Winchester 1897 Stiff Action

[churchmouse]

I’ve thought about how I want to approach this and decided I’m going to disassemble the shotgun completely and perform a “conservation”. This involves boiling the metal parts in water for 45 minutes to convert any red oxide (rust) into black oxide, and also to cook off old gummed up oil. Next, all metal parts will be given a pass with a carding wheel to remove loose oxide. Finally, all the parts will be soaked in kerosene for about two hours to drive out all the water and harden the black oxide finish.

This whole process apparently will not remove any existing finish from the shotgun. I got the idea from Mark Novak’s YouTube series on C&Rsenal called “Anvil”. If you have never watched one of Mark’s videos, you should. He is a wealth of knowledge and has an entertaining way of presenting information. Here is a link to his video on the subject in case anyone is interested. I need to order the carding wheel before I begin, but I’ll try to post some before and after pictures of the process.

Please keep us apprised and pics if you can.