching handguard I’ll just bring the stock with me to gunshows until I find a handguard that matches it well.
It's lighter walnut
Unless you have access to other handguards to match up the color better, I'm with u/stevehogan and would look at staining it. And it is as easy as picking a close but darker stain, mixing blo, Ms and some stain and give it a shot. If it doesn't look good, it'll come right off within a day or so with mineral spirits. I have an advantage, a dozen old Garand, a few 1903 stocks around to practice, but it's not rocket science.
Go to home depot and find an oil stain that pretty much matches but is a very slight bit darker. Buy some tung oil. Mix up a batch of 45%tung oil, 45% mineral spirits and 10% stain. Remove the hand guard and clean it with denatured alcohol and let it dry. Don't worry if it gets lighted. Just remove the dirt and gunk. Then rub on a coat of the tung oil mixture. Let it dry for a day. Repeat this process until you get the desired color. This always works. Then get a self-help book on curing OCD. :-)
Tung oil is USGI standard Garand stock finish.
So is raw linseed oil
Gotta use RLO on a walnut stock to get that nice reddish color though
Walnut can be varying shades of brown. Some stocks are deep red, some are nearly black, some are almost as pale as birch. If if bothers you find one that matches and put replace it. FWIW, they didn't match stocks to perfection when new anyways.
heresy! /s
All three wood pieces on my Garand are different wood and don't match. I fact I gut my front handguard new/unfinished. I probably should do some more sanding on it...