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I decided to take you all’s advice and attempt to clean up my 1892 (and several other vintage guns I own) myself. I’m going to buy David Chicoine’s book. but that leads me to another question: if I wanted to get into hobbyist gunsmithing, where do I start? Can you recommend any intro books? What tools do I need, and where do I get them?
Thanks
Glen
May 2, 2009
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what you need to start with is a good set of hollow ground flat blade screwdrivers in varying widths and thickens. A small brass hammer, brass punches and small steel punches.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
May 2, 2009
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Glen,
Amazon sells a nice screwdriver set with a lot of blades to choose from.
Brass punches and hammer, It does not matter what you get they all are about the same quality.
http://www.wttool.com/index/page/product/product_id/8993/product_name/13-Piece+Gunsmith+Punch+Set+%28WT%29
Steel punches I like to go with high quality either Snap-On or Starrett. Cheap one always bend and round over.
http://www.brownells.com/items/gunsmith-punch-set.aspx
The other things that you can use is a good bench vise with different types of padding. The better vises are made in the USA, the ones made in China are always of poor quality, at least that is what I found when shopping for vises. The padding you find or make from other sources but you would want aluminum, brass or leather. Aluminum you can buy some aluminum angle and cut it off the width of the vise jaw. Brass is a common padding for vises and is available.
http://www.reedmfgco.com/index.html?screen=brass_vise_jaw_caps
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
Either make or purchase a bench block
The next time you go to a gun show check out the book stands and pick up a couple of those assembly, disassembly books that give pictorial diagrams of these procedures for different models. If you’re unfamiliar with these techniques they can be a big help with different models. They are usually 5 to 7 bucks and you can usually find them on eBay to.
My eyes aren’t what they used to be so I find a large magnifying light a must. (Harbor Freight)
Renaissance wax, Kroil, plain Old West Snake Oil, nitrile gloves (Harbor Freight), Break parts cleaner or Gun Scrubber, various sized Irwin clamps (they work a lot better than the cheap ones), One or two sizes of those rubber and plastic headed hammers.
These and the others mentioned items should get you started.
Gene 
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