[Clark]

I have been having very good results to have my mistakes TIG welded over, then I grind smooth, and cold blue.http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?s=&postid=417603

[Jim K]

As one who has welded over more than one mistake, I can definitely say that it is better not to make the mistake in the first place. The old adage, "measure many times, cut once" still applies.

Jim

[4v50 Gary]

I have to learn that skill myself. It's great for restoration work when you have a deeply pitted firearm.

BTW Jim, Wallace Gusler (Master Gunsmith & now Chief Conservator at Colonial Williamsburg) once told me (because I'm inept with tools - I can burn down a rain forest, but don't ask me to wield a screwdriver), Don't begin the restoration work before you finish the piece.

[Gewehr98]

How's your comfort level with 1873-vintage steel?

[Jim K]

1873 vintage what steel? Those guns were wrought iron and welding is darn touchy.

Jim

[Gun Plumber]

Especially because they gauged metal hardness by the color of the metal after it was heated. And adjusted it by what type of light was coming in the window. IE, was it a cloudy day or bright sunshine...

Not like todays Rockwell standards by ANY MEANS.

[Gewehr98]

Which explains some of those half-hexagon bridges I've seen (brazed?) on the receiver rings of reworked BP Rolling Blocks. Purely cosmetic, I'm sure.