Enfield refinish complete...pics

[roadie]

So, I actually finished this a week and a half ago, but was working the Academy of Country Awards that was on Sunday in case any of you were watching it...I ran one of the spotlights. Anyway, I finally had a chance today to take some pics of the completed job...what do ya think?
first are the before...then the after







Now the after shots...















The only thing I have left to do is I want to darken the upper handguard to match the rest of the stock, so I just have to find the matching color. I personally am very pleased with how it came out, kind of looks like a drill rifle. It was a lot of tedious work, but it paid off IMO. Comments welcome.

[jerry]

Sweet. Did you get a good look at Reba? I love her

[roadie]

I've actually met her several times, she's a very pleasant woman, nice and polite to the show crew. I've been working this show for the last 3 years now, so I've run into many of the artists, usually during rehersals, can't stand the music but must admit that the show itself is always pretty good and country music has some very very very lovely ladies, plus it makes me about a month's worth of pay in 8 days. I used to do lighting for the Billboard awards show as well, but it finally was canceled.

[wunhunglo]

Why?

Not sure I can understand why you would do that to an old shotgun/converted rifle? I definitely would not call it refinishing! Refinishing (to me)might have meant, fixing the woodwork, reblueing or repainting the metalwork and trying to return the weapon to original type finish and parts.

Nevertheless, it is now in a class by itself and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[neophyte]

roadie: Sir; I would like to hear about your cleaning. That is one fine looking Enfield.
How did you clean the metal? Bright and shiny? It encourages me to do something with my shooter grade Mosin.

Sir: detailsdetails

Thanks for the showing.

[roadie]

Why you ask ""wunhunglo" well, the before pic speaks for itself. I like the look of nice new rifle blue, but this is not a nice new rifle. It has been carried and probably fought with time and time again. I wanted to give it back some life and a new look. The character of the wood was covered up by time and I wanted to bring that back. I think it kinda looks regal now. To each his own I say.

Neophyte...here are your details.
Once I got is fully taken down I used a finish remover I got at ACE hardware and scrubbed the heck out of it with #1 or ) steel wool. This took a while, after jaunts of that over 2 days the patina had finally come off. Then I rubbed tung oil into the wood, I think I did 2 coats. I probably should seal it with something since when it gets hot the oil bleeds out a little. Not sure what to use though.

The metal was a a bit more work. Each part was done individually, one at a time. I coated each part with Naval Jelly, once dry I would scrub with 000 steel wool and repeat the process until the blue was completely gone. Then I got several wire brushes for my dremel and went over the part with that, which gave it a moderate shine. Then I used this thin gray grinding/polishing wheel that came with the dremel polishing kit and went over the metal again with that and that really did the trick. It took some experimenting with the kit but it finally came together.

[thumperpaul]

Very cool job on the wood, it really cleaned up nicely! Personally, I would leave the handguard as it is...it isn't that obvious since you cleaned up the forearm, and mismatched furniture on these weapons are very common..
The metal looks unusual "in the white"; kind of reminds me of the action on my 1912 Chilean Mauser. Very unique though!
Kudos to your efforts bro!