1898 Repro handguard from East Taylor LLC

[Pentz]

Here are the pics of my handguard installed. As said before, I called Mr. Schwartz and he assured me that he'd take a return no questions asked. I'm very happy with the purchase. Now....as noted by others, this is a replacement and not an original. I actually don't care; I needed this handguard NOW to go along with my rear sight for issue-class CBA matches. Without it I could not compete. Yes, the grain and colors don't match; I'm not interested in faking colors and grain for this rifle.

Speaking of matching, I've had hundreds of milsurp rifles pass through my hands, and replacement handguards are usually evident by differences in wear, color and patina. Finding one that "fits" my stock in shape, color, grain and patina is going to be difficult. If and when an excellent authentic handguard comes along at a price I am willing to pay I may get that, but I may also restore the rifle to its 1896 configuration. Works for me. My rant mode off.

[Parashooter]

Too bad you don't care about the appearance. Original handguards are seldom grain-matched to stocks anyway, but the color of yours is very close. 15 minutes spent giving the handguard a light French polish using linseed oil for pad lube could produce an equally close match in patina/sheen and also darken the new wood just about right.


French-polished new handguard with original Krag stock.

[madsenshooter]

I fiddled and fudged a lot with mine, even mixed different stains, just couldn't seem to get it exactly right. But then I've got originals that don't exactly match the stock either. One odd one is on my .310 groove diameter 92/96 now. It looks like a good match on one side, but is more orange on the other side.