Hypothetical Lee Enfield Restoration

DaveMachine

DaveMachine

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Let'say you had an old Lee Enfield (specifically a Jungle Carbine) how would you go about restoring it? To make it look like it rolled right off the assembly line.

The rifle functions fine. Needs no parts. The metal finish is rough and wearing thin and the wood is in rough shape.

Is there a type of bluing that would work best?
Is BLO all that is needed to restore to the stock to a military original finish?
 
Damn it, I thought the link in your sig line was a pic of the rifle, lol.

I would stick to BLO for the wood, no sanding.
 
DaveMachine said:
Let'say you had an old Lee Enfield (specifically a Jungle Carbine) how would you go about restoring it? To make it look like it rolled right off the assembly line.

The rifle functions fine. Needs no parts. The metal finish is rough and wearing thin and the wood is in rough shape.

Is there a type of bluing that would work best?
Is BLO all that is needed to restore to the stock to a military original finish?
Click to expand...
British Lee Enfields were not blued. They had a burnt-on oil finish or baked-on enamel. The paint finish usually looks ugly. Long Branch and Savage rifles had parkerized or blued finishes, but there are blocks of SNs for each type of finish.

Boiled Linseed Oil is appropriate for the wood.

Parts and pieces are available at the gun shows and most gunsmiths have them by the pound, although few of them know the bits and pieces by name.
 
Stevo said:
Keep in mind your "restoration" will in all remove any collector value.
Click to expand...

I'm aware.

This particular rifle is english. I'm assuming that this enamel/baked-on-oil finish isn't done today, correct? In that case, I'd be best off to have the rifle parkerized?

Are there gunsmiths around Canada that can do this sort of period finishing?

As for the wood, no sanding, of course. The best way to go would be a chemical stripper? (I don't have access to a dishwasher :p_
 
British Lee Enfields were not blued. They had a burnt-on oil finish or baked-on enamel. The paint finish usually looks ugly. Long Branch and Savage rifles had parkerized or blued finishes, but there are blocks of SNs for each type of finish.

Boiled Linseed Oil is appropriate for the wood.

Parts and pieces are available at the gun shows and most gunsmiths have them by the pound, although few of them know the bits and pieces by name.
Click to expand...

darn it i didn't know that !!!
this forum is a constant well of knowledge that doesn't run dry
 
SMLE's were NEVER parkerized. They were either:

1) Rust blued (browned & boiled)
2) caustic blued
3) Oil Blackened
4) Suncorited (over a hot-dip blue)

No.4 rifles were always blued until late 1950. Depending on the country of origin and subsequent issue, some were also painted in Suncorite (over the blue). During the 1950's many were later parkerized at Longbranch/Canadian Arsenals.

India did parkerize the 2A/2A1 series rifles and then often panted them black over the park as a rust preventative.

The Oil blacked finish was only used intermittently during WW1.

The VAST majority of SMLE's were simply blued by various means including rust and caustic methods, depending upon timeframe.

Most people base the oil blacked SMLE theory on the POS references put out by Chip Stratton. Ignore it - it's full of falacies, errors and half-truths. Comparatively few SMLEs were Oil blackened which involves repeatedly submerging a heated part into a bath of cold crude or bunker oil so that it flash-stains the metal. Ends up in a type of hard crinkle-finish.
 
Edit to add, the british arsenals started using Suncorite on a wide-spread basis in late 1942 and early 1943, depending on the arsenal. Fazakerly was the first to adopt that finish. The vast majority of 1943 made british No.4's should be wearing a coat of Suncorite, often scratched up and ugly - but correct in every way ;)
 
You could send the rifle out and get it painted with Duracoat or something similar. I figure it would be the closest thing to the original Suncorite finish. I hear it's also an extremely tough finish.

These guys in Smithers will do a bolt action rifle in a single colour (semi gloss black) for $200.

[uhttp://www.smithtac.com/Customgunsmithing.html[/url]

There's also powder coating, but I haven't heard much about this method and how well it works.
 
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The most commonly discussed method to duplicate Suncorite paint, which has some particularly noxious components, is either black automotive exhaust header paint or black BBQ paint.

I agree that Stratton's books have flaws, but he has at least 95% of the rest accurate, and I like they way he has labelled the changes between parts (ie. 1st, 2nd and 3rd).

(And for the record, this is my 1000th posting !!!)
 
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