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US Model 1917 Attic find!


kilgarvan
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Actually steel wool is great to use on blued guns and 0000 will not scratch the surface of used correctly. Must be used bone dry while blowing away the rust dust or use blue wonder as a buffer. This will leave behind the remaining finish.

 

So it's not true you can't use 0000 steel wool, you just have to know what you're doing. I mainly use a brass brush first then use the steel wool with blue wonder to remove any remaining and the brass from the brush that comes off on the gun.

 

-Brian

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That rifle is looking awesome! You will never get this rifle to look perfect, and that is 100% OK. Remember, this rifle is nearly 100 years old! You will most certainly end up with some areas that have a brown patina, especially considering how much surface oxidation is on some areas of the rifle (such as around the front sight post and muzzle on your 1917). With some careful cleaning, I'm positive you can get the areas on the receiver and floorplate looking nice with most of the original blueing. The rifle's barreled action will be much easier to clean outside of the wood stock. You will definitely want to disassemble the rifle, as there may be more rust hidden beneath the wood.

 

In regards to the rust on the muzzle area, you might be surprised how well some of the surface rust can clean up. Here's some pictures of a circa 1907 Edison Home cylinder phonograph I had a few years ago. Pay particular attention to the nickel plated steel rod at the top of the picture. Believe it or not, but the rod is the exact same one in both pictures. The top picture is the "before". The bottom picture is after I used the pad/oil process I mentioned to you earlier.

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Thanks again for all the help lads....

 

Crazy busy next few weeks...work etc...

 

Will be back to cleaning this in a few and keep you all updated as I go!

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garrettbragg12

I found an 03A3 in similar condition, and after weeks of contemplating, I decided to put it in an electrolysis tank, and I'm glad I did. It eliminated all of the rest while not removing any of the finishes. Might be worth your time to look into it! Awesome piece of history, and I will be following your progress on it!

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I do not see harm in a light sanding and refinish with linseed oil or boiled linseed oil (BLO). I have a few 1917's, yours looks very similar to my WWII rebuilds.

I can tell you they were hastily sanded at that time. You can tell by the "Lines" around the grip areas, when they were sanded, they really were not concerned with keeping the original lines crisp, so in the process they sand the crisp edges and thus rounding off a lot of the original lines. If you look at a picture of a collector grade 1917 you will see no wear around the front finger grip and the trigger guard/pistol grip area. Yes, I'm sure these areas would show wear do to use, but as chips and splinters came into play...they would be heavily sanded in those "critical" areas for obvious reasons. I would sand it to make it look uniform if you have areas that are not. But if you are not going to address the rust, then leave it be.

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  • 1 month later...

Hello.

 

Beautiful room. It must not have large difficulties give it a second youth;)

 

Solcarlus.

Wrong?

It's supposed to read:

 

Beautiful room. We should have no great difficulty give it a second youth.

 

Semper Fi.

 

Manny

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Good luck with your project! It is always nice to see these gems preserved the right way. There is nothing wrong with preserving/cleaning a vintage firearm, the right way of course.

 

I second the suggestions about the linseed oil for the wood after cleaning it with warm water. It will give the wood the beautiful dark reddish brown color US military stocks developed with time and handling. In my case I prefer to rub my stocks with raw linseed oil.

 

Enjoy your rifle!

 

Heri

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  • 6 months later...

With the help of suggestions here and a local gunsmith, my 1917 has been cleaned, preserved as much original finish as possible and test fired!!!

 

Hope everyone enjoys the results.

post-150849-0-12745300-1441667077.jpg

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I think it looks fantastic considering the condition it was in when you started the clean up.

Great job.

Ronnie

agreed came out even better than I expected!

 

congrats!

-Brian

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