Sporterized Arisaka Redux Part 5 Finishing Touches

This is the 5th and "final" post on the refinishing of my sporterized Arisaka rifle. Here are the links to the previous posts:

Introduction: Latest Gun Show Find

Part One: Dis-assembly/Assessment

Part Two: Trigger Guard/Magazine Mods

Part Three: The Stock

Part Four: Bluing

 The final touches include some additional nitre blued parts and the jeweling of the bolt. Followed by the re-assembly of the gun. 

I had to delay the jeweling of the bolt as I will need to build or buy a jig to complete that process. I also am delaying the checkering as I have yet to get familiar with the tools and do some practicing.

So I assembled the gun as is and took some final "finished" photos. 

The bolt retainer side plate was nitre blued, sometimes you get rainbow or spots when quenching in the water

 Before and after shots

Here you can see the trigger guard was tapered from front to rear, polished and then the screws were nitre blued

This picture shows the transformation of the cheek weld and comb. I made the cheek weld smaller, added flutes to the front of the comb, installed a modern recoil pad and refinished the walnut.

You can see the difference in the 1950's finish to what we do today. I much prefer a satin finish over high gloss, and lighter tones to the darker ones.