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January 8, 2025
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After reading all the things that have been replied when someone new or a guest asks about cleaning up an old rifle, I decided I had the perfect candidate to experiment with. While cleaning up an inherited 22 I accidentally got some carb cleaner on the butt stock and found out pretty quick why you don’t use carb cleaner around guns. This is a 60s vintage R word 22 that had a lot of surface rust. Something that lived in the barn for taking care of whatever a 22 was needed for. I cleaned up the metal with pb blaster and brass wool. The rear stock i used carb cleaner on the entire thing to remove the rest of whatever the original accident turned the finish into. Then I wiped both stocks with acetone, 2 applications of danish oil, and finished with 2 applications of boiled linseed oil. They aren’t perfect but I wasn’t looking for perfect. I am going to try this on an 1892 I just purchased that had been sanded and varnished. I plan to use denatured alcohol to remove the varnish and the carb cleaner will never come back to the gun room. Please let me know what you think, and offer any advice.
Thanks,
Adam
April 15, 2005
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It looks very good to me 
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
January 8, 2025
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Bert H. said
It looks very good to me
Bert
Bert, Is it ok if I show a picture of the complete rifle once it’s back together? I don’t want to dirty your forum with a non Winchester.
April 15, 2005
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MidwestCrisis said
Bert H. said
It looks very good to me
Bert
Bert, Is it ok if I show a picture of the complete rifle once it’s back together? I don’t want to dirty your forum with a non Winchester.
Only if you promise to first say “Hail Winchester” three times out loud before posting the pictures!
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
January 8, 2025
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Bert H. said
MidwestCrisis said
Bert H. said
It looks very good to me
Bert
Bert, Is it ok if I show a picture of the complete rifle once it’s back together? I don’t want to dirty your forum with a non Winchester.
Only if you promise to first say “Hail Winchester” three times out loud before posting the pictures!
Bert
I’ll include the 92 I’m going to start on.
January 8, 2025
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I’ve worked on this 92 a with brass wool. So do I need to use more elbow grease, or should I move towards boiling and carding? Since the stocks have been sanded, I’m planning to repeat what I’ve done with the pump just to make them look better. The 92 receiver I would like some advice on as to how hard it should be cleaned. There doesn’t seem to be pitting but you can definitely see it’s been carried a lot. Also for the R riffle, which may apply to post 64 “Winchesters”. What can you do to bring the finish back on the “pot metal”.
Thanks,
Adam
April 30, 2023
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This is a good wood process and very similar to what I do, usually comes out pretty good if you take your time. Looks nice!
November 7, 2015
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Looks like it ought to, good call using the R-word for a test mule.
Mike
July 14, 2016
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MidwestCrisis said
I’ve worked on this 92 a with brass wool. So do I need to use more elbow grease, or should I move towards boiling and carding? Since the stocks have been sanded, I’m planning to repeat what I’ve done with the pump just to make them look better. The 92 receiver I would like some advice on as to how hard it should be cleaned. There doesn’t seem to be pitting but you can definitely see it’s been carried a lot. Also for the R riffle, which may apply to post 64 “Winchesters”. What can you do to bring the finish back on the “pot metal”.
Thanks,
Adam
That 1892 SRC also has gumwood, not walnut.
Good job on the ‘R’!
A man can never have too many WINCHESTERS...
January 20, 2023
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These suggestions might be too expensive because you can’t [at least, I couldn’t]
DIY them.
- As for the 1892 receiver, weld up and file/stone down the pits and have it electroless nickeled.
- For the Remington pump, Cerakote the receiver. It covers a lot of sins and is durable. I’d choose flat black but if you like DayGlo Orange you can have it.
To illustrate Cerakote, I’ve attached pics of a police trade-in Sig Sauer P220 .45 ACP that I picked up because it has the Kellerman Light Double Action trigger i like and Sig once offered. The anodyzing on the frame was a little tired compared to the harder nitride finish of the stainless steel slide. I had the frame stripped and refinished in FDE Cerakote, then ordered FDE grip panels from SIG USA. It serves as a home office gun with a 10-round Chip McCormick magazine of Federal flying ashtrays. A veritable one-handed Linus blanket. 
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
