J. Stevens Model 14-1/2 Little Scout: Restoration Project?

G

GunXpatriot

New member
I just bought an old Stevens 14 1/2. It was dirt cheap and it functions fine. The stock and foregrip's wood are in decent shape as well. There is very light touches of surface rust on the barrel/reciever, not deep at all, pretty much a "dusting" of rust, which is apparently extremely easy to remove.

One problem. It seems that the bluing is completely stripped off on the entire rifle. Of course, this makes me want to re-blue it. I honestly think it looks good this way, but I'd like it more true to it's original form. The issue is that I don't know how to blue the receiver. It's less blued than the barrel. Would I just make one or two less passes of bluing? Or would I use something totally different? You can probably see I've never blued anything before...

The other thing is that it's missing a trigger guard, which I'm sure I'll be able to find somewhere, so that's no big deal.

I guess the problem here is me being a noob. This is how the rifle should normally look.

11706465_1.jpg


It's the top rifle if you didnt know :)

But yeah, looking around for a good picture of one in good condition, it would seem that a lot of these have lost their finish one way or another, despite being in damn good shape. Why do you think this is?

Thanks a lot to anyone who can help me! :D
 
If it were mine, I'd give the metal a light buffing with 0000 steel wool and oil until all the rust is gone, wipe it down again with a soft clean cloth and a good protectant oil... and call it done. A nice, soft metal/brown patina on an "classic" rifle is a good thing. ;)
 
AFAIK, the old Stevens single-shot receivers were all CCH, and not blued.

Steel wool, even OOOO under oil, will destroy any that's left.


If you must "clean it up", consider trying Frontier 45 metal cleaner (google), which will not damage any underlying finish.


.
 
Color Case Hardened

I'd just scrub it with oil and a coarse cloth.

There are getting to be a lot of threads on the gunboards about DIY rust bluing which calls for little equipment but a lot of patience.

You can bend a trigger guard out of strap iron. There was a piece on the approach to making it look nice in a back issue of Rifle Magazine.
 
I'm with the guys that said clean it but don't blue it. You've got slim chance of reproducing those color case hardened colors yourself. That's a job best left to someone who knows what they are doing. You can also try gunparts corp for the trigger guard.

Stu
 
Thanks Stu, and the rest of your guys! You have actually convinced me to not blue it, in fact, I think it looks (a lot) better in it's current form :)

Thanks again! :D
 
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