Cleaning up a U.S. Model of 1917 Enfield

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Rugdoc

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My neighbour has a what was once a very nice example of a U.S. Enfield.

The wood is in remarkable shape with hardly any safe or armory kisses at all. The wood almost glows. The bolt face as well seems to have seen little use.


Sadly though, the rifle, which I think may have come from the U.S. during WWII was kept in poor storage in the Queen Charlotte islands for many years and has a lot of surface rust on the metal.

I've had a lot of luck in the past with taking surface rust off rifles with just gun oil and extra fine steel wool and/or my new favourite lubricant; Fluid Film.

So if I took the rifle apart and worked gently as described above, does that sound right?

And for the wood, I'd like to also treat that too. I was thinking of sanding it down and then varnishing it with varathane.

No..just kidding.

Is the original finish BLO? Should I stick with that?

I also have some Circa 1850 tung/teak oil that I use on all my other oil finish rifles to touch up the oil, but I also have some straight tung oil from Lee Valley.

Advice?
 
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I can't give you much advice but I have been looking for a gun of any kind with a barrel and action rusted as you describe. If I find one I am going to degrease it and boil it just to see what color it is after carding.
 
I'd go with BLO (pure, nothing with added stuff in it) for the stock. The metal, tough call without seeing. Finest steel wool with I'd probably soak it in oil for a few days, and then wipe the oil off with soft cloth, rinse it with paint thinner or something like that, to see the extent of the damage? Before taking the steel wool to it.
 
I've had good luck with using 0000 steel wool bone dry. Use braekleen on the metal first to get any rusidual oil off. If you rub it dry it just takes the rust. Using oil will hold the rust in the steel wool was and create a kind of grinding compound that will eat the bluing in record time.
 
flying pig said:
I've had good luck with using 0000 steel wool bone dry. Use braekleen on the metal first to get any rusidual oil off. If you rub it dry it just takes the rust. Using oil will hold the rust in the steel wool was and create a kind of grinding compound that will eat the bluing in record time.
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Also what I've been told by a couple members here. I tested it out on a beat up SMLE and it seemed to work well. I had been using 0000 with light gun oil before, but without it there seems to be more of the original finish left behind after.
 
louthepou said:
I'd go with BLO (pure, nothing with added stuff in it) for the stock. The metal, tough call without seeing. Finest steel wool with I'd probably soak it in oil for a few days, and then wipe the oil off with soft cloth, rinse it with paint thinner or something like that, to see the extent of the damage? Before taking the steel wool to it.
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(pure, nothing with added stuff in it) That would be called "RAW LINSEED OIL" and raw linseed oil is what the manual calls for.

You will NEVER find a military manual that tells you to apply BLO (Boiled Linseed Oil) to any military wooden stocked firearm.

If you can get Kroil in Canada I would coat the metal parts with it and let it sit for a few days and then rub lightly with 0000 steel wool. If you can't get Kroil you could always try automatic transmission fluid and let it soak. Anything that is light weight that can penetrate into the rust and lift it.
 
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