Refinishing my '94

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Vyrtual

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Hey guys, I've decided to refinish my grandpa/dads old '94. Ive got the stock almost finished, and now I'm moving on to the receiver/barrel. I've never redone the metal portion before so I'm looking for tips lol. It's been hunted with for over 60 years but it's still in good shape, there's no rust, but a lot of the metal has what can best be described as "dark areas" and a lot of scuffs and scrapes. Anyone have any good "how-to's" they can share?
Thanks
 
94

It is unfortunate that you took to refinishing a fine old 94, however it is a family posession so you may do what you wish. The metal refinishing is best left to a pro gunsmith with the appropriate buffing and polishing tooling and a set of bluing tanks. This is the only correct way to redo the metal parts. There are several other coating materials out there but if you want to bring it back to fairly original status bluing is the appropriate method. IMHO;)
 
Cool, thanks man. I admit, I love the vintage "worn in" look, but this rifle has been in use in the family for over half a century and I'll never sell it. The stock and forearm had a lot of dings and gouges, and my dad had mentioned that he wanted to get it (at least the wood) cleaned up but he never had time. So I took it apart, used some boiling water and a rag to pull up some of the dents, did some light sanding with steel wool, and I put tung oil on it. It looks like it did, only shinyer and with a few less deep dents lol. I'd just like to get some of the grimier parts of the metal cleaned up, I don't really want to re-blue it if I don't have to. I want to keep it looking as original as possible.
 
You just broke my heart................
The last sentence you typed was the best and all you
needed to do was clean'er up and oil the bejebus out of her.
 
Oh she got the bajesus oiled out of her lol. I'm gonna take most of the shine out of the tung oil and get it looking like it was, and when I said I sanded, I meant a *very* light sand with 0000 wool just to get some of the sharper dings smooth again. The color is the same, just looks oiled.
If you have some tips on how to clean up the metal bits I'd apreciate the aid.
 
I don't actually mind a quality refinish on any rifle that isn't a pure collector's piece.

I think the North American way of thinking (Refinishing reduces value) doesn't make as much sense as how the Europeans generally tend to see firearms; as things meant to be refinished/refurbed (properly now), when needed and used for generations. The accepted North American point of view just smacks of a more capilatistic, "disposable goods" type attitude. There are plenty of firearms out there that have been reduced to useless wall hangers that could have been saved their owners had not been afraid to refinish/refurbish them as needed. I'll take a reliable refurbished '94 over a nasty old rust bucket any day.
 
94

If you want to pull the dents in the wood up a bit more, an iron and a damp cloth will pretty much pull them all the way up. Metal parts if you're not going to re-blue then clean real good with WD 40 and 0000 steel wool and a brass tooth brush (yes, they sell them for delicate parts cleaning). When you're done steel wooling and removing rust etc, flush real well with brakeclean and lightly oil. This will not detract from the value and will put the rifle in excellent working order.

Enjoy your heirloom and shoot it lots, that's what they were made for.
 
Awesome, thanks guys for the tips.

I do shoot it a bunch, it's my favorite one to bring to the range for sure lol. I really want to take a deer with it next season, so we'll have 3 generations taking big game with it. Then maybe one day when I have kids they'll do the same.
 
c-fbmi said:
If you want to pull the dents in the wood up a bit more, an iron and a damp cloth will pretty much pull them all the way up. Metal parts if you're not going to re-blue then clean real good with WD 40 and 0000 steel wool and a brass tooth brush (yes, they sell them for delicate parts cleaning). When you're done steel wooling and removing rust etc, flush real well with brakeclean and lightly oil. This will not detract from the value and will put the rifle in excellent working order.

Enjoy your heirloom and shoot it lots, that's what they were made for.
Click to expand...

If I use the iron+damp cloth method, will that ruin the ring oil finish?
 
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