Dad's Water Damaged Colt!!!

[RamRoddoc]

My Dad had this Colt Woodsman for many years only to have water damage nearly ruin it. I picked it up back in June and told him I'd see what I could do with it. It would serve as a winter project. It served him well on our small farm and took a few pest and one rooster that had a habit of waking Dad up around 04:30 in the morning when he was working two jobs back in the 70's. He would shoot targets with this little pistol and could pick off shotgun shells like no one else I knew or have known at distances that most would think was a lie.

This is what I got:

Hand wire brushed inside and out.

Despite being butt ugly the bore was/is still in good condition. So I'm making forward progress and have hopes that this old companion will once again find its way home to my Dad's holster. We shall see. (Reply coming)

 

[DES365]

good luck that's a shame those were extremely accurate little 22's.......hope it works out....would be a great gunsmith story!!

 

[B. Byrd]

That's going to be pretty and good as new with a new bluing. Good luck with it.

 

[RamRoddoc]

So after hand wire brushing and gutting the little Woodsman, it sat on my bench for a couple of months. The past several weeks I found some time to begin the tedious task of block hand sanding with 220, 400 and 600 grit sand paper.

Unfortunately there are small fine pits that I just could not get out without harming the roll markings. As it is, the markings are a bit thin on spots but still clearly visible.

Even so I think it's starting to look pretty good. I sand blasted the barrel and curves. I sanded the flats as described. I don't want to polish it any more as the pits will really start to stick out but the finish is about 80% good to go. Most of the deeper pits were under the grips and as such will be covered up.

So here she is.

So I'll be ordering some bluing salts to do a home grill backyard blue. It will be my first attempt. I thought about making my own bluing salts but I'll go the extra step for Dad's Woodsman. I'll be looking for a decent stainless steel pot to cook the salts.

I'm looking for grips and factory grips are hard to come by. If anyone knows who makes some decent walnut grips let me know. Thanks for any assistance.

 

[B. Byrd]

Looking good.

 

[Cadcom]

Maybe one of the knife makers on here could make a setup. They seem to work with a lot of different materials and shapes.

 

[scandmx5]

Awesome!

 

[oneill]

wow, that looks really nice, way nicer than i expected after seeing the before photos.

 

[georgia357]

Congrats on an awesome job.

 

[Kdenton2448]

Man that thing looks 100x better good job and goodluck with the rest