minor update
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An update on restoration for the archives.

Ingrid: Born 1941. Nice but cracked walnut stock. Lots of blueing wear topside but perfect under the stock. Whoever carried her kept her very clean. The action and barrel are grand. The exposed areas were a bit beat up.

I have removed the stock and done the initial stripping with a product called Easyway. There are lots of others but this one works well (bought on line).

The worrisome crack in the top foregrip was repaired using medium viscosity Woodcraft "superglue." Very hot and odorous, and did a fine job. Next step is to finish stripping lower stock, then sanding off the superglue I smeared around, and doing the steam, sand and stain with a light walnut, just dark enough to bring to uniform tone. Finish will be tung oil, as per original.

Gretta: Born 1944, 80+% blueing and a reasonably clean but plain and boring and not perfect stock. Last night I cleaned and cold blued the exposed metal areas. The Birchwood Casey SuperBlue worked very well.

Then I used a little Brasso on the muzzle cap and it too worked well. Me gusta.

Some good oldschool neatsfoot oil on the sling added some welcome moisture (Anything suitable for a baseball glove will work).

Finally, I used Formby's Tung Oil and just rubbed out the stock.

Wow! The old, tired, boring walnut stock woke up and has beautiful figuring, brought out with just a fresh coat of Tung Oil. If my research is correct tung Oil was used through the walnut series, with BLO (boiled linseed oil) and shellac (50/50?) during the beech series. I do not know when the transition was. I certainly do not understand the chemistry behind how the stock immediately woke up when presented with a fresh coat of the original finish.

Gretta's previously boring stock is now beautiful, and I am done trying to change or improve anything. I admire the gouges and war wounds, and nothing is broken so I won't try to fix it.

Time to finish the pre range cleaning and go to work finding some good loads. What a beautiful rifle. Gretta tells me she likes to go deer hunting and get wet and dirty. Me too! I am absolutely impressed at this rifle for $120. This came from AIM, but I just ordered 2 more in Beech from Allan at Allan's Armory. May I live so long as to shoot them out.

Hope the ramble had something useful for you.

Regards,

Rick

do you have any progression pics?  

Quoted: do you have any progression pics?

x2

I have progression pics for Ingrid that I will post when I get into photobucket and am a little farther along.

For Gretta, no pics.  I was expecting so little with the tung oil that I thought I was just refreshing the finish, didn't expect such a dramatic change.

Rick