I picked this BSA built SMLE No1 MkIII* (1918 build date) rifle from a member here a while back and finally got around to giving it the TLC it needed. It's an early Century import since the import marks would be easily missed if you didn't look closely. The metal was in spectacular shape but had been black oxided by the previous owner, even while the stock was still slathered pretty good in cosmoline. The rear sight had been removed and the previous owner had used it as his deer rifle -fortunately he used a B-square mount that didn't require drilling/tapping the action. The bolt, barrel and receiver have matching numbers while the floormetal and nose cap did not. Since the numbers for the floormetal was below the stock line, I left it but replaced the nose cap with an unnumbered unit.
I had been going back and forth on bringing it back to life to represent what it was. While the black oxide finish was nice - it definitely wasn't correct and I wasn't about to blast it off for bluing. I finally decided to give the DuraCoat DuraBlue (matte blue/black) finish a try. Yes, I know this clearly isn't the correct finish, but it'll certainly provide the look of the original finish - more so than the flat black of the black oxide. I left the small parts (screws, etc) in the original black stoving color and only did the large parts, as would have been originally done. I also stripped down the stock and gave it a couple of coats of raw linseed oil.
Overall - I'm pretty thrilled with how it came out. Everything but the nose cap is still fresh DuraBlue and is still curing, so I haven't added any oil yet. The nose cap was my "test" piece and has sufficiently cured to rub it down with some oil, so t b e rest of the parts will look like it in about another week or so.
I had been going back and forth on bringing it back to life to represent what it was. While the black oxide finish was nice - it definitely wasn't correct and I wasn't about to blast it off for bluing. I finally decided to give the DuraCoat DuraBlue (matte blue/black) finish a try. Yes, I know this clearly isn't the correct finish, but it'll certainly provide the look of the original finish - more so than the flat black of the black oxide. I left the small parts (screws, etc) in the original black stoving color and only did the large parts, as would have been originally done. I also stripped down the stock and gave it a couple of coats of raw linseed oil.
Overall - I'm pretty thrilled with how it came out. Everything but the nose cap is still fresh DuraBlue and is still curing, so I haven't added any oil yet. The nose cap was my "test" piece and has sufficiently cured to rub it down with some oil, so t b e rest of the parts will look like it in about another week or so.