Enfield re-done

happydude

happydude

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Location
Victoria, BC, Canada
Started off as a mismatched Savage No. 4 Mk. I*. The guy I bought it from informed me the original owner painted the whole thing black which rendered everything but the butt unusable. He restored it with various pieces of wood (stage 1). I bought it off him and attempted to refinish the wood with polyurethane stain. It looked nice but the finish was slippery to hold and it just didn't match the way I wanted (stage 2). I ordered a set of beech wood from BDL Ltd, from milsurps.com. The wood was not exactly as I requested in that the foreend did not match the top wood which did not match the butt tone wise. The butt was a very light color while the foreend looked almost like walnut before cleaning. After a thorough cleaning it matched a little better tone wise, and I could probably have lightened it up further with sanding, but I wasn't prepared to do that. After about an hours worth of fitting she was ready for a BLO finish. About 6 coats later she's done. I am quite pleased with the overall look and I would reccomend BDL Ltd (South Carolina) if you need wood. Total cost was ~$120 including shipping and customs fees ($15).

Stage 1, how she looked when I bought her
No4.jpg


Stage 2, after my amateur refinishing with stain
Guns047.jpg


Stage 3, after new beech wood and about 6 coats of BLO
MyPicture-3.jpg

MyPicture-2.jpg
 
Well done, very nice!

Here's a tip for mismatched wood that I have had good sucess with.

1. Strip wood pieces of all existing finish with paint stripper and clean up with laquer thinners or acetone. Get them bare and squeeky clean.
2. Treat all pieces with the special wood bleach available at hardware and woodworking stores, rinse well and let dry for a couple of days.
3. Using leather dye from the craft aisle at Walmart, treat all the pieces. The lighter wood components may need a second application. Many different shades of brown shoe dyes available, they can be mixed to get the desired colour.
4.Finish with BLO as usual.

The dye soaks right into the wood and won't scratch up and leave pale marks like a stain finish. Beech and walnut can be made to colour match.

Oh and yes, another tip is if you do this at the kitchen table, remove the table cloth first!
 
I am sort of planning to take the old wood set, strip it carefully, and slap it on an already sporterized, scoped, No. 4 to make a pseudo-sniper. I don't have the rifle or the metal bits but that would make a nice spring project.
 
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