New to me Harper's Ferry flintlock, a restoration thread

[Birddog1911]

Got my hands on a Pedersoli Harper's Ferry pistol for a good price. In decent shape, but the wood could look a lot better. It almost looks plastic. The pictures don't show just how light it actually is.

Plan is to strip it down, stain it a darker color, and then seal and finish. I'll need to do my best to raise those dents. I don't think the fibers were broken in most, so should come out.

I do wonder what I will need to do to get this black mark on the barrel.

 

[UndeadPoet]

Nice! Can’t wait to see the “after” photos!

 

[Birddog1911]

No real character to the wood, but I think it'll look much better.

 

[Birddog1911]

Man, whatever Pedersoli finished the stock with, it's the toughest thing I've tried to remove! I had Bix Stripper on there for 3 hours, and it barely got some of the stuff off. This is going to be a longer process than I anticipated.

 

[Birddog1911]

Finally got all of the old finish off. Lesson learned: do NOT us Bix Stripper. Utter garbage. After several times, more than half of the finish remained. Then I recalled that I had Citru Strip. 2 quick easy sprays and it was all gone.

I'll post fresh pics, and start steaming out the dents.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Is it as not historical like the rifles?

 

[Birddog1911]

It's a Pedersoli reproduction.

 

[Birddog1911]

Lighting isn't the greatest, but you can see the grain. I'm hitting that area with the dark spot again with the stripper.

Trying to decide just what I want to do with it. Do I go with a stain first, or just use BLO with several coats?

 

[408059]

I'm very interested in this thread and how the Harper's Ferry pistol turns out. I have an old Pedersoli Charles Moore that has seen better days. It is a good shooter but has a horrible finish and plenty of dents accumulated over the years and from a bad loading stand. I plan to steam the dents and use a stain and Tung oil finish.

 

[TDM]

Those are very nice pistols. I did the same to the stock on my Pedersoli Pennsylvania rifle, just didn't like the shiny finish. I stripped mine with 400 grit and turpentine. I used DGW antique stain thinned with alcohol, about 10%, then finished with multiple coats of linseed oil. It worked good for me.

 

[Birddog1911]

All of the dents came out, and 2 coats of stain went on a couple of hours ago. Have to wait till it dries to see what I think of the color.

A technique I learned is to apply the BLO with 0000 steel wool, which helps seal the grain.

Maybe I'll be able to get it back together and out to thw range this weekend. Pics coming.

 

[Birddog1911]

Two coats of stain done. For whatever reason, when I was buffing the back end, it darkened the wood a little. I'm debating if I want to hit it with some mineral spirits to lighten it. Right now it has sort of a vintage look to it right now.

 

[Birddog1911]

First coat of BLO is soaking in. While that was going on, I addressed the pitting in the barrel. So far I've taken it to 600. I've got the paper to take it to 2000, but I don't think I'm going to go that far with it. Then, I may give it a patina, as opposed to browning or bluing.

 

[Birddog1911]

Well, a minor step backwards. I started with wet 800, and all of a sudden a deeper scratch from the file or harder paper made me move back. Had to go back to 150 to get it out, and them progressed back to 600. Been a long day, so I stopped there.

 

[TDM]

Yep, I've learned the hard way. Best to step back and wait till tomorrow.

 

[Birddog1911]

Second coat of BLO went on last night, and I buffed it out and waxed it tonight. Didn't take pics of the wood tonight, but it looks good. I've started putting the hardware back on.

Big progress on the barrel tonight. Had to go backwards in a couple of places, where scratches became more apparent once on the finer grits. Took it to 2000 grit wet. I'm considering just how I want to proceed with it as far as finishing.

I'll probably put it back together tomorrow, but a lot going on.

 

[Birddog1911]

Not the best pictures, but here it is.

 

[UndeadPoet]

Verrryyy nice!

 

[Birddog1911]

Well, this past weekend, I tool the Harper's Ferry to the range, with my others. Right off the bat, it was a nightmare. I never got it to fire properly.

Brought it home, and it suddenly occurred to me: I never cleaned the bore after all of the polishing work! All of that oil and grit got into the touch hole. Boy, I felt stupid!

Now, another interesting thing happened, and not in a good way. I wanted to flush out the old powder residue. I didn't give it an immediate wipe down, and things went bad very fast! Within 5 minutes, the BP residue etched into the steel!

I worked all of that out of the steel, and in the process discovered more deep file scratches that needed to be removed. After all of this work, and reading about finishing, I think I could have been just fine with 220, instead of 2000 grit. So now I'm torn.