For a fistful of dollars I purchased this 1876 receiver. The serial number on it indicates the second year of production, 1878, so it’s an early second model. For a few dollars more I’m going to get the factory letter from Winchester and the rest of the parts and rebuild it completely. Once it’s done, I will sell it and donate the money to the junior pistol team that I coach.
In the meantime I’m restoring an old 1892 for a customer. The gun was manufactured in 1902 and mechanically is in pretty good shape, but there was quite a bit of rust and corrosion, as expected from such an old piece of iron. Here are some “before” pictures:
I started with the stock. After stripping the old finish, I sanded everything with various grits of sandpaper and applied several coats of TruOil. I lightly sanded everything with 400 grit sandpaper between first few coats, then applied a couple more coats, and the last one was diluted with mineral oil and sprayed onto the wood using a small airbrush. Turned out pretty good. I didn’t want it to look brand new though, there are still some dark spots from old oil and some deep dents that I just lightly steamed.
On to the metal. I draw filed every surface on the receiver, lever, lower tang, and the barrel, and then sanded with 120, 240 and 320 grit sandpaper. It took me about two weeks to finish this step.
For finishing I used Mark Lee Express Blue #1, this old steel takes it really well. After just five applications it looked very dark. I think Mark Lee is now my new favorite, I like it a lot better than the Herter’s Belgian Blue. Once I was satisfied with the color, I sprayed every part with WD40 and soaked them overnight in used motor oil.
I refinished the screws, trigger and loading gate using the fire blue process. It’s quite simple actually, first I polished the screw heads with 1500 grit sandpaper and then started applying heat with the propane torch and watching the colors change. Once I saw the color transitioning from purple to blue, I quenched the screw in motor oil.
The final touch is the gold bead front sight I ordered from Numrich. Everything is in place and another restoration job is done!
As for the music – yes, I was going for the famous Ennio Morricone’s “Ecstasy of Gold” masterpiece, but then I thought of something else, what I call “the spaghetti western before there was a spaghetti western” – La Fanciulla Del West by Giacomo Puccini. It takes place in California in 1849-1850, way before the Henry lever action was invented and way before the Winchester 1873 became an iconic symbol of the West, but I still think it fits the bill.