Shotgun Refurb - Blue the Barrels, Fix the Action, Repair the Stock

[Castle]

PART 1

 

AIM

I wanted to document how I did a refurb to a SxS a two winters ago. I know that lots of people have redone their woodwork and I drew heavily on some of their posts for advice but I struggled to find a walk-through with decent pictures of how to blue your barrels so I hope this (picture heavy) walkthrough is of use.

 

CAVEAT

I have absolutely no experience with wood or metal working prior to this. I am not suggesting I did anything the ‘right’ way and there are some real tradesmen on this site who will shudder when they see some of my techniques. Hopefully people can learn from what I did, rather than copy what I did.

 

THE SHOTGUN

I was given a 12 gauge Parkemy SA SxS for free by a friend. The reason it was free was it was not working at all. The issues were:

- Broken firing pin

- Split stock

- Split fore-end

- Rusted, worn blueing on the barrels

- Dents and chips on the woodwork

- It was too short. The LoP needed to increase by at least an inch before it fitted me

 

The good news was the bores looked fine and the action locked up tight so it wasn’t a totally lost cause. I decided to try and give it a new lease of life but was not willing to spend any real money on it.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Castle

[Castle]

PART 2

PREPARING THE STOCK

The first activity with the stock was to get the varnish off. I used Nitromores and wire wool to scrub it off. I then washed it in soap and water to get rid of the chemical. It was at this point I realised just how bad the cracks were and I considered giving up at this point but gave it a shot anyway.

There was oil soaked into all of the wood, which is no doubt what caused some of the cracks. It looked like this:

Following advice on here I filled a plastic tub with acetone and dumped the wood in there for a week. That did a pretty good job of drying out the wood to look like this:

[Castle]

PART 3

FIXING CRACKS IN THE STOCK

Next I turned my attention to the cracks. This was difficult because some of the bits that had split were very, very thin. I used the same technique on each of them. I drilled a pilot hole through the wood, prised the crack apart, liberally poured in CYA glue (bog standard super-glue) and then put a screw down the pilot hole, leaving the screw-head exposed. This pulled the two parts together with a layer of glue in between. I chose CYA rather than wood glue because it is so ‘liquid’ and flows into all the gaps it can.

I then used a Dremel to cut the heads off the screws and recess them into the wood. I used a grinding disk for both these tasks. Instead I should have used the disk to chop off the head and then a grinding bit to get a neater recess. As it was I was chopping through the head of the screw (not the shaft) it took a long time. Firstly this meant I bumped the wood more often, secondly I heated the screw until it was glowing hot, which scorched the wood.

I was willing to accept some roughness in the work being done because I wanted it to be strong and if it didn’t hold, then the whole project was a bust. However in hindsight I wish I had taken a little more care. In particular I would have left more of the screw exposed to make chopping it off easier and I would have taken breaks in grinding to let the metal cool down.

[Castle]

Every inch of the ‘non visible’ wood was then painted with CYA glue. It filled all the cracks that were too small to see, saving dramas in the future. It also sealed the wood so oil absorption would be reduced.

 

 

 

 

Eventually it dried and looked like this.

 

[ditchman]

interesting........................

[Newbie to this]

I look forward to seeing the finished results

[Castle]

PART 4

 

FILLING AND COLOURING THE STOCK

 

I now had a solid piece of wood that I could trust the integrity of, but it looked like ****. I chose a wood-filler that matched the colour of the wood (this was a mistake – explained later). I filled all the recesses with filler, hiding the screw heads.

 

 

Which then dried proud of the wood.

 

 

I then built up layers of filler where there had been chips. This was partially successful but the filler was not structurally strong enough to form and keep a right angle so after use my edges are slightly rounded.

 

 

 

Using sandpaper, I levelled all of this off so it was flush with the wood.

 

[ditchman]

liking this...................will the filler take coulour ?

[Castle]

Short answer? No.

[Castle]

To remove dents from the wood, I tried the old trick of ironing it (with moderate success). I wrapped the stock with wet towels and then ironed them. The idea is the steam raises the grain of the wood and removes dents. It worked very well for small dents but not at all where the wood was actually ‘crushed’ like the one on the fore-end above.

 

 

On a hunch I then rubbed wood-filler into the grain of the wood. Not sure if this was of any help, but it didn’t take long to do.

 

Then the fun job of sanding started. I sanded by hand and it took ages trying not to remove the chequering etc. I cannot remember the grades of paper I used unfortunately. This sucked.

 

 

I wanted a ‘richer’ colour to the wood so I used a wood stain from https://www.blackleyandson.com/ to paint onto the wood. Here, some learning occurred. The wood and the wood-filler took up different amounts of the stain. The stain was almost unchanged while the wood looked much darker.

 

 

 

 

What I should have done is test stained a small area of wood before I did any work and matched the wood-filler to that rather than the bare wood. I live and learn.

[JDog]

Interesting and practical stuff.

 

If you get Ditchy involved in this thread you may have to be prepared to go to a hundred pages.

[Castle]

Thanks.

 

There is a lot more to say so if Ditchy is willing to read it, I'll post it. Although that said, I do need to get on with some actual work for a bit.

[ditchman]

Interesting and practical stuff.

 

If you get Ditchy involved in this thread you may have to be prepared to go to a hundred pages.

 

 

*** outa of it.............troublemaker.....go and shoot sum linc's pigeons..

[MrPhantom]

I'm enjoying reading this too. Are you going for a traditional oil finish?

[Castle]

PART 5

 

FITTING THE BUTTPAD

 

To increase the LoP I bought a universal recoil pad and a 5mm black foam spacer which I ended up not using because an existing black band appears on the pad as you grind it to fit.

 

 

To start with I tried to sand off the existing chequering on the butt to give me a flat surface to work with but I do not own a belt sander so I really struggled. In the end I gave up and used a fine tooth saw to cut a very thin slice off the end of the stock.

 

 

I then did my measuring, drilled my holes and screwed the pad to the stock. I used Fairy liquid on the screws and screw driver to reduce damage to the stock as I pushed them through the holes. I then removed the pad and started wrapping with tape.

 

Anyone who has been to Raul’s Rose Garden will know the ‘double bag’ trick. Before engaging in anything filthy with one of the girls upstairs, you put on one condom, then add a layer of Deep Heat, then roll on another condom. If, during the action, one of the condoms breaks, either you or the girl will soon know about it.

 

Inspired by this I used a layer of red electrical tape, covered by a layer of black. If I wore through the black tape I would know I was getting down to the wire. I then fitted the pad back on.

 

 

 

 

I read on an American forum that the key requirements for grinding a pad to fit by eye was a steady hand and a blood alcohol level of at least 2.0. I had one of these covered but was lacking in the other. I also had none of the right kit to do this. Rather than a belt sander I had a drum sander on a wobbly bench mount. If you own an expensive gun then this might not be for you.

 

 

In the end I only took a few chunks out of the wood but it was still nerve-wracking.

 

 

I then used increasing grades of paper to polish the black band to make it suitably shiny. Cut into long strips they could be used in a ‘shoe-shine’ motion.

 

 

I applied a very thin layer of wood filler to the butt of the gun to make up for any wobbles I had with the saw, and then screwed the pad back on, wiping away any excess filler that squeezed out.

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

WOW!

 

What a cracking thread, very informative, great pictures and an interesting narative.

 

 

I remember Belize, when were you there?

[Castle]

Thanks.

 

I've not been to Belize for a long time. Would be great to go again.

PART 6

 

OILING THE STOCK

 

Nothing surprising here. I used the various bits of advice received on here to hand rub the stock with Blackley’s oil. It took a long time. I did not enjoy this stage. I have nothing to add beyond what others have said except that at one stage I added too much oil and it went tacky and would not dry.

 

The solution was to put it on a windowsill in direct sunlight for 2 or 3 days which dried it out quickly.

[Castle]

PART 7

 

FIXING THE ACTION

I was very, very lucky here. Although it had a broken firing pin and top-latch spring, I had access to an identical but even more broken Parkemy. I stripped this for spares and set to work.

 

 

For both of the faults it was just a case of getting access to the broken part, pulling it out and dropping in the replacement. I did not have any of the necessary tools so even after buying some gun-smithing screwdrivers, I did do some damage to the finish of the gun. I made more use of a punch and 2lb hammer than I should have.

 

 

At the end I used very fine wire wool and oil to clean up the visible areas of the action. The internal metal work is very roughly finished and shows how much this gun probably cost (or didn't) originally. I made no efforts to rectify this because it would have required removing so much metal and I did not want to do that.

[Castle]

PART 8

 

PREPARING THE BARRELS

 

The barrels looked like this.

 

 

Before improving the barrels I needed to get them back to bare metal. Blueing (as opposed to parkerisation) seems to just be shiny rust, hence can be removed by rust remover. I used the upturned lid of a plastic tub as a vessel and then filled it with water and Hammerite Rust Remover.

 

 

 

I could not believe how easy this step was. I dunked the barrels in. Left them 10 minutes. Gave them a scrub with wire wool. Put them back in for another 10 minutes. Scrubbed again. Job done.

Next I needed to polish them up. I started with 160 grit paper (I think) and removed the smallest amount of metal necessary to get rid of any rust or scratches.

 

[Castle]

I then worked my way up, using each grade of paper wet until I was on 1000 grit paper. It took about an hour to do both barrels.

 

 

 

With the next step to be blueing, I had to degrease the barrels first. I used Gunk Green to wash the barrels and then poured some acetone on them before blueing. The blueing completely failed to take and I wasted a week in a humid atmosphere with no improvement at all. It looked like this.

 

 

The streaky rust showed that the solution was not inducing rust on the barrels. This was because I did not degrease thoroughly enough, so I went back a stage. The second time I degreased I wore latex gloves throughout, applied acetone liberally and SCRUBBED the metal with kitchen roll. I would then use fresh paper and scrub again with fresh acetone. I did this until absolutely no oil was coming off the metal. I should not have been lazy the first time because this step turned out to be so important.

[Old farrier]

Hi

Wow

Very interesting thread 😊

 

Take my hat off to you sir for having the bottle to have a go

 

Well done

Thanks for taking the time to post

All the best

Of

[Feltwad]

What you have done to this abused sxs gun I admire you for that although some of your method's are not the way I would have done it .The trouble with these cheap foreign guns is the wood your stock is a poor grade with the grain running through the wrist it is sure to go at this point the grain should have run through the wrist and down through the stock try and avoid screws they can make the job worse also the filler use shellac flakes melted with a solder iron on those unraised dents

Always remember on this type of gun you cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear every body has to learn the more you do the better you get so keep going

Feltwad

[Castle]

PART 9

 

BLUEING THE BARRELS

 

I went back and forth over what I was going to do with the barrels. First I was going to send them to a gunsmith for a ‘hot salt blue’ (too expensive), then ‘cold chemical blue’ them myself (not a permanent finish) before finally deciding to ‘slow rust blue’ them myself.

 

I am no chemist, but from what I understand, slow rust blueing uses acid and salt to induce very fine rust on the metal which is then boiled to turn it black before it is polished to a weather resistant finish. It is a traditional English finish and looks great when done. It is slow (hence the name) but not hard to do. I encourage anyone to have a go.

 

I read lots of advice online but could not find one exact method to follow. What follows is my method which seemed to work.

 

Firstly I tried to find a vessel in which to boil the barrels. Clearly it had to be an unusual shape. It had to be long enough to fit the barrels but if it was too wide then I would be wasting the deionised water used. Several places sold metal troughs that would have worked but I was not willing to spend that much money. I tried to use a metal shelf which I heated up and then hammered a furrow into.

 

 

This eventually had the right shape but when I put it on the hob it was an impossible thing to heat to boiling, not to mention the safety nightmare (and my wife was ******).

 

 

This was not going to work so I scrapped it and went back to the drawing board. I took the risk that it only needed to capable of holding boiling water rather than boiling water. With that assumption made I took a length of plastic drain pipe and two end caps and made myself a tray. When it was hot the sides sagged out so I put a strip of duct tape round its circumference to hold it in the right shape (not shown below). I would then boil the water in two large (degreased) saucepans and pour it over the barrels in the drainpipe.

 

 

I needed to be able to manoeuvre the barrels without touching the external surfaces so I ran a wire coat hanger through one side and bent it so it could not come out. I did not plug the barrels at all.

 

I needed deionised water (apparently filtered water is not sufficient due to salt levels?). I bought 20L in 4 x 5L cartons from Robert Dyas and used the whole lot.

 

I needed blueing solution. There were only a few options in the UK and I was delighted when I found Blackley & Son. https://www.blackleyandson.com/acatalog/Compounds_and_Solutions_for_Metals.html I was even more pleased when it turned out I knew the other son from my work – small world!

[Castle]

Feltwad,

 

Roger that. Starting this project I didn't even know what I didn't know. I have learned a lot but this is still amateur hour at best. I would love to have the time and funds to really get my head into this.

[Castle]

Once I had assembled all of this it was time to start work. After the abortive attempt described above, the process was to use cotton wool to thinly paint the solution over all of the surfaces I wanted blued. Which discoloured the metal.

 

 

I then hung the barrels from the shower curtain rail over a bath half filled with hot water. I closed the bathroom door and left overnight. This warm, wet atmosphere covered the whole surface with fine, ‘velvety’ red rust ( I do not have any photos of this).

 

I then boiled up a few litres of deionised water, and filled up my drainpipe with this. I dropped the barrels into the water for 5-10 minutes. Once it had cooled down a bit I poured the water out and then added another freshly boiled panful.

 

 

When it came out it was matte black in colour but had a velvety texture.

 

 

I then used fine wire wool to scrub off the rust. Its bloody messy and you need to wear gloves throughout. Once the metal is smooth I used acetone and kitchen roll to clean the barrels.