Arisaka 38 "Restoration"

[bratwurstdimsum]

See the difference between post-oven cleaner and oiled up ...

[robcox1]

This thread is painful to watch...

Untouched is an interesting notion.

Would you "liberate" an Iron cross badge from a prisoner then let it deteriorate over the years so its a blackened rusted mess?

What you have done is the equivalent of taking an iron cross that has a few scratches and stripping it down and repainting it.

Having 60 years of 'patina' is good for some folks I guess, but personally I think the value is when the item is brought back to the condition it was when it was brought home.

If you like new guns, you should collect new guns and leave the old ones to somebody else.

[bratwurstdimsum]

Thanks all of you who have posted comments that I have learnt from, I will keep them in mind for my future projects.

To those of you who find it painful, well please don't look.

I'll describe it in simple terms and I hope you will appreciate the analogy:

This is my 1965 Mustang, I'm very proud of its heritage and breeding but I refuse to drive it around with a crappy,rusty paint job, I don't care if Elvis even once owned it.
There are many ways to restore my mustang, but the easiest is to strip it down to metal and repaint it. As this is my first car I appreciate there are other ways and I have learnt a few lessons from you learned gentlemen.

But to ask me to stick to new guns? Honestly would you approach a guy who owned said mustang and tell him to buy a new car because he repainted the the rustbucket? That's saying I don't appreciate history as much as you and thats just not correct (or fair). I could have easily gone the other way and sporterised the arisaka with a rubber stock, what would you say to that?

Anyhow...more photos soon!

[robcox1]

But to ask me to stick to new guns? Honestly would you approach a guy who owned said mustang and tell him to buy a new car because he repainted the the rustbucket? That's saying I don't appreciate history as much as you and thats just not correct (or fair).

Maybe I went too far with that comment. I certainly didn't intend to imply that you don't appreciate history. I'm happy that you say you have learned something from all this. Like I said earlier, over-cleaning something is a mistake almost everyone has made, unfortunately.

[bratwurstdimsum]

No offence taken mate, just enjoy the pictures, I'll try my best to do it justice.

[gew98]

No offence taken mate, just enjoy the pictures, I'll try my best to do it justice.

"enjoy the pictures"... enjoying these pics is like enjoying salt poured in my collecting eye .
Refinishing original wood is probably the worst thing you can do to a collectible rifle , right after drilling and tapping it for a scope.

[herbert38]

Hay, the way I see it, it's his rifle he paid for it he's going to keep it, It's HIS! If he likes it that way and makes him happy then who are we to say. lets see the finished pictures when you get a chance

[bratwurstdimsum]

"enjoy the pictures"... enjoying these pics is like enjoying salt poured in my collecting eye .
Refinishing original wood is probably the worst thing you can do to a collectible rifle , right after drilling and tapping it for a scope.

Let me rephrase,

Enjoy the pictures, and if not, enjoy rehashing old comments on other peoples threads and wasting everyone's time stating the obvious.

Pics will be up in 10 hours.

[Tino]

I am a little surprised by the negative posts. It seems like I have read many threads and discussions on "how to" clean/refinish the original stocks when really dirty and was under the impression that cleaning and refinishing was an accepted practice done by many gun collectors? (Unlike other militaria)
Am I wrong?

It is one thing if this was a rare piece or a nice original, personally I don't have a problem if someone turns a turd into a nice presentable piece.

Can't wait to see the end result

[bratwurstdimsum]

Ok, I arrived home rather late so the pictures are a abit dark.

All in all 2 coats of linseed oil has brought back the colour of the wood, dark, but not as dark as the original condition. The desired effect of reducing that horrible brown-red color, showing some of the original wood colour and stopping the greasy, bleeding crap coming out of the stock has been met.

The metal I buffed with 0000 steel wool and gun oil with rust proof, I did this very lightly so some discolouration is still evident from the original rust, if anyone has any better idea of removing this altogether, please let me know.

I could go further and smooth out some of the dings but I think that would take away some of the combat character from the piece so I think I'll leave it.

[bratwurstdimsum]

[bratwurstdimsum]

[herbert38]

Looks good to me, you did a pretty nice job, like I said don't let any one dictate what you want to do to YOUR RIFLE

[Westmark]

I would have to say too many negative posts on this one. I personally am inclined to leave collectibles as they are but it is is your collection and in the end you have to be happy with it. All in all I believe you had a good outcome.
Best regards,
Todd

[Josh Beckett]

I hope you know that the japanese never used boiled linseed oil on any of their guns. If you like it then fine, I am happy for you, but no serious collector will buy a restored rifle nor will they restore a rifle(if it requires restoration, which yours didnt, I know I wouldnt buy it). Please do us a favor and dont buy any rare guns that are a bit on the ugly side.