gnoahhh wrote on Mar 25^th, 2013 at 3:02pm:

Note that raw linseed oil will take forever to dry. The only reason the armory used raw linseed oil was because it was cheap and quick. Not because it was the very best finish for a wooden gun stock.

Horsefeathers! The folks at Springfield weren't sparing the expense. (Think about all the costly machining and metal finishing lavished on Krags.) They wanted a wood finish that penetrated the surface, not one that dried on the outside and would soon be scratched and abraded off in service.

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This excellent photo of a nice, original Krag shows clearly how the finish is IN the wood, not on the surface. Notice the unfilled pores, hard to replicate with oil formulated to dry quickly.

Boiled linseed, applied by a real craftsman, is a fine finish for a civilian rifle that will be protected from damage and treated with loving care - but it's simply not what was needed on a military rifle subject to rough service.