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Official ODT Currio and Relic picture thread

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I picked this BSA built SMLE No1 MkIII* (1918 build date) rifle from a member here a while back and finally got around to giving it the TLC it needed. It's an early Century import since the import marks would be easily missed if you didn't look closely. The metal was in spectacular shape but had been black oxided by the previous owner, even while the stock was still slathered pretty good in cosmoline. The rear sight had been removed and the previous owner had used it as his deer rifle -fortunately he used a B-square mount that didn't require drilling/tapping the action. The bolt, barrel and receiver have matching numbers while the floormetal and nose cap did not. Since the numbers for the floormetal was below the stock line, I left it but replaced the nose cap with an unnumbered unit.

I had been going back and forth on bringing it back to life to represent what it was. While the black oxide finish was nice - it definitely wasn't correct and I wasn't about to blast it off for bluing. I finally decided to give the DuraCoat DuraBlue (matte blue/black) finish a try. Yes, I know this clearly isn't the correct finish, but it'll certainly provide the look of the original finish - more so than the flat black of the black oxide. I left the small parts (screws, etc) in the original black stoving color and only did the large parts, as would have been originally done. I also stripped down the stock and gave it a couple of coats of raw linseed oil.

Overall - I'm pretty thrilled with how it came out. Everything but the nose cap is still fresh DuraBlue and is still curing, so I haven't added any oil yet. The nose cap was my "test" piece and has sufficiently cured to rub it down with some oil, so t b e rest of the parts will look like it in about another week or so.

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I like it. How easy or hard is that dura-blue to work with?

When it comes to refinishing items, DuraCoat is not my preference as I find other things like Gunkote, MolyResin, etc to be a lot easier since it doesn't require mixing hardeners and they're ready to go as soon as they're out of the oven.

DuraCoat requires a hardener to be mixed in and how much hardener gets mixed in is critical. Too little and it's no different than spray paint - too much and it gets shiny, so I follow the mixture instructions to the letter.

Application is easy enough. As with any of these finishes, prep/degreasing is critical. Spray it on and you can put the parts back together in a day. You're supposed to give it a few weeks before it's totally cured, but you can start using it in about a week.
 
I decided to take a couple pics of axis earlier/late war rifles that I've accumulated, I figured it would be pretty cool to take some pics of them side x side.

The first pics are a couple of German K98K's that I have.

The top rifle is a 1940 model built by Gustloffe-Werke (337 receiver code). It's a Russian capture rifle is all mismatched but she's a great shooter with the waffenamts in tact. While mismatched, most of the parts appear to be correct for the timeframe it was manufactured.
The bottom rifle is a project that I recently picked up. It's also a Russian capture rifle, but has a late 1944 Waffenwerke-Bruenn (DOU receiver code) "Kreigsmodell" barreled action in it, so the previous owner started bringing it back to it's original configuration when I bought it. It's got a correctly marked "semi-Kreigsmodell" stock on it and the appropriate bottom metal (no locking screws). He pieced it back together really well, but I do need to do something about that funky looking replacement handguard. While the waffenamts have been punched, the bore condition is in spectacular condition. Compared to the Arisaka's shown further down, the German machine quality never really went down, as much as they simplified manufacture by omitting certain features (bayonet lug, band retaining spring) and they stopped serializing everything in an effort to get them in use faster.

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Next up is a couple of T99 Arisaka's that I have.

The top rifle is a 5th series Nagoya and the machining, finish on the metal and wood isn't bad at all. The mum was ground off on this one and the numbers aren't matching, but I'm not letting that distract me from the nice rifle it is. While I know that the mum enhances value, I'm not opposed to it being defaced as it's another historical aspect about the weapon.

The bottom is last ditch rifle that is a 40th series Toyo Kogyo (now Mazda) with an intact mum and all matching numbers. The machining and finish is night and day between this and the other rifle. No rust, just quickly/shodily put together. The sights are different and unprotected, it has the wood buttplate and lacks a front handguard but it'll have done the job I'm sure. I'm guessing it wasn't a "last, last ditch" rifle since the bolt knob was milled in the distinctive Arisaka shape.

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