The New Haven 250C Project part 3

If you missed the early posts click on the links below:

Part 1
Part 2

Now that we have the mechanical issues worked out and the wood finished, time to start stripping the rust off this gun

Normally I would use naval jelly to remove the rust and old bluing, but when a gun is this rusty, it's gonna need serious sanding with the 100 grit (which doesn't clog up as easily as the finer grits), so might as well get to it.

We are starting with 100 grit emory cloth, the front half of the barrel is sanded, I gently went over the roll marks, we will leave it further untouched until we get to the 320 grit mark. I use the cross polishing method, working length wise and then switching to cross ways (like shining shoes). This prevents your scratches from the sand paper from getting too deep

The whole barreled action sanded to 100 grit

Then 150 grit

 220 grit

 280 grit

then 320 grit

400 grit

and finally 600 grit

The screws for the magazine guide were pretty rusty, so I chucked them into my drill and cleaned them up

I then disassembled the magazine and cleaned up the small parts

 

The last item to clean up was the rear sight, I bead blasted it with glass beads, giving it a matte finish (to prevent glare in the sight picture)

We got the parts reblued, here they are fresh out of the oil bath