Back in the 70's and early 80's I had a guy on my crew who was an "old" WWII vet whose job in the Army was artificer. (An artificer was a battalion-level ordnance guy who traveled with a mobile repair shop- in a deuce-and-a-half or trailer- whose job it was to repair small arms in the field, often under enemy fire.) He told me he took his training at some facility in Massachusetts, and part of the curriculum was to spend time at Springfield Armory. I picked his brain incessantly as a young guy with a keen interest in that stuff naturally would. I remember him describing the stock department at Springfield and the big vats of heated oil they submerged fresh stocks in to the tune of hundreds at a time. He said he asked if there was a special blend of oil and was told they used whatever the procurement people could get their hands on. He (Barney Barnhill) said he had jugs of BLO in his "kit" with which he would slather M1, Thompson, Springfield stocks after doing a repair (re-barreling, parts replacement, broken stocks, etc.) and before sending the gun back to the supply people or, in rare incidences, back to the original "owner". (His unit shipped over to the UK in '43 armed with Springfields and were re-issued with M-1's before heading into Normandy.)
