Ima's nepal cache pattern 1853 rifle musket -as found-

So far I have about 8 hrs or so into scrubbing the stock with steel wool and mineral spirits.

These pictures are this morning after yesterdays scrubbing and a heavy soaking/rubbing down of the spirits. "last pictures"

Where im pointing you can see where in a couple little cracks the spirits are coaxing gunk out of the cracks

I did not ask for anything special when I orderd, except I requested a bore with more coating and a complete stock breech area ;)


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Steppenwolf said:
Looking very nice, gets me to thinking....
Click to expand...

If I was a person of more affluent means I would get one of their percussion sharps long rifles In a second.

Aside from that , the Gurkha bess kits and the East India Company muskets are brilliant looking "and near to impossible things to find otherwise;)"

Of course I would love to assemble a full arsenal rack of say 5 --- 53 enfields with all accoutrement's ...;)

If I was born rich .......H:S:

Side note---
I think the last precussion bess was offered on the ee for more then 1500$$ and It was a damn mess.
 
Possible French lock markings??

I just took a couple extra shots, One is of the interior lock markings and 2 of the bayonet.


If you magnify the interior lock markings you see clearly see a fleur de leis and a British style burst -"kinda like the burst on my early pattern Canadian snider"

These 2 markings are also on the hammer interior and the lock lever the engages the interior trigger face.

The bayonet is in great shape


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A few more repairs were done today.

Butt plate screw holes were gutted out and old ramrod pegs were epoxied in there, I rebuilt some areas that were cracked and missing wood with more old ramrod bits and acraglas, shes going to need more lock mortice repairs but its a good start now that all the oil and gunk is out of there.

I plan on properly bedding the breach after the repairs set.

One step at a time as they say.

This ones off to get yankees this coming spring.

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This looks awesome! I bought a Martini last year, they neglected to tell me it was a francotte martini henry.... It was a wall hanger.
 
Did a little more after work. this mornin

Little bit more done here, not oiled yet.....this is the 4th light coat of stain drying, the lock mortise was stained ebony to mask the extensive repairs in there, tomorrow morning I will hand rub the 1st coat of oil into the stock.

I acraglassed and patched any and all holes and cracks and fitted and attached the butt plate, the buttplate screw tops need to be filed pretty but all in all shes getting there.

It will be cool tomorrow to oil and assemble her, then the next assessment of little things to be done.

I'm pleased with the progress so far.




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Looks to be coming along beautifully. I've seen and restored a good number of the Nepal rifles so far and I'd say you started with (a very lucky) better than average P1853! Lucky you!
 
And here's the old war horse assembled and on her 3rd 50/50 slathering of raw linseed oil/mineral spirits.

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And here she is with the bayonet on ....not bad

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Im going to let the oil soak in for a few days, then see what else she needs- 150 years old and she doesnt look a day over 20;)
 
How tight did you get the new buttplate inletted? Some guys over on GB and Brit Rifle forums have had difficulty - it's not a skill everyone has.

Looks nice so far, but do you think the stain was needed? Depending how light the wood really was with just BLO, I've have been tempted to use stain only on the repairs to blend them in.
 
Hi Claven, yes the buttplate was becoming a --titanic-- pain in the arse, then I stopped stepped back and looked calmly at the whole picture........whammo the plate itself was a bit warped, so I put in in my vice and bent it a bit here and there and it fit much better!

Then to top it off I acra glassed it to perfection ;)

As far as the stain goes, I like the look of it and it really helped to blend in the many many little repairs all over it.....I bet she has a 10% synthetic stock now ha ha ha

Im really looking forward to shooting this one, she truly is a quality arm with a facinating history!

Here a better picture of my Lakshmi
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd116/parzifalodinson/###yenfield017.jpg
 
Thats next weekends project;)

I have a new one on route from the states, so I have time.

I still have to file down the butt plate screws, and do a little tweaking here and there to make her perfect for her first trip to the firing line in 150 years.

Its all rather exciting.
 
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