Sorry, I couldn’t find it either. It may no longer be available. Shaping the blade was one thing, “drawing down” to the proper temper is another. Regular jeweler’s screwdrivers are hollow ground and work on the small screws that hold the carrier latch. The others...
I like the Brownells ones and it’s a bonus they’re magnetic. It’ll be easy to replace bent/broken ones with the $10 sets. In the meantime I’ve packed up a big box of stuff and sent it to Art. A Japanese Sweet with a tang screw so tight I asked him to get it out and put in a new one. A 1962 Sweet with a carrier screw so tight I got tired of fooling with it. The 2-piece carrier I bent trying to change the dog and asked him to take a look and see if he could fix it, and finally, the screwdrivers to see if he’d re-grind them. Quite the assortment. On this project my barrel came back and it looks pretty cool with the new extended screw in chokes. I ent with the French Red for stain and I may re-strip the buttstock because it came out WAY darker than the fore stock. I fixed the crack in the fore stock and it came out pretty nice. I’ll shoot a picture of the barrel with choke and my repaired stained waiting-for-that-first-coat-of-oil front end. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Guy named Bob Day at R & D Custom Barrel Service. The website is americhoke.com. It was super fast work too. I mailed it last Saturday and came back yesterday. 6 day turnaround WITH the US postal service both ways. That’s blazing fast. I’ll shoot it on one of my guns tomorrow and see how it does. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Looks really good. I’ve found that with the French Red the stocks usually end up getting lighter in color. I still think FN used a toned finish so the forearm and buttstock would match. I have a few sets that don’t match after I’ve refinished them, but were a perfect match before.
Thanks. I think you’re dead-on correct because the first set I did, err still doing actually, behaved that way. The butt is a lot lighter than when I began, it’s like the pigment is sucking into the wood or something. I have a question Justin. I’m considering doing the butt stock over because my grain doesn’t seem to have filled very well. I can run it again and do a better job or I can just keep adding oil til they fill up. What think you? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I don’t think it’s worth stripping and starting over. I had one recently that had long open grain like your stock. I stripped and started over with two coats of filler and it didn’t help. I would just keep going and lightly wet sand after every 5th coat. You will eventually get it filled but it’s going to take a lot of coats. You could also try mudding to fill the grain. Another option that my father in law does to fill grain on the guitars he builds is he used CA glue and sands it flush. Then he does a French polish. I might try that method next
I have done several score of stocks, many with the exact same issues. As far as the grain issue-- I agree with win7stw, sand every fourth or fifth coat. Lightly (the operative word here) with only a shade of elbow grease. Use 800 if you can find it, or maybe even 1000 grit. I know that seems a bit fine, but I am a member of this BTDT club. Just make real sure you waited an ample amount of time before sanding---days (at the very least) if possible. I don't remember what exact oil/finish you are using here, but if it is some type of BLO or similar, you might try thinning a couple of coats down a fair bit more than usual, and put an extremely light coat on. Maybe those will smooth things out. (I have had some success doing that.) I have seen different shades of a color before and after re-finishing a forearm and butt stock that came off the same gun. I agree there must have been some "adjusting" of colors going on back at FN. I have a shelf full of jars with various colors I have mixed together. It isn't unusual for me to have to use two different mixes to ultimately match the two pieces of wood. What sucks the most is almost every time I am unable to see if the two truly match until a gaggle of time has already been invested. I will do the butt stock first and after putting on whatever stain I start with, wait until that dries. THEN I will do the forearm. I will put on whatever color coat I think it will need, then adjust fire accordingly as it dries. And for my tired four eyes, I do all of this ONLY in direct sunlight. I have found (again, speaking for myself only here) I can see any color variation a whole bunch better than artificial light. (But that's just me.)
Ok so this picture is from my first project that I first posted a lot about in one of win7stw’s refinishing threads. Finally finished rubbing oil, waited a couple/few weeks to make sure it was dry and then started trying to knock the gloss off. Used FFF pumice, then FFFF pumice, and finished with rottenstone. I’m pretty happy with the result. I’ll wax it tomorrow then read up to learn the best way to do the checkering. The buttstock is still a work in progress and I’ve also got the wood from the most recently started project going with about 5 oil coats on the butt and 3 on the fore. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I can do that. Here’s how it is in the sunlight. I haven’t waxed it. The gloss is significantly subdued from when it was straight Pro Custom oil. Here is what it looked like before I started. The whole thing was pretty bad but the area in the pictures was the worst. I was able to get rid of all the dents. The awful scratch in the lower left of the third picture is now just a dark line, almost like it’s supposed be there. You can see what it looks like now in that first picture. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Got to give an update on this too. So Art’s received my box of various things I needed done last Friday. I’d sent one receiver with a tight carrier screw I couldn’t get out, a Japanese receiver and butt stock I couldn’t get apart, the 2-piece carrier I bent up trying to hammer out the carrier dog pin, and at the last minute opened back up the box and threw in my set of screwdrivers and a note asking if they could fix them. Called today to check on things and they told me they’d just invoiced me in the past hour. All my stuff was ready, even the screwdrivers and they fixed those at no charge. Wow, unexpected and APPRECIATED. So my box is on the way back and I’m super stoked. The fast turnaround was awesome and the bill was very fair. All my stuff is fixed and since I bought a new 2-piece carrier when I thought I’d destroyed the other one now I can convert my standard 16 to speed load. I don’t think anything could have made this experience better. I want to visit that shop now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Haha sure. That’s actually a scary thought. I wouldn’t be able to overlook the little imperfections anymore. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Art and his sons are the greatest. Sometimes I look forward to something breaking so I have an excuse to visit. I had no idea when I started collecting Auto-5’s that the premier shop was just an hour away. How lucky is that? Yes, plan on visiting if you come to Missouri.
