Refurbishing Early Marlin 1893

[DesertDave]

I have an early Marlin 1893 in .38 55. The recent thread Early 1893 Stuck Firing Pin recounts the disassembly of this old girl. It took me over a month from the time I started to now with the rifle completely disassembled and cleaned up. Originally the action was frozen shut, it would not cycle at all.

I have some questions regarding preping parts prior to the reassembly. In particular all of the internal parts have at least some black corrosion on the surfaces. The firing pin, which I finally got out after days of heating and soaking in penetrant and tapping out gently was quite rough. After getting it out and cleaning it and the inside of the bolt up it would not easily slide in and out, but rather it would bind. So I sanded down the roughness on the firing pin with 600 grit emery cloth and finished it with crocus cloth. It seems to work fine now. I did nothing to the inside of the bolt, yet. I'll try to attach some pictures as an example of the corrosion I am talking about. trying to on this computer but not having much luck, running lubuntu on it not Windows.

My questions is should I do anything like this to the other parts? The inside of the bolt, outside of the bolt and other parts with the roughness caused by the corrosion? Or, should I leave them alone?

Then the wood, it is in pretty good shape really for being over 125 years old, but. There are some dents and dings in the wood, any idea if there is a way to repair these defects? I have cleaned the wood with Murphy's Oil Soap and am wondering what to finish it with. I was thinking Tung Oil maybe?

Finally, the exterior finish. The old gal is showing many years of misuse and abuse on her metal work. All surfaces are pitted and none of the original finish is present. I am thinking that leaving the interior as is is best. Any thoughts on this?

Again thank you for your advice and thoughts.

[Brent]

Personally, I would look at the inside of the bolt with a light and magnification, as much as I can. i would also try to feel the sides of the cavity with a bent wire or brush. If it is very rough, I would consider honing it out. At the very least, I would run some steel wool on a .22 cleaning rod and brush with some oil and get the worst of it out.

[DesertDave]

That is a great idea! I had not thought of checking it that way as You really can't see in there at all.

Any hints on posting images? Must they be at an online location? Can I not upload them?

Thanks again.

[Brent]

Yes, photos have to be hosted elsewhere on line and they have to be not more than 1000 pixels in any one dimension.

I like your enthusiasm for your rifle. It is fun to bring one back from the brink.

[marlinman93]

Years ago I went on Ebay and purchased a cheap endoscope that plugs into my laptop for inspecting rifle bores, and other hard to see places. Not sure if it will go into the firing pin bore on a Marlin 1893, but it would at least be able to get light into the bore, and see it up close at the rear opening. If you have many guns they're an excellent tool to own at under $15 shipped from several Ebay sellers. When using them on rifle bores I put a white patch ahead of the scope to reflect light, and then push the patch in with the scope. Push it a couple inches, and then pull the scope back a couple inches to examine the bore. Work through the bore this way until you've examined the entire bore.
When I bought mine I spent days going through all my firearms, and inspecting bores. Amazing what you'll see when it's greatly magnified, and illuminated!

As for your gun, I'd hesitate to do much externally if it's got pitted surfaces. Whatever you do will do more harm than good, as old pitting wont ever go away without a complete restoration, and I'd rather see all matching wear than see it over cleaned, or over restored.
Internally you can do quite a bit though! I'd find a drill bit that fits the firing pin bore well, and use a hand chuck to carefully turn the bit into the bore to just remove high spots. Another alternative is to use a small wooden dowel in a drill motor, and wrap steel wool around it. Then apply valve lapping compound and spin it while polishing in and out until it's smoother.
For the other internal surfaces that have corrosion, I'd use penetrating oil and steel wool to scrub them. But first take a penny and scrape any rust scale off, using oil again on surfaces you're scraping. After scraping the worst parts, finish with oiled 4/0 steel wool.

I use Imgur free image hosting to upload pictures and then copy them and insert them here into posts.

[DesertDave]

Thank you for the advice. Going to give the steel wool a try. The bore looks pretty bad in spots. I'm guessing I'll end up relining it. I think I agree on not refinishing, better to have her look like the road she's been down. More character!

[marlinman93]

My 1893 takedown pictured above has very little finish left. Stocks are great, and retain almost all their original finish, but I'd never dream of restoring the metal. It's just a great looking gun to my eyes, even if it's far from new looking. I like old guns that show they've been loved and used a lot.
I always wonder how some of these guns we occasionally see in near mint condition survived so long without being used? Did their owners dislike them so much that they never wanted to use them for their intended purpose?

[DesertDave]

The initial disassembly required judicial use of heat and WD-40 in the area of the screws and the bolt and internals. The lever would not open the action, the bolt was frozen to the action. Heat and penetrant got everything freed up enough to disassemble. The amount of caked on, dried out gunk was astounding. I do not think it had ever been cleaned.

Well I spent the last week scrubbing all the metal parts with steel wool, the fine stuff and gun cleaner. That, with the addition of more heat from the heat gun and penetrent got the job done. The firing pin hole in the bolt was pretty bad and I wrapped a .22 bore brush in steel wool and chucked into an electric drill and used that to free up the firing pin action. I had already cleaned up the firing pin smoothing it up with 600 grit emery cloth and the finishing it with crocus cloth and steel wool. I thoroughly cleaned the inside of the barrel including steel wool, it was very bad. After getting it cleaned up it looks pretty pitted but the rifling looks pretty good for a 125 year old poorly cared for firearm.

I didn't do anything but oil and clean up the exterior with heat and degreaser. The magazine tube was literally glued to the barrel with old oil/grease dirt that had dried to a hard consistency. Again the heat gun came into play soaking in degreaser and heating eventually allowed it to come free. The wood is in pretty good condition and I cleaned that up with Murphy's Oil Soap for now.

Re-assembly was a breeze and the action cycles smoothly. I'm quite excited and got a box of Blackhills .38 55, going to the range to see how she shoots. If not well then a barrel reline is next. Thank everyone that gave advice, I could not have finished this project without your assistance. I'll update you all on how it went on the range.

[Brent]

Good luck!

If it doesn't want to shoot, it might be a good candidate for relining.