Is sandblasting ok?

i stripped it right down, i didnt grind nothing, it was that way when i bought it, i wouldnt have destroyed it like so,

ill be doing the bluing myself i bought the gun it looked like crap, so i decided to clean it up make it look like a decent sporter
 
You had I think a No4Mk2 from some of the direst times of the war.Because of the need for weapons there was no fancy finishes or machining.Rough out a receiver and give it a splash of paint,and get it off to the boys.Bubba did add his own touch with the "off electro-pencil on the safety but other than that I think it was a wartime finish.Too often people want to make these weapons of necessity "pretty".
 
It says "No.4 Mk.2. (F)" folks. That is a No.4 Mk.2 built at ROF Fazakerly between about 1948 and 1956. It is not a wartime rifle. Someone has ground off the electro-pencilled serial number right below the "No.4 Mk2 (F)" for reasons unknown, and stamped another number on the butt socket.

So, it's already buggered up irretrievably from a collector's point of view.

I would take your needle files and carefully smooth the corners and rough spots, glass bead at 60-80 psi and then have it parkerized. If you want to duplicate the original finish you could then spray it black with the toughest enamel you can get.

As mentioned above, sand blasting is OK, but the pressure must be low as the media is sharper and cuts more aggressively than the rounder and finer glass beads and broken glass beads. You want to avoid embedding fragments of the media in the surface, particularly in friction areas like the boltway. You might consider not blasting that area at all. The same for the bolt itself: tape off the body where it contacts the receiver for smoother operation after re-assembly.

You could also just hot tank or cold blue it after blasting or Durakote/Cerakote etc.
 
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Sandblasting is the standard method of cleaning/activating a steel surface prior to parkerizing. This was/is the standard procedure for countless thousands of small arms which were re-built at depot level.
 
You can blast the metal with glass, the finish will be super. Done it many times on metal to get to clean stuff before blueing. I use it on aluminum also, it leaves a very fine finish.
 
I think Mr E Moose needs to calm down and grow a sense of humour. No reason to be so offensive to a person you've never met. You can tell a guy he might not want to do something without ranting and raving.

In any case, everyone else clearly understood this was just another hacked and bubba'd enfield.

Information for the OP - a great way to chemical strip barrels is to use a long tube! I've seen this done to remove cosmoline from russian surplus. Get a pipe big enough to hold the barrel, fill with a few liters of chemical and away you go.
 
FWIW the Cdn Forces has used parkerizing after sandblasting to refinish small arms for many years. Some 35 yrs ago, when I was stationed in Montreal, I called in a couple of favors to get 2 M1903 Springfields re-parkerized in 202 Workshop, which did all depot level overhauls for the CF at that time. I watched the process from start to finish incl an initial de-greasing in a chemical bath, sandblasting and then immersion in the hot parkerizing solution in steel baskets followed by an oil bath. The fellow who was in charge of the parkerizing process was the blackest black man I've ever seen. I wondered if he had darkened himself down as a result of many years spent hanging over the parkerizing tank.:eek: The tank was about the size of one of those above ground "tuna can" swimming pools which were quite popular in Quebec at the time. I'd swear you could re-park the biggest parts of a 105mm howitzer in it.

I've also seen a lot of re-finished/re-packed No 4 spares over the yrs in original 25CFSD Montreal packaging. They dated from the mid-'60s and a lot of them were parkerized. Parkerizing is an effective industrial solution to the problem of re-finishing small arms.
 
Just a note, being painted with suncorite was how the rifle left the factory. You have removed the original finish. Suncorite is a paint noted for it's toughness and can only be applied with specialised equipment
 
its going to get blued, the gun looked hideous, if somebody doesnt like it thats fine but there was no use keepin it as it was, went to cabelas and bought some bluing, going to try it out tonight and see how it goes, will post pics when im done
 
so started bluing a little bit tonight, its looking decent, tho the colour is not as dark and that was 4 coats on the trigger guard

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What method are you using?
Are you rinsing off with cool water/dry then polish with fine steel wool before each blue? Don't forget to let sit coated in oil for at least 24hrs after your done.
 
I use a heat gun to bring the parts up to a warmer temp, find it works a lot better.
After its dry you need to buff/polish with fine steel wool in between dips or coats in the blueing, I have used motor oil and WD40 before it works well, I just use gun oil now.
 
I wouldn't recommend it. Do you have a firing pin removal tool? Couple hour soak in varsol, try it again. Most heat I would use is a heat gun set to 300F.
 
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