Rebluing and pitting

[Nikkormat]

My FWB300S Junior is an ex-club gun, and as such has had a hard life. While it seems mechanically sound, it is cosmetically rough.

As the design is about as close to perfection as has ever been made by the hand of man, I've been thinking of tidying up my example, both the stock and the metalwork.

The stock is beech, so I am thinking along the lines of removing the remains of the factory finish with light sandpaper then using a lacquer or varnish to reproduce the original.

The top of the cylinder is lightly pitted, as is the cocking lever (photo here). Would this level of pitting be easy to polish out prior to bluing, or would it show through? The thought crossed my mind that some sort of black paint finish might be a better option, but if a good blue could be achieved I'd obviously much prefer that.

So, to sum up: I'd be grateful for any advice on doing the stock, and any thoughts on dealing with the pitting prior to a reblue, or ideas on paint.

Matt

[ccdjg]

As far as stock finishing is concerned steel wool is far preferable to sandpaper or emery paper for removing the old finish. Start with a coarse grade and work towards the finest you can get. One procedure that has worked well for me on several occasions can be found here http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ighlight=ccdjg in post #6.


Bluing is infinitely preferable to paint of any sort on a quality steel gun. The pitting you show would be quite visible after bluing so I would recommend removing it by a good rub down with emery paper. It is quite light and should not take much effort.

Incidentally chemists have shown that rusting occurs faster at the bottom of pits than at the surface of the steel, so once a pit is formed it corrodes at an accelerating rate. It makes good sense therefore to get rid of pits it if at all possible, or at least to keep them coated in oil or grease.

[RichardH]

That amount of pitting I could polish out before reblueing easily

You should see some of the stuff I get sent

[zooma]

I also acquired an ex-club Feinwerkbau 300 Junior some time back and although it was mechanically good it had the usual sort of bumps and scrapes that club rifles tend to pick up by non-owning users who may not be as careful with them as they would be if it was their own "pride and joy" that they had shelled out the hard cash for !

The stock was sanded back down and any dents were removed with steam from our kitchen kettle (I never had a steamer then) and to my surprise lurking underneath the thick (chipped and scratched) toffee coloured varnish was a beautifully figured piece of walnut.

After I had achieved a smooth surface I applied walnut oil with some very fine wire wool (used in the direction of the grain) and when I had a nice finish I then completed the stock with some clear Briwax - again applied in the direction of the grain with very fine steel wool and this was then finally buffed up with a clean cloth.

I had all of the metalwork stripped, polished and blued - any small pitted rust areas were polished away but care was taken around any stamping to make sure the logo and serial numbers were retained intact.

When everything was re-assembled with new seals the rifle looked far better than it would have done when it was new - the fresh highly polished blue coat and that magnificent oiled walnut stock looked superb. A final touch was to white-in the serial number - although this (like the oiled stock) is not a factory finish it did add that little extra detail touch that makes the rifle look a little "special".

It would have also been just as easy to re-apply some suitably coloured varnish and not to have such a highly polished blue finish and omit the white letter detailing to restore a more genuine looking original finish, but my reasoning was that as I was basically restoring what was a well used and tatty example the authentic original look was not so important to me as a beautiful example of a very nice rifle that I could enjoy for many years to come.

Three years later this rifle is still in "perfect" condition and is admired by all that see it so it really is worth taking the time to restore your ex-club 300 Junior as they are not that common and they shoot and handle really nicely. I prefer shooting it to my 300S and my 300SU - they really are nice little rifles.

[Nikkormat]

Thanks for the feedback, chaps. I've found a shop over here that does bluing, so hopefully it'll just be a case of sorting the stock myself. I'll post progress as and when.

Zooma, as far as I know there weren't many Juniors made with walnut, maybe only the earlier ones. I'm pretty sure mine (1982) is beech, though I could be wrong. What year is yours, and does it have the stepped or straight fore end?

Matt