I bought a shooter (non-factory drill and tap and swivel studs installed) EG last week. LBC says 1953. A previous owner slathered on a coat of varnish, complete with runs and sags, but luckily for me, didn't sand the wood. In fact, he didn't even take the stock off the gun, as there was varnish on the metal adjacent to the stock and all over the buttplate and grip cap. I'm going to refinish and would like to match the look of the original finish, but can't remember for sure what the finish looked like. I literally handled dozens of 99's when I worked in a gun shop, but that was over 25 years ago, and memory sure doesn't improve with age. What I seem to remember is, the finish was kind of dry and dull looking, with unfilled pores. I'd guess it was simply a couple coats of oil rubbed in. Am I on the right track? I'm not going to use oil to refinish, as I I'm going to hunt with this gun, and want something more waterproof.
If anybody has a 99 from the early 50's that has original finish on the wood, could you tale a couple pictures of the stock, with good lighting, that would show the amount of, or lack of, finish in the pores and how dull or shiny the overall stock is, so I know what look I need to duplicate?
My second question is, what years were the magazine spools made out of case color hardened steel? When I took the gun apart to clean out over 60 years of accumulated crud, I was surprised to find the spool wasn't brass or aluminum. The colors are perfect, it's a shame the spool is down inside and out of sight. Wish the colors on the lever were as nice.
Thanks for any help.

The case colored rotors only show up for a while around 1952-1953.

Here's a buttstock of an EG to look at the finish. Somebody hit it with something on that darkened the checkering (pretty much anything will do that), but the finish on the stock is correct.

Well there you have it. I’d call that a finish “in the wood” (or at least with very little build up) with filled pours. There was a lot of talk about refinishing on this forum that went on around Christmas and New Years Day. With a little searching you should be able to find it. You can easily get that look with Chem Pak Pro Stock Finish. It’s a hybrid with better waterproofing abilities. The old fashioned way to fill pours was to coat the wood with spar varnish and then lightly sand it down to the surface. Always scrub out the checkering with a stiff tooth brush and then only seal it at the very end with some light or thinned out finish. Also, I always try to keep in mind the age of the gun and make the final finish appropriate in appearance. To me, nothing looks more telling than an older gun with wear (as they all do to some degree) sporting a finish looking like it just came out of the factory. Best of luck and have fun.

My 1951 EG, ser. # 5977XX, LBC 23C has a case hardened rotor. It seems to me that I read somewhere, or someone told me, that the case hardened rotors were used during the Korean war due to a brass shortage. Not sure if it was a cost issue or if there was some type of government mandate to minimize brass usage for things other than shell casings.

Yup, that's the popular lore on the steel rotors. Not all were case hardened. The one in my EG is plain steel.

Is there any benefit of a brass rotor over steel?

Brass would be a lot easier to machine but once its in the gun I can't see that it would matter.