OK: Almost Finished and a Question for Everyone?

Greetings and Salutations!
Any day working on restoring a classic World War One/Two British Rifle is an OUTSTANDING Day! It’s like oh my God my ‘Zen’ Happy-Place to be just sitting there, working my way over the metal, using various tools and grades of sandpaper…

Got the YouTube up and running, just playing my ‘usual stuff’ Demo Ranch, Brandon Herrera, Atozy, Drinker, Az, Nerdrotic… Throw in some historical ‘stuff’ and you pretty much have my regular watch list…

Spent about 4 hours just sanding the Hell out of the Lee Enfield.

The receiver is a stone bitch with allll the nooks and crannies, and the pitting was pretty bad on the interior as well, as it was a “stored without a bolt in the fucking deserts of Ethernopeia” which cause a fair about of full-on rust as opposed to ‘minor scaling’.

That Lil Bastard and his relatives should be flogged for that sort of infraction… Jes’ Sayin’… I’ll let the pix speak for themselves:

Front of the Barrel, 2x coatings. BOTH done with Perma-Bloo and the barrel in the area of the blooing was heated with Ye Olde Flammenwerfer Ignition Device to hot-not-hot-but-warm-enough. There’s some spots that it looks rough and patchy, and that’s because of the severe rusting that it had.

But since that part of the barrel is going to be ‘under the wood’ I figured to experiment, so I could see what the rest of the rifle, such as the mating point of the receiver/barrel might look like:

oplus_0

Now, I focused a LOT of the sanding and work on the rear sight. I did NOT tear it down ‘all the way’ as the screws are pretty worn, the pin that retains the ladder ramp for the sight is beat to Hell, so I figure ‘Fuck It’ and I’ll work around it. You can’t really tell as the lighting is bad (as it seems to always be in my pix) but that metal under ‘normal circumstances’ is damned near gleaming w/out any scaling or rust.

It does have a metric fuckton of pitting.

The pitting is so bad that I’m not even sure if bead-blasting would help… I mean it might but then I’d lose some of the personality of the Old Boy, never mind the Armorer’s marks under the chamber area of the barrel (pix to follow). There’s a LOT of those by the way… Every time His Royal Majesty’s Rifle was serviced, his Armorer stamped the rifle, usually around the chamber area of the barrel, with his Royal Armorer Cartouche.

Mine has about 10 of them… I don’t know what the frequency of a Depot Level Servicing was for a SMLE back then, but ALL of the cartouche marks are identical. This (to my eyes) tells me this particular rifle, as well as the pristine condition of the Bore and Rifling, that he spent his time is a Depot/Deep storage rather than ‘going off to war’.

The receiver, well here it is (bad lighting and all):

LOTS of ‘deep pitting’.
BUT: I did get a great pic of what I found out is called the “Wrist” of the rifle, which is that rear section of the receiver where the buttstock screws into the receiver, and the markings tell who was in charge at the time, which Company made it, the year it was made, and the model and mark number.

‘GR’=Georgius Rex, i.e. King George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s Da.
‘BSA Co‘=Birmingham Small Arms (the ‘C’ is poor)
Made in 1939
‘Sht. L.E.’=Short Magazine Lee Enfield (of course)
III and a Star=Model 3, but I didn’t find out what the star means… any ideas?

So last thing to do is Bloo it… Because it’s soooo large and has a lot of nooks to do, I was wondering if any of you folks out there have any experience with Duracoat?

It was mentioned on one of the boards I was researching on… seems this company makes some -seriously tough- spray on/Paint on weapons coatings, and a LOT of folks out on various boards swear by it… It seems they make a spray-on parkerizing replication kit that’s been well received, both on their site (which IO immediately discount) but also on other boards and reviews… to include some YouTube/GunTubers who said it’s really good for a finish that I think I want…

Let me know.
Should I bloo it with the Birchwood-Casey, of go with a chance and try this Duracoat stuff? I know Duracoat from truck bed liners, but had no idea they did weapons coatings…
Otherwise, again another late night.
More Later
Big Country

28 thoughts on “OK: Almost Finished and a Question for Everyone?”

  1. I do alot of parkerizing, both zinc and manganese. The lions share of the prep is accomplished with muriatic acid, removes all old blue and rust quick. It is however really sketchy to be around if you like to breathe.

    1. There is like NO rust left. ALL of that is gone. All tat’s left is the pitting really, and the stains in the pitting. I appreciate the POV however.

      Depending on how it shoots, if it’s awesome, I might think about going full retard and getting the ‘stuff’ to do a hot blooing

  3. Can’t help ya, Tiny. Some of those new fangled finishes look great… but some of ‘em are pretty nasty too. The balancing act between refurbing and keeping the character and soul of the piece has to be a personal one.

    Get it back together, and see how it shoots? If she’s a shooter maybe some extra care and TLC in the gun spa might be worth it? If it’s a wall hanger…then you must keep as much of the original character as possible. For me personally the balance point changes according to the shootability of the piece. Your mileage may vary.

    Keep us poasted!!!👍

    1. I saw where Mr. Filthie has a nekid picture of Santa over his dirty bird bench! Honest! Cross my heart and hope to eat Hillary’s shorts.

  4. Mk III* was a simplification. Magazine cutoff and volley sights were deleted. Please show us the left side of the receiver including the safety, and the left side of the barrel band; those areas will show whether this was a rifle reworked to III* standard or born that way. The slightly wonky 39 in the year of manufacture suggests this rifle was a very late build from legacy parts. They were already building Rifle No. 4 but tempus was fugiting, Adie over the channel was clearly getting frisky, and Winnie was drooling at the imminent success of his warmongering; more brandy, cigars and moulah. How is the stock inside the magwell, where the recoil hits the wood….no cracking?

    1. I have been both Cerakote-ing and Dura-coating, firearms and other thingies for about 10 years now. I like both for different reasons. For tight tolerance parts, such as bolts the interior of receivers, pins, screws, etc. I prefer cerakote as it is a much thinner coating so less chance of having tolerance issues, it is also slicker and has less friction. Also since its a bake cure, assembly and usage are sped up.
      I prefer duracoat for camo jobs and it will fill pitting better as it is a thicker coating more paint like than cerakote. While duracoat does have a bake cure version, I prefer the air cure at least when it comes to camo jobs. Once prep is done, you can shoot the base layer, after 2 to 3 hours, you can add stencils and shoot the second color. You can take up to a week doing a camo job, where as with cerakote it has to be completed in 24 hours.
      I have never used their spray can kit, so I have no idea how that works, I have pro spray guns, sand blast booth, degreasing station etc. But regardless the KEY MOST IMPORTANT STEP is PREP. absolutely de-greased! Then you can shoot a coat and let it cure, if it needs a second coat wait 10-20 minutes for the first coat to flash of and then hit it again.

      After about 24 hours you can reassembly and use, but waiting a few days it will be even more cured, duracoat continues to cure for days even up to a week.

      I’m jealous of your project, but happy for you and glad you are taking us along on this restoration journey.
      I have a number 4 mark 1* long branch 1944 . Absolutely love shooting it!

    2. Correction….right side of receiver for the mag cutoff….safety used to have the rear part of the volley sight. Left side of barrel band on the stock had the front volley sight. Closeup pics requested. Get a bayonet, go wild pig hunting in thick scrub with surplus ammo….

      1. And another vid…..my diet of personally owned SMLE was limited to One (1), and was blessed by God. Never went into details because mine shot so well. The ammo was the problem. Sadly, mine was lost in a tragic freak boating/landscaping accident (shaddup Dreyfus) and is lost to the shooting fraternity forever +1 day, TINS. Anyway, enjoy…

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NaafRf0uDR4

    4. This is correct. The * indicates a change that doesn’t require a new Mark, typically a simplification

      Another example is the No 4 Mk 1* which includes the simpler L sight instead of the micrometer rear and the deletion of the latch for the bolt head but, is other wise interchangeable withe regular rifle.

      The Mk 2,3, and 1/2all have to do with the trigger arrangement. The are post war or post war FTR and even if they are marked * they have the non* features

  5. Greetings. I recently had a ‘conversation’ with someone on gab and I would like an outside opinion, regarding ballistics and the etched bullets in NYC? Would etching a bullet damage the casing? Even if a spark did not ignite the bullet presuming it was already put together, would making a groove in soft brass not effect how the thing works in the acp as opposed to revolver? Could damage to a case even potentially cause it to explode in the chamber? And the etched words were quite perfect, this entirely seems unrealistic to me, but my 20 years USAF were spent attaining multiple aircraft, electronic and computer science degrees, but ballistics I do not know well. Thanks! (and if you are ever interested in the truth about ufo’s etc, I am your expert witness…) Peace.

    1. Since you mentioned UFOs any opinion on the drones of New Jersey? That’s all my local AM radio has been talking about the past few days. I’m of the opinion that the US government knows everything about these drones. They are keeping Americans in the dark about why they are flying around. I think maybe they are just a distraction while Pedo Joe pardons Chinese spy and kiddie porn purveyors. While the Diddy list is gaining traction and while Russia is winning in Ukraine.

      Any ideas? Are the drone flights just distraction or is there something to it?

  6. I was very pleased with the SOCOM Blue cerakote that I had applied to Grandpa’s Mauser.
    The name is gayer than AIDS but the color is titties. I’ll email you pics later.

  7. Haven’t touched a SMLE in decades, but IIRC it was finished in black enamel on top of what ever else they did. Other Brit stuff I saw had black enamel too to include later things that had crinkle enamel. Black Duracoat would be a good equivalent. Don’t remember if the bolt and inner reciever were coated but I suspect not. Enamel would be too thick.

    1. Just imagine what happens when they combine these with drones. Imagine a squad of these things flying in to complete a mission!

      They could also obsolete cops.

        1. Ever pull one of those old brit 303 rounds apart to ses what’s in them. Cordite is some weird stringy stuff packed in them.

  10. I used to hand polish ‘problematic’ firearms, both surplus and collectibles then I would blue and have the color case hardening done as needed it was a hella-long process, I often used vinegar blueing on small parts. I currently use quality spray paint w/a 3 week cure time on my using rifles. Check Brownells for coatings

  11. Get some stuff called “Metal Rescue”. Get a gallon or so from ebay or elsewhere. It will remove the rust and will not remove any bluing (well, the normal old bluing) or original coatings. It’s more of an iron chealator than some sort of acid that people normally use. It takes time and some gentile heat. One recommendation is to do the small parts in a crock pot. You can do the barreled receivers in a long plastic wall paper trough with a heating pad underneath and some blankets over everything.

    You simply don’t do an epoxy coat on a CR level rifle restoration. No. That’s a sin.
    Maybe on those open bolt Czech/Russian/German SMGs, where you’ve filled in some spots around the remill welds with epoxy, but not on a good rifle restoration. Or, maybe a police positive wheel gun that you’re going to shoot black powder in. That epoxy paint coating will lower the price of the CR rifle down the road.

  12. Mk III * – a simplification of the core Mark III design which was introduced in 1916. Deleted the volley sight arrangement, windage adjustable rear sight, magazine cut-off, front stacking swivel and introduced a plain angular bolt cocking piece.

    “*” suffix – denotes (a) change/s to a pattern firearm of a minor nature thus considered too insignificant to warrant assigning a higher Mark number.

  14. I’m inspired to put together a like new Polish AK kit I’ve had sitting around. I even got an American made in the white receiver for it, as I didn’t want to bend and weld a flat for such a nice kit. I’ll probably just paint the receiver with some Brownell’s Alumahyde, though, instead of bluing or parking it.

  15. I tried Duracoat on a early war k98 because at the time I couldnt find anyone that sold the proper blacking chemical. I used a matte finish which turned out good enough. A little fish-eye near the muzzle. It still looks pretty cool. The stock is laminated and the glue is red so the effect is really sharp.

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