doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Restoration and Preservation

I've seen 'original' Winchesters that have had holes welded up and refinished, so well that I absolutely couldn't tell at all, at all. Please bear in mind that I had seen one of these rifles in particular (a prewar Winchester 61) when the holes were still there, and so I knew exactly where to look for the evidence.

Well, I'm extremely nearsighted and so can focus up close & personal, and I couldn't spot any evidence whatsoever. All the polishing marks ran the same way when inspected under a glass, there was absolutely no difference in either the color or the texture of the blue finish even at the edge of the redone area, and all the markings had been restored to match the originals (again when inspected under a glass). The craftsman had even gone so far as to include a broken section of the roll die marking to duplicate the original broken Winchester one, or else he actually possessed the old broken Winchester dies. I'm sure that X-rays would show the welds but my calibrated Mark One eyeball couldn't see any evidence at all.

The craftsman's identity was kept a deep dark secret by the person who handled the transaction. FYI the person who handled the transaction and actually acted as the middleman is the main operator of a well-known collector's auction house.
Caveat emptor, regards, Joe

What species of Walnut was used to stock these older customs, American or English/European?

99% of all the pre-war wood was European thin shell walnut. Depending on what region of Europe the walnut came from that’s what it was called. The order of use as one became hard to acquire and they moved on to the next was Italian, Circassian and then French. I have stopped referring to one or the other and just call it all “European thin shell walnut” the word ‘English’ I never use.

Michael, what about early commercial sporters, specifically Remington M30's?

I just picked up one on nice original condition, barrel is marked "SPRINGFIELD 30 CAL. 1906". It has a chip in the stock that needs to be addressed, American Walnut?


thanks,

Rob

Yes.

This is one of the first restoration jobs I took on myself. The rifle was by an unknown maker and not good enough to spent money on. The iron bar you see in the side was about 1/4" thick and badly inletted below the surface, when I removed all the tape and the bar the stock fell into two pieces. Also had a big piece out of the toe of the stock.

One thing I learned is that I should have made the piece I inletted round on the ends and not square. Sort of learn-as-you-go.

The silence on this thread pretty much says it all. Ask for someone to drill and tap your mauser, or put a barrel on your Rem 700, and you will get 100 recommendations. Seems that if there is a demand for this type of work, someone would step up and fill the need. Could it be that those that can do the work, do not think that those that need the work done are willing to pay what it takes to do the job right?

John

John I think the problem is that.Others have found them to the point they are completly overloaded with work. Far into the future. Like I know one guy that all he does is checker.And he has a 2 year wait. Whitey

I have learned to do a lot of the work myself and when I get over my head I turn to my friends. The downside is my best friend is a gunsmith and I would rather have him as my friend than my gunsmith so I don't bug him to a lot of stuff for me. I think most of us who have been in this for some time have people we know and trust to do work for us. To be honest jobs like the G&H 119 above would be to expensive for me to send out. It all goes back to what you first said finding someone who can do the work and UNDERSTAND it are not easy. You have brought up a great subject and I might post the subject at the gunsmithing forum at accurate reloading.