Thread: Gave the Lithgow No1 Mk3 a good clean today...

As part of my Kiwi collection, thought i had better start looking after them.
So instead of going to the Motorsport at Puke, or doing house work i decided to clean my rifle.

RIFLE:
Lithgow, 1942 No1 MkIII SMLE, 303 British.

It was a basic strip down, with wood off... the trigger and safety remained together.

WOOD:
For the wood i just used lots of elbow grease with thinner on clean rags, that removed most of the dirt.
I was amazed how much crap came off. After that i quick wipe down with Meths to give it a final clean.
The some raw linceed oil was used to bring it back.
I was going to use boiled linceed oil but there was still lots of colour letf in the wood, so did not need the extra depth boiled linceed offers...
After a bit i followed it up with another quick wipe, this time with thinned linceed oil, about 50/50 with turps.
Then left it a bit, and wiped it down.

STEEL:
For that was mostly oil soaked steel wool, some parts needed a good scrape, but nothing to drastic.
Again i was lucky that little corosion was there, just a lot of crap built up over the years, and what rust i found scraped off easily and disapeared under some lite oil...

All done.


Before the clean, 77 years of grease, oil and grim...

That came up nice.

Nice to see you using raw rather than boiled. Keep rubbing a few drops in for the next couple of weeks to rehydrate.
Nice rifle

Originally Posted by grunzter

As part of my Kiwi collection, thought i had better ...............clean my rifle. RIFLE: Lithgow, 1942 No1 MkIII SMLE, 303 British..

Very nice end result..........Now find and enlist in a N.Z.Home Guard unit.

Any particular thinners? My m17 looks like your before photo and could do with a clean

Sent from my SM-G390Y using Tapatalk

I'll take a look tomorrow, but nothing special, just your regular thinners.
I watched a number of restoration videos online, and went for the simplest one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfcUwMWxJ2U

When I did the stock on my M82 (just kidding TX2000) I mixed acetone with lime to make a paste and spread that over the wood, when it was dry I brushed it into the bin. Takes a lot of the old oil out of the wood so it can actually be sanded without cloging the paper

Originally Posted by Kiwi Sapper

Very nice end result..........Now find and enlist in a N.Z.Home Guard unit.

Attachment 125042

I like his bino carrier... Must be standard issue 12x70s for guards stationed on the tops.

Originally Posted by mimms2

I use acetone. But you'll have to do the whole thing because it will pull absolutely everything and look patchy otherwise. if you have a big enough drum you can drop the whole wood in.
Then time with a toothbrush to get any chequering.

Acetones nasty shit. no smoking. Avoid breathing. And if you don't already have chemical sensitivity you may develop it. Not somthing to do every day but odd jobs fine.

I prefer acetone too. Old guns don't have plastic on them to be attacked by the acetone, just as well. It really degreases your fingers too, too much! But note that acetone is a unique solvent in that it is not a carcinogen.

Originally Posted by Cordite

I like his bino carrier... Must be standard issue 12x70s for guards stationed on the tops.

Nah, not bino's he's off for a quick bit of gas mask fetish S&M with the missus.

Originally Posted by mimms2

I use acetone. But you'll have to do the whole thing because it will pull absolutely everything and look patchy otherwise. if you have a big enough drum you can drop the whole wood in.
Then time with a toothbrush to get any chequering.

Acetones nasty shit. no smoking. Avoid breathing. And if you don't already have chemical sensitivity you may develop it. Not somthing to do every day but odd jobs fine.

I would have though acetone would be pretty aggressive on the wood. You are right though it's nasty shit. Wear gloves and proper charcoal breathing filters. Isopropyl alcohol would be easier on the wood.

Acetone wont affect the timber, it looks that way because its so efficent at getting crap out of and off it.

Originally Posted by Cordite

I prefer acetone too. Old guns don't have plastic on them to be attacked by the acetone, just as well. It really degreases your fingers too, too much! But note that acetone is a unique solvent in that it is not a carcinogen.

no it has isocyonates in it which are worse. It attacks your central nervous system and the body can't metabolise it so it stays here.

Hope you guys are joking when you say it degreases your hands. You DO NOT want to handle that shit, it will fuck you up big time. I use it at work a lot and I treat it like radioactive waste when handling it.

Originally Posted by ROKTOY

That came up nice.

What he said

Im in 2 minds weather to leave mine how it is or clean up the wood