1873 2nd model 1x wood refinish|Restoration, Repair and Maintenance|Forum|Winchester Collector

I like your refinish a lot better than the oxidized and failing prior refinish.  I don’t pretend to any expertise about the Model 1873 and base my opinion of what an original finish would have looked like on a pair of 1873 rifles in “like new” condition in the Cody museum. They were displayed as a crossed pair in a walk-around vitrine, with a placard saying they had been sunk in a harbor during shipment and then completely refinished by Winchester.  I cannot say the wood finish was oil or varnish but it had a low gloss shine rather than a matte finish, the same finish I’ve I’ve seen on Winchesters made for foreign military service. 

I believe Winchester’s in-house subcontractors used a drying agent when applying an oil finish. Otherwise, to get an oil finish cured out hard enough to sell would take weeks. I think some used pore fillers on particularly open-pored, flat sawn blanks of Walnut. 

I admit to a bias against old blackened wood finishes on Otherwise sound  Century-old guns. Winchester 1873 rifles were never cheap and many owners did not want to let the wood go to hell – for good or for ill, they refinished the wood. Some were professionally done and are difficult to distinguish from original – not all refinishes sand the wood to perdition, or at all. 

My own opinion is once an unexceptional antique rifle gets in the condition yours was in — already refinished badly – there is no ethical or practical reason for leaving it in its “original” condition – because it doesn’t have one. Assuming the rifle is mechanically sound with a shootable bore,  I would not hesitate to restore (or replace, in the case of the wood) wood and metal, as accurately as feasible and affordable. Otherwise, the parts market is an alternative. 

Others recoil at the notion. You pays your money and you takes your choice. 

Glshuck said
@TR, If sealed grain is what you are looking for, then it is not the pictures fooling you. The grain is not filled on my oil finish.
  

  As an old gun is used the wood finish is worn thin, then and made smooth with oil, grease, and dirt. I call that character, that coupled with the metal developing a worn natural patina The wood to metal seams seal with the same oil, grease, and dirt. In the case of antique collectors of antique guns this is appealing to some.  

  Granted some people don’t like that but after 40 years I like original. A well used 1873 looks better than a non professional clean up/refinish. That opinion does not extend to newer, after 1898 guns. Over time I had several that I did just like you did and later came to regret it. Some were so bad it didn’t make any difference. Some I wish I would have left alone. All were fun at the time. T/R  

  When I look at the before pictures I see on the receiver what looks like the remnants of case color turned silver. When I look at the after pictures of the wood it has extra figure, could this originally been a case colored 73. If so the inside of the receiver would still have color and the left side of the lower tang might be marked CF. If you don’t already have a letter it would be wise to consider one. Winchester would put wood of extra figure on 73s with case frames without listing it on letter. You state on your post, 1X wood, is that stamped on the left side of the lower tang or is it extra figure wood that came with a cased frame.

  A question I can’t answer but what type of finish did the gun have when made? Maybe a gloss finish, I don’t know. T/R

 Here is one of mine that letters X wood and set trigger and is blued and it has varnish finish. The tang is marked 2X. Your probably was varnished.

Bob

I like figured wood and an oil finish. I believe an oil finish had to be refreshed from time to time with fresh oil. I think it would have looked a bit more authentic with a bit of grain filler. Another coat of oil wouldn’t hurt, IMHO. You’re right, a new varnish finish would not look right with this gun. I don’t think you’ve hurt the gun and if you like it that’s what matters.

Mike 

  Now it all makes sense. It probably came with gloss varnish finish but in the grand scheme of things your finish is reversible. With all the distress on the forearm and the fact that the wood had been sanded something had to be done.

  I sold a deluxe 2nd model 1873 to a old east coast dealer because you could not see the fancy wood grain, it looked dirty and dark me. The case colors and blueing had rust specking but the gun was original. The next show he put it on the table and I could not believe it was the same gun. Some how he cleaned it up without adding varnish, blue, or case. Used hard wax over it that you couldn’t tell was there. The original colors shined back at you. The fancy wood grain was very visible. He sold it the first day for double the money. He would not tell me what he did. He did tell me it took a lot of time and everything is what Winchester put there. T/R

 The advantage he had was my gun had most of the original finish under dark varnish. The metal had the case colors and blue mixed with tiny rust specks making it look dirty. I think he used very fine Micro Mess cloth similar to what you use to polish plastic headlight or plexiglass. By thinning the darken varnish it lightened in color bringing out the figure in the wood. The Micro Mess comes in different messes, starting with lower numbers and you work up to ultra fine numbers that leave the remaining varnish thinner and more transparent. Then you use a hard wax, I use the old Johnson paste wax in the yellow and red can, it’s amber in color, if if let set for a few hours can be buffed with a micro fiber rag to leave a hard wax film that adds the shine that can’t be felt. I have used this technique on several high end deluxe 73s and 76s. You don’t add any finish, the gun is still original.

 On case colors and blue with rust specks I’m not sure what he did. I’ve used Krol to soak dirty case and blue and got results only if the corrosion is shallow. Then I use the wax. It helps but there are people out there that get amazing results. I have seen before pictures and the gun after on some Colts John Kopec cleaned up. The SAA went from brown to blue. Don’t know how he did it.

 After seeing what some people can do so good and other people do so bad I kringe when someone tells me they have cleaned up their gun. I know it’s fun and in your case someone already did it so go for it. I still like the first picture because it was done a long time ago, perhaps in period of use. T/R   

It should be remembered that Winchester’s 19th Century “oil” and “varnish” finishes were both based on boiled linseed oil, pre-polymerized with metallic salts to dry and harden in 24 hours instead of several weeks.

The major difference in their respective formulae was the inclusion in the varnish of copal resin or a similar polymerizing agent, and turpentine as a carrier, which would mixture will form a glossier, much harder skin as it cures. The resin imparts a warm tone. 

Repeated applications of small amounts of boiled linseed oil rubbed in, will produce a low-gloss finish – if the wood is fine pored. If not, the pores need filling with a thinned varnish. 

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the modern, so-called “London Oil finish” is done with boiled linseed oil alone.  Somewhere underneath the coats of oil, I would bet a donut there’s a thin, pore-filling, ultra-hard layer of (gasp) oil-base polyurethane varnish.