Picknlittle
Member
Okay, I'll admit the patience isn't my strong suit. When I ordered my T53 a few months ago, I already had a case of Hungarian heavy ball sitting in the floor before the rifle ever got here.
It was rough as a cobb, nasty as all get out and I couldn't have been happier. It was, after all a project gun to learn from. I cleaned, stripped, sanded and steel wooled and then got antsy and reached for the spray varnish instead of tru-oil. I even decided not to re-blue it because it was so badly pitted.
Well, these past few weeks have been rough. The drought has all but shut down my landscaping business and trust me, there ain't no grass growing. Boredom has set in and how!
Today, I drug out the T53, stripped her down and with steelwool and 400 grit in hand went to work. Off came the varnish and back to nice satiny smooth wood we go. Out comes the tru-oil and just after the first coat I thinking, "Varnish! What the heck was I thinking!"
On to the metal work. Sandpaper, steelwool, rub and dub. The deep pitting begins to fade and numbers and symbols begin to reveal themselves. I break out the drill, chuck up a wire wheel and back to work I go. Soon, I can read most of the stamps, but there is still significant pitting, but if I get rid of the pitting, I'll also lose the stamps. Good enough.
Out comes the bluing past and degreaser. I'm pretty nervous at this point, but what the heck! Here goes,.......dang! this is sweet! This stuff works pretty good! I be smilin now
To shorten this tale, it ain't perfect, but with all visible metal blued and an honest to goodness smooth shiny stock in the works, this things gonna look pretty danged good.
Maybe it's been shooting all crazy cause it's mad at me for the varnish treatment!
Well, prolly not but maybe
I have three coats on the stock now and I'm thinking a couple more might do the trick. The stock is beat and gouged pretty bad, but them's just signs of historic character.
Pics to follow when back together.
It was rough as a cobb, nasty as all get out and I couldn't have been happier. It was, after all a project gun to learn from. I cleaned, stripped, sanded and steel wooled and then got antsy and reached for the spray varnish instead of tru-oil. I even decided not to re-blue it because it was so badly pitted.
Well, these past few weeks have been rough. The drought has all but shut down my landscaping business and trust me, there ain't no grass growing. Boredom has set in and how!
Today, I drug out the T53, stripped her down and with steelwool and 400 grit in hand went to work. Off came the varnish and back to nice satiny smooth wood we go. Out comes the tru-oil and just after the first coat I thinking, "Varnish! What the heck was I thinking!"
On to the metal work. Sandpaper, steelwool, rub and dub. The deep pitting begins to fade and numbers and symbols begin to reveal themselves. I break out the drill, chuck up a wire wheel and back to work I go. Soon, I can read most of the stamps, but there is still significant pitting, but if I get rid of the pitting, I'll also lose the stamps. Good enough.
Out comes the bluing past and degreaser. I'm pretty nervous at this point, but what the heck! Here goes,.......dang! this is sweet! This stuff works pretty good! I be smilin now
To shorten this tale, it ain't perfect, but with all visible metal blued and an honest to goodness smooth shiny stock in the works, this things gonna look pretty danged good.
Maybe it's been shooting all crazy cause it's mad at me for the varnish treatment!
Well, prolly not but maybe I have three coats on the stock now and I'm thinking a couple more might do the trick. The stock is beat and gouged pretty bad, but them's just signs of historic character.
Pics to follow when back together.
