Restoration Project: Lee Enfield No4 Mk1 ROF Fazakerley

[AFJuvat]

Did this one for

It was originally made in 1944 at Royal Ordinance Factory Fazakerley.

Enfields were originally finished with "Suncorite", a black enamel that was thinned with Carbon Tetrachloride, which was banned years ago due to its toxicity. Suncorite is very tough to remove, but is vulnerable to chipping.

It was imported by TN Guns. The importer, or someone else, stripped off a lot of the Suncorite, and applied a parkerized finish. At some point, one of it's owners 'refinished' it with black paint.



Photograph taken before it was sent to me:


The serial number and model number information were not roll stamped on the receiver, but applied with an electro-pencil.


The only clear serial number on the rifle was on the bottom of the magazine. perhaps the rifle was force matched to the magazine?


The buttstock has two poorly fitted repairs, and is pretty grungy. The stock metal was pretty much 'in the white'






A few more example pieces:

Original milled rear sight and safety:


Upper and lower barrel bands:




With the barrel in good shape, given the condition of the rifle and electro-penciled marking, this is more of a shooter than a collector's piece, and a good candidate for restoration.

Next post: The Cleanup.

[AFJuvat]

After I received the rifle, I gave the barrel a good cleaning. It is an original 5 land/groove barrel that is still in good shape. There is some frosting in the grooves, but after cleaning, lands came out bright and shiny.

All of the parts were soaked in mineral spirits/stripper to remove any paint, followed by a soak in Gunslick Foaming Bore Cleaner, which works really well at removing old dirt and grease.

Cleaner after removing the parts:


The next task was to remove the parkerizing and any traces of Suncorite from the barreled receiver, and any other parts to be refinished.

Most of the parkerizing and Suncorite came off after wiping the parts down with phosphoric acid followed up with a few strokes of 320 grit sandpaper for the stubborn spots. I then followed up with 400 and 600 grit to remove any sanding marks. As this is a war rifle, I was careful to leave the rough machining marks intact.

Importer marking:


Receiver markings - You can clearly see they were electro-penciled on. You can also see the machining marks on the receiver.


After getting all of the finish(es) off, it was ready for a deep cleaning prior to refinishing.

Stripped Barreled Receiver:


Next Post: Woodwork

[AFJuvat]

The wood was in decent shape, but very dirty.

There are crudely installed repairs on the heel and toe of the buttstock. Additionally, the forestock still had a significant amount of cosmoline on the inner surfaces.

The first task was to remove as much dirt as possible. I always try to use the gentlest methods first, as I don't want to remove any wood, nor do I want to raise the grain if at all possible.

Between the grime, cosmoline, and gun oil/grease soaked into the stock, I ended up having to use an oil scrub (25% linseed oil/75% turpentine), followed up with straight turpentine, then denatured alcohol, and finally a citrus based wood cleaner.

Rags after using the citrus based cleaner:


Since the citrus cleaner is water based, and would raise the grain of the wood, I wound up using a steamer remove more cosmoline, followed up with denatured alcohol to absorb as much water as possible.

Once the wood was as clean as I could get it, I used 0000 steel wool to smooth out the grain.


Turning to the poorly fitted buttstock repairs, I used files and sandpaper to blend them with the stock.


Turning to the forestock and the front handguard, bluing the metal presented a bit of a challenge, because I could not put the wood in a toaster oven, a standard oven, or use a torch to heat the metal to the required 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Ultimately, I used my steamer to heat the metal hot enough to take the rust bluing solution, and then dip the metal parts in a small pot of boiling water.

After drying out the wood by soaking in alcohol, I started applying a raw linseed oil finish thinned with turpentine, gradually increasing the ratio of oil to turpentine.

Buttstock:


A nice shot of the knot in the stock:


Handguards with blued metal:


Forestock with blued metal:




Next Post: Test Bluing and Blacking

[AFJuvat]

Before rust bluing several parts, I decided to test a few random pieces to see how well they would take a blued finish.

Into the ultrasonic cleaner with some Dawn dishwasher detergent and 3 tablespoons of Lemi-Shine to remove all traces of dirt and any remaining finish:

Start of 1st cycle:


After 2nd cycle:


After rinsing, then keeping the parts stored in denatured alcohol I heated the parts to 200 degrees and applied the rust blue solution to the parts. I heated and applied the solution two more times, heating the parts between each application of the solution.

Two of the parts after three applications of heat and rust blue:


After the third application, the parts were placed in a pot of boiling water to start the chemical reaction:


After boiling for 10 minutes, I removed the parts carded off the remaining rust.

Before carding:


I repeated the heat, rust, boil, card on all of the test pieces three more times. I then heated the parts to 250 degrees to boil off any remaining water, then soaked the parts in oil overnight.

After Oil Bath Pleased with the color:


The Brass Buttplate had a large amount of corrosion. Since the corrosion has to be removed, the parts had to be completely cleaned.

Brass parts cleaned, you can see where the corrosion was bad:


As the buttplate was going to look ugly, I decided to blacken the brass. This will hide the corrosion, prevent it from corroding further, and will wear off of the high spots, giving it a unique patina.

First application of the blackening solution:


Second application:


After rinsing and a light buffing with 0000 steel wool:


Next Post: Small part bluing:

[AFJuvat]

After the successful tests, I started the process to blue the remaining smaller pieces:

Process is the same as in the previous post. After ultrasonic cleaning, I noted that the lower band had the screw fittings brazed to the stamped band. As Brass will not blue, the brazed parts needed to be blackened.

Band stripped:


After bluing, before blackening:


The rear sight is actually composed of seven different pieces. After disassembling the sight, each piece was blued. After reassembly, I filled in the markings with a grease pencil to make them easier to read.

Rear sight:


Bolt blued and assembled:


Front sight assembly blued and reassembled to test fit:


Side view:


Bolt, trigger guard, and rear sight (after oil bath):


Screws, trigger, sear, etc:


Some of the tiny pieces: rear sight pin, rear sight elevation retaining pin, front sight pin, and the detent plunger for the rear sight


Next: Barrelled Receiver

[AFJuvat]

Next up was the barrelled receiver.

After cleaning the receiver by soaking it in acetone and scrubbing it, I rinsed it with denatured alcohol. As with all other parts, once it has been cleaned, it cannot be handled with bare hands.

As I do not have a heat source large enough to heat it, nor a pot large enough to boil it in, I had to improvise.

I would heat the receiver and barrel with a propane torch - just enough to get it over 200 degrees.

To boil it, i picked up a 4" piece of PVC pipe and capped one end off. As I was heating and rusting the receiver, I had a few pots of water boiling.


I set up some wood slats on a rubbermaid trash can as a working platform, and got everything in place.


After heating and applying the rust blue solution three times:






After the third rusting, I started boiling

As the pipe was not long enough to do the whole assembly, I had to do it in phases

Barrel down:


Receiver Down:


After repeating the process four times, I rinsed the assembly with a clean pot of boiling water, then heated it with the torch to remove any water left in the receiver.

I then applied oil while the assembly was still hot. Since I did not have enough for a full soak, I stood the assembly up and propped it against the wall, and drizzled oil on with an applicator brush.






Next post: Finished.

[skosh69]

I'm speechless. You are the man. Great pics and write up. Ever think of opening a gunsmith/repair shop?

[AFJuvat]

After 2 months of work, I cleaned, greased, and oiled all the pieces and put it back together.

Happy with how it turned out. This project had a few challenges. It was the first time I have tried to do a barrelled receiver, and the first time I had attempted to blue metal that could not be removed from wood.

The results:

[RKP]

Great write-up !! .... and the project turned out awesome.

I'd like to suggest to that this thread be made into a 'Sticky'.

[DrHenley]

Very Nice!