M48A Pictures Page 2 These pictures were taken after I disassembled the rifle in order to clean the cosmoline out of the stock and off of the action of the rifle. It took a couple of days to completely remove all the packing grease from the workings of the rifle, but after all the work the end result was well worth the effort. I gave the rifle's stock many baths of paint thinner (mineral spirits) to clean all the cosmoline out of the dense wood. After it was clean I hung the stock up and began applying coats of thinned boiled linseed oil. I gave the stock 5 coats overall, allowing 24 hours between coats. I rubbed the wood down with fine steel wool between coats and then applied the next. The final result is a slick satin finish. The linseed oil finish takes some time and patience, but the look of the stock in the end is pretty close to how a military rifle stock should look!