Museum quality restoration of collectable firearms. Update3: Next rifle,3 Band Enfield Ready 2 shoot

I want to cover the restoration of collectible firearms without diminishing the value or collectability of them. If you google the subject you will encounter many different methods, many of which are destructive and harm their value and collectability. You will NOT see discussed in this thread the use of oven cleaner, wire brush wheels, bead blasting or other destructive methods of "restoration", only methods which preserve the value of an antique firearm will be presented by me. Import stamped milsurp M48 Mausers, SKS's & Mosins may be easily cleaned by running them through the dishwasher, but the value of an antique Martini or P53 Enfield needs to be preserved.

I recently purchased one of the Nepali Martini Henry Rifles that IMA-USA & Atlanta Cutlery currently offer. I purchased mine from IMA-USA in untouched / as found condition. If you are not familiar with the Nepali cache discovery, it is a pretty significant find. Apparently the Nepali's are more paranoid than the Russians in the manner that "We might need that in the future, preserve it & put it in a warehouse" and has a warehouse full of Brown Bess's, Brunswicks, 1853 Enfields, Short & Long Lever Martini Henry's and thousands of parts and remnants dating back to the 1700's.

I remember reading about the discovery and importation by IMA of this amazing discovery in a gun magazine in 2003, but I soon became distracted by the invasion of Iraq and had forgot about them until a recent thread by DK-Prof and a post by KC-10Boom pointed out the fact that IMA still has an abundant amount of these rifles. In fact IMA imported 31 shipping containers with approximately 55K arms, the condition of which are amazing.

Documentary about the Nepal discovery on youtube:



The BBToH delivered my Martini from IMA-USA & I will document the step by step procedures I will take to restore and make the rifle bark anew as it deserves.

As it came to me from IMA-USA, the Nepali's did what they could to preserve these rifles prior to stacking them in the Lagan Silekhana palace 90+ years ago. The packed the rifle with some kind of cosmoline made from who knows what, rendered Yak lard for all I know.





A couple of recent handling dings.





More recent damage.



What's underneath?



Sharp markings, Not bad for 124 years old.



Lots of bluing left under preliminary cleaning.



The only exterior pitting / wood rot evident on initial inspection. I think we can work with that.



Open up the breech for the first time in 90+ years and what do we find? Not bad considering.



First patch through the bore. However after about 20 patches, it revealed VERY sharp rifling, she's a shooter boys, just give me time.

Moar!!!

Great post!

I am definitely subscribing to this post. I would like to see the project progress and how it turns out

TAG!

This could be good.

I have been interested in these for a while, but I haven't picked one up yet. Let's see if elcope can convince me to finally do it.

Do it. Trust me.

I've got more antiques, via IMA, than I do modern weapons.

3 Martinis, 3 Snider-Enfields, 1 p53 Enfield, 1 1843ish EIC Musket, 1 Gahendra and one Brunswick. Most of them are shootable, too.

PS: I'm a bad influence.

FIFY.

Tag, because I love to see this kind of stuff

Tag.

Tag. Sounds like a fun project.

Very interesting. This looks like a fun project.

Awesome!

Nuts, those are available fairly inexpensively.

This thread is going to SO cost me money......

Looking good so far!

I should receive a commission from IMA-USA, I've sold 3 that I know of in addition to mine.

yes you are...... fucker

+1

Sounds like a fun project for cheap

Tag to follow the progress

I've always thought about buying one for the fun of cleaning it up. Only reason why I haven't is the pain of finding and loading ammo. I just don't want to invest in all the stuff required, as i don't have any reloading equipment, and I'm not planning on it any time soon, just don't have the room.

I'm going to go ahead and say I'm willing to bet the number is much larger.

I'll let you know when and if I order one.

Tag

TRG

That is awesome...One of the reasons I love C-R is the clean-up of the cosmoline and what-not...The only time i've use stuff like brake cleaner is on my SKS.....because it's a Yugo, and a piece of shit, lol. But thanks, had no idea a site like this existed, probably going to pick one up for myself.

Before attempting a project like this, you should have several items on hand. Correctly sized screwdrivers so as not to booger up the heads of the screws. Toothpicks to pic grease out of screwheads. Old toothbrushes. Several types of penetrating oils, and lots and lots of rags.



With the receiver cleaned up I want to clean out the screwheads to dissasemble the Rifle.



The middle band screw is notorious amongst Martini's for being siezed and difficult to remove. I picked out the Yakmoline around both sides of the screw to allow the thinnest penetrating oil to do its job.



I have the exterior 95% wiped off, up to this point I have used nothing more agressive than 3 aught steel wool, rags, toothpicks, old toothbrush, denatured alcohol and WD40 ond other penetrants.





Buttstock sure looks different.



Closeup of buttstock markings. The two arrows pointing at eachother are commissioned out of Brittish service stamps followed by the date transfered to Nepal, in this case December of 1906. Followed by the Nepali "Chandra" acceptance stamp the name of the Nepali Prime Minister at the time and Ironicaly my Wifes name. And the original Enfield arsenal stamp next to the Rawalpindi arsenal stamp when the rifle was inspected prior to transfer to the Nepali's, along with other numbers and Nepali script, probably unit markings.



The rear sight is coming along nicely. When the round toothpicks wear out where you can't use them on screwheads, they work fine for the stamps in the metal.



Now with the screw heads cleaned out, the correct screwdriver selected and several applications of penetrating oil to the screws, let's take it apart.





So much Yakmoline that even with all the pins removed, the bolt ooozzes slowly out.



Wiping large gobs of grease off.



I picked and wiped as much filth off of the breech plug threads before unscrewing as I could to prevent possible damage to the threads. But it started out fairly easily.





With the breech plug out, the firing pin and spring can be removed.



While cleaning the internals, I've got the rifle laying sideways on the stand to allow gravity to assist the penetrating oils to wick into the screw heads and band pins.

Link not safe for wallet.

yep....

...do they have these in their store in Easton??? I'm going back to PA this weekend and I could easily see myself dropping some coin on a few of these to restore with my dad.

They do and I'm glad that I live far away, because I could envision myself hand selecting one of each, MKII short lever, P53, Brunswick, Snider, Etc.

Which one of these should I get if I can only get one and why?

http://www.ima-usa.com/m-1878-martini-henry-francotte-pattern-short-lever-infantry-rifle-untouched.html


http://www.ima-usa.com/nepalese-gahendra-martini-henry-rifle-577-450-untouched.html

Keep in mind that I am learning Martini rifles as I go. But from what I have read, if you're looking for one to restore and shoot, go for the Gahendra. The Francotte has a damascus barrel and should not be shot.

The British Militaria Forum has pages and pages of info on all of the guns at IMA.

They have them by the pallet.

Eh... The Gahendras are hit and miss. They have a lap-welded barrel and, like mine, many have what appear to be cracks, inclusions, imperfect welds. Also, if you break a part, you'll have to fit one since they weren't made with mass produced parts.

Go for an uncleaned Mk IV if you want an inexpensive Martini that'll be safe to shoot.

The Snider-Enfield rifles tend to be in pretty good shape, too. They're also made in Nepal but seem to have been made after they had a taste for industrial production and tend to be shooters.

ETA: The Gahendras, while cheap now, WILL go back up in price once they dry up. They didn't make a whole lot of them to begin with and, as such, they used to bring north of $1,000 on the open market. I imagine the same for the Francottes, Sniders and other Nepali made weapons.

Yes, I've determined the Martini isn't a sufficient enough winter project so a P53 Nepali Enfield is in route.

Shit. If you want a real project, get a Brunswick.

Mine was a freak find, mind you. The stock was in solidly in one piece!

tag

Yeah I can probably afford to get a sub-$200 gun to fix up but the $450 MK IV will be a little too much for me right now. Its really down between the Gahendra and the Francotte. I'd like to be able to shoot whatever one I get. What would you guess the chances are that a Gahendra I would order would be shootable?

Hey, how's it going man. Been meaning to call you, just been traveling a lot lately.

I've considered the 1853 enfield, as I have the stuff to shoot those, but afraid of the work to get it going

I've looked at some Brunswick restorations, I don't know that I'm up to the challenge yet.

Post a pic of yours.

if their store is open on Black Friday and they have them there...lets just say I'll be coming back with a half dozen rifles. Pics will follow of course.

Please do. You might mention where the interest and sudden activity came from.

Damn that's cool!

I just got a US Krag last month and holding something that's been around for a 100 years or more with a BTDT air about it is pretty cool.

Awww fuck ya just doomed me into getting one...........

Which exact one did you get for this project? I see there are several variations.

It is indeed cool and one of the reasons I want to make the rifle speak as every man who has THAT rifle is dead. (most likely)

I just loaded up some ammo for my Krag the other day, no bolt smoother than a Krag.

Get a Gahendra. That'll be your best bet for a shooter at that price. The Francottes are regarded as pipebombs, not rifles.

British P-1885 MK-IV Long Lever Martini Henry: Untouched.

Brunswick.



It was absolutely bone dry when I got it. It soaked up BLO like it was going out of style. I got the lock apart and never did anything else with it. Maybe I'll put it back together after thanksgiving.

I've got one of the East India Company muskets. It was made in the early 1840s. They came to Nepal during/after the Sepoy Rebellion in the 1850s. I've shot it.

There's nothing like shooting a weapon that's 170 years old.

Will do.

It's even worse when you're on a first-name basis with the guys working at the store.

(I live about an hour from Easton... for 12 more hours.)

...my folks are 15min away

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