Refinishing a Model 14 carbine

[rem141r]

A while back I acquired a 1927 vintage 14-R in 30 Rem that someone had stripped the finish and blueing off of but never finished the job. The gun had been drilled & tapped on the top for weaver mounts and the side for a peep and sports a non-original rear site. it had a couple cracks in the wrist and at the buttplate and the buttplate screw holes were worn out. all numbers match but with its condition i knew it was going to have more value as a shooter-grade gun than a collector. i used Acraglass to repair the cracks and drilled out the butt plate holes and glued in some walnut dowels and reset the buttplate. i also did the same with a poorly installed rear sling swivel mount. all in all, i am pleased with the woodwork so far and you can't even tell it was repaired. My local gunsmith has the metal now for a re-blue and i am planning on restaining and finishing the wood. the wood has almost no finish on it and is a very light brown color, much lighter than my original model 14's. it is solid and non-punky where it contacts metal and doesn't look like it has much oil damage. i would like to get as close to the old style finish as possible. i have used the birchwood casey truoil kits before with good success on other type of guns but that is the extent of my refinish experience. does anyone have any ideas on how to get that almost reddish-brown tone that the old pumpguns have besides waiting 85 years? i also don't really want a gloss finish either. as this gun functions fine and is a good shooter, i will be using it occasionally for hunting on nice days and shooting it a bit. i may even find a vintage weaver or redfield scope to put back on it. due to a lucky find, i have enough late edition 30 rem factory ammo to last for several hunting lifetimes so this oldtimer will be seeing some woods and range time.

any suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks

[BAMO]

One thing you can do is mix your own spirit dye with Feibings leather dye. I've done this myself previously to put a rich red brown finish on the stocks of an old beat up 1892 Winchester and it worked out beautifully. Since I've done leatherwork off and on over the past several years I already had different colors of the dye on hand. Unfortunately I wasn't able to write down a ratio formula because I mixed them by trial and error on scrap walnut stock until I got the desired color but I do recall using a combination of brown, red, ox blood and a couple of drops of black to darken it. I also tempered it with denatured alcohol (which is the correct way to thin leather dye) so that I could control the color gradually until it reached my ideal shade. I finished it off with two thin coats of Minwax satin tung oil finish (while strictly adhering to the Minwax instructions) so that there was barely a hint of any sheen. The finish turned out as the dark red brown color you see on many of the obviously untouched stocks of the original 1873's and 1892's lever guns. It's been a while since I had to buy leather dye but believe it is around $3 or $4 a bottle from Tandy Leather Factory. If I were to try to mix some again, I'd probably first try blending some Mahogany and Ox Blood and add a drop of black here and there to darken the color a bit. Denatured alcohol can be economically purchased at Home Depot or Lowes. One easy way to try to control your mixture ratio is by using livestock syringes which can be purchased at Tractor Supply Co. or an online vet website. These syringes have ml markings on them and you can use those markings to draw in repeatable measures of dye, such as 20 ml of mahogany and 10 ml of ox blood for a 2 to 1 ratio. Also, I would suggest using an 18 ga. or larger needle (the lower the ga. the larger the needle) since it would be difficult to try to push dye through a 22 or 24 ga. needle. You should also wait two or three days between coats of dye depending on humidity to give it ample opportunity to thoroughly dry. This is very important.

Anyway, it's a little trial and error to blend your dye to your desired shade but you'll have a lot more control in actually producing the color you want. Just make sure to thin it with alcohol and do a complete test on scrap with a couple of coats of tung oil so you'll know the final color and sheen. I hope this helps.

[nambujim]

Don't let your "smith" buff all the markings off of the barrel before you re-blue.

Right now the barrel is worth more than all the rest of the gun combined. If it was mine I'd sure consider putting the barrel in a different frame utilizing and/or refinishing the carbine stock. Having someone work on these guns that is not familiar with them "usually" is not a good idea!

My opinion, but then you asked!

Jim Peterson
Charlotte, NC

[rem141r]

thanks jim. he won't be buffing it. its already almost entirely blue free from previous owner and the markings are distinct. he is very familiar with m14's. he's the only person i know who can take apart the bolts and put them back together. he did it with one of mine that slam-fired. i am very confident he can make it look good. i just want to make the wood look nice and vintage. i've found some ideas on line but am still looking for suggestions.

[nambujim]

Roger that!

Yeah, those of us that work on Model 14 bolts are few and far between, getting them apart is one thing but having the needed replacement parts is another. Glad the Carbine is in good hands!

Jim

[rem141r]

finally got around to getting to work on this project. i took the metal to my gunsmith and he did an excellent job. there is a very slight purpling on the bottom of the receiver but only if you hold it in the right light and i'm not concerned about it. he didn't have to buff much and only on some non-lettered areas so all the lettering is crisp.

for the wood, i wanted to try to duplicate the original finish as much as possible and i think i am getting close. it had some small cracks in the usual spots on forend and tang area and i hit them with some JB Weld wood epoxy and they are now tight. after light sanding to remove what little was left of the old finish, i mixed equal parts waterbased birchwood casey walnut and minwax mahogany. it looked pretty good on the test peice so i went for it put two coats on. i am really pleased so far. looks a lot like some of my original 14's. i think the forend may need another light coat because it is a lighter shade of wood but will wait til tomorrow in the daylight to see. plan is to next do a coat or two of truoil and then take the shine off with a steel wool and put a coat or two of furniture wax on it. when all done, i'll take it back to my smith and he's going to put it all back together for me. i have some pics that i'll post when done.

[rem141r]

finished this up the other day. here are some pics. first is a BEFORE pic with the gun in question being the one on top with the blondish wood.



here is the pump handle with the repair. it is sealed inside and out and solid as a rock now.



heres the buttstock after several coats of water-based stain. 50/50 dark walnut and mahogany. most of the old finish was already off so i was able to just lightly sand it and it took the finish nicely and did not affect the wood to metal fit at all. i fixed all the cracks but left the dings for posterity. sealed inside and out with truoil and acraglass and wood epoxy.



and a couple after reassembly. it took the hot blue nicely and did not require much buffing so the lettering is really nice and crisp still.





took it out back and punched some holes. did fist sized groups at 50 yards with the iron sites. thats about as good as my eyes can do. all in all i am real happy with the final product. normally i would not want to refinish one of these oldtimers but since this one was in such sad shape and had been drilled top and sides, i figured it was a good candidate. i may even mount an old leupold compact scope i have on it one of these days and use it for deer next fall.

[kaferhaus]

Did the brass case in the receiver remain throughout the bluing process??

[rem141r]

no he took the cartridge case out when he re-blued the gun.

[CWarmouth]

Wow, that is really, really nice. Congratulations on having a beautifully refinished carbine. I'm jealous!