From the other side of the fence, I do restorations; I’m almost completely focused on the old Colt SAA and Winchester Lever Actions. Just to do these guns, it has taken a very large commitment of time, energy and money to be able to restore these guns correctly.
I make barrels for the old Winchester levers, because of this my shop is fairly machine intensive, three lathes, two Bridgeport milling machines, a tracer Mill (for making one of parts) and a couple of surface grinders. I suspect that this would be serious overkill for a regular gunsmith, for the restorations that I do it’s adequate. (really could use a mill with a 54 inch table) .
Taking just one model; the Winchester 1886 for example. Depending on the period of manufacture there’s 10 or so different barrel addresses used on this model, three different tang markings, and 4-5 different serial number styles. To restore just the Winchester 1886 model rifle, you’re already looking at a several thousand dollar investment in just roll dies and stamps.
Parts, where do you find parts for a gun that hasn’t been made in 80 years? A simple thing as a buttplate screw…Nobody makes the correct buttplate screw for a Winchester. My only option was to make them myself or have them made. I finally ran across an American manufacturer that had the correct tooling to make these screws, only problem was the minimum order of 5000 screws.
You need to understand how these guns were originally polished and figure out how to polish them the same. Again back to the 1886, the radiuses on this rifle were polished with a radiused wheel. The Model 1886 lever for example, parts of the lever were polished with a radiused wheel of one diameter, other areas of the same lever were polished with a different diameter wheel. So now you have 6-8 wheels dedicated to polishing just one part. Multiply that by all the parts on a Winchester Model 1886.
Then the finishes: Color Case Hardening on certain parts, Rust blue on others, Charcoal blue, and Nitre Blue. All of these finishes can be found on one gun. For most of these finishes you have to learn how to do it “in house” otherwise it gets very pricey to farm out.
Anyway enough of my rant, but something to consider when looking for a decent restorer, and once you find him, don’t be upset when he tells you he has a year backlog. There’s not a whole lot of folks with the tools , knowledge and commitment to do it correctly.
Mike Hunter
Hunter Restorations
http://www.Hunterrestorations.com
