How do I help this poor old Mauser?

Your rifle, if in excellent condition would have been worth about $500 without the rust.
The condition it's in now, much less. $150 is about right.
Just soak it in Kroil, Diesel, WD40, penetrating oil, etc or whatever you have and see how it turns out with a bit of elbow grease.
It may turn out quite nice and maybe the pics make it look worse than it really is.
Look forward to seeing your results.
As for sinking more money into it on a reblue, sounds like it could be a lose-lose proposition. When you go to sell it, the first thing they'll say is "It's a rework that's been reblued..." and then they will chisel you down on the price!
 
Agreed. If you plan to keep it then spend a bit of money and have a sweet rifle, but resale will be worse reblued I think.

Its definitely a rework so not super collectible as is or restored.

Ive often thought about getting a beater 98 and having it armacoated or whatever. i think an as new K98 with a sweet finish would be awesome.
 
as a factory refurb this rifle was already reblued. having it done again by a professional will not detract from the value. if you do it your self ,and strip of the rust, what are you going to finish it with ? cold blue, barbecue paint ?
 
If the rifle had an original Mauser rust blue, re-blueing it would kill the value, yes.

BUT...

The rifle is NOt rust blued. It was polished and caustically re-blued by the Czechs. It's value is as a Czech refurbed rifle for East German service - a Cold War arm.

Having it professionally polished and re-cuastically blued to original Czech specification is restoration, not bubba work.

But it's your rifle. If you prefer to leave it looking rusty and neglected, or pitted-up - have at 'er.

A proper restoration of the metal is going to cost $250-300 for a rifle that will be worth $500-600 when you are done.
 
I think I would send that to Jason, indeed, probably the best possible choice. The rifle will then be worth more than the cost of the job, by a safe margin.
 
Claven2 said:
It's a caustic-blued czech rework.

As mentioned, the honest answer is to send it to Gunco and just pay the money. It will look as-new, Jason does the best Cuastic blueing in Canada - and no, I'm not exaggerating. He's actually a German trained master-gunsmith.

Anything else will just end up looking half-@ssed.
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I haven't heard his name mentioned on CGN much as he's not online, but his work is excellent. If you do want it to look like new again, I also suggest sending it to Jason, his prices are very reasonable.

-Steve
 
Any one here ever heard of Soda blasting?
I worked with a fellow who spoke highly of it. Very soft touch to it.
You can remove paint from Chrome without marring the chrome.
Never heard of it since, though.
 
If I do decide to send it to a pro to get it professionally done, how do they get rid of the pitting I know will be under the rust? Do they grind it down below the pitting? I dont see paying good money for a nice blue job over pitted steel. Any idea what the cost would be for a blue job like you guys have described? if it costs $300 + the $150 I already spent it is no longer worth what I put in it.
 
tokguy said:
Any one here ever heard of Soda blasting?
I worked with a fellow who spoke highly of it. Very soft touch to it.
You can remove paint from Chrome without marring the chrome.
Never heard of it since, though.
Click to expand...

From what I have seen of it, it will remove paint, dirt, grease, verdigris and some other oxides beautifully even from wood or glass, but won't do much on rust scale like that.

Arm & Hammer seem to have done their best to price themselves out of the market and most blasters I know of have stopped using soda just because of the media cost. So the boys at A&H have now found out what their max price point is, but in the process have probably lost 2/3 of their market, which won't come back. Brilliant.

I understood Evapo-Rust's claim to fame was that it would not affect bluing. If the bluing is going to be redone you can just use vinegar and save yourself the money.
 
Guy JR said:
If I do decide to send it to a pro to get it professionally done, how do they get rid of the pitting I know will be under the rust? Do they grind it down below the pitting? I dont see paying good money for a nice blue job over pitted steel. Any idea what the cost would be for a blue job like you guys have described? if it costs $300 + the $150 I already spent it is no longer worth what I put in it.
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For $150, you scored with a hat-trick, enjoy it for what it is after you soak it in oil.
Save your bucks for another rifle rather than sinking it into this one.

It's got character now with however the cleanup turns out. Looks like it was in a musty and damp German bunker or in the drink at Juno or Omaha Beach. :eek:

Don't worry about the pitting, I have an old Luger with pitting from blood spray on in. Nasty. Adds Character. It took off some of the blueing.

Either way, as long as it shoots, that's the main thing.
 
Guy JR said:
If I do decide to send it to a pro to get it professionally done, how do they get rid of the pitting I know will be under the rust? Do they grind it down below the pitting? I dont see paying good money for a nice blue job over pitted steel. Any idea what the cost would be for a blue job like you guys have described? if it costs $300 + the $150 I already spent it is no longer worth what I put in it.
Click to expand...

They buff the steel on buffing wheels beginning with coarse grit buffing compound and working down to a finer finish. For a decent blueing job it is essential for ALL the pits to be gone. The pitted steel holds old oil and will not blue properly. In my area a decent reblue on a rifle will run around $200. The lionshare of the labour is buffing which is time consuming and requires experience not to smear stampings in the steel. Often times the refinisher will not know how much work is involved until they actually start to buff the parts. It is not hard to tell if the reblue man knew his stuff or not by looking at the finished product. Most will not give you a flat rate for the job. The work involved very much depends on the condition of the rifle.
 
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