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.

Originally Posted by ROKTOY

That came up nice.

What he said

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 omark

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

Hey @omark.
Can you expand on that please, the bit about raw rather than boiled,
thanks.

Raw linseed is the correct stuff to use for timber. Originally stocks were soaked in a bath of warm linseed and then drip dried. Raw linseed is natural flax seed oil and dries naturally over a long period of time. It is slow drying and for this reason requires lots of very thin coats hand rubbed. The first few need to be thinned 50/50 with mineral turps to encourage impregnating into the timber.
Sometimes it can take up to 20 coats with hand rubbing to get the right lustre finish. NEVER wooly it as a thick coat as it will go like gum and never dry. A couple of drops on your hand is all that’s required

Wood needs hydrating and must be fed so you should do all stocks every month or so.

Boiled linseed is completely different....its not boiled at all but rather is refined and has dryers added so its faster acting however the results are not the same. Some of it has other “stuff” also added.

Hand rubbing of raw linseed over many days and nights brings out the best results and remember to use only a couple of drops as it goes a long way.

Originally Posted by omark

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

The old adage for oiling a wooden rifle stock...
Once a day for a week,
Once a week for a month,
Once a month for a year,
Once a year forever.

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.

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 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 Cordite

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

Ummmmmmmmm you are being facetious about his MK VII gas mask satchel...............are you not?

Originally Posted by Kiwi Sapper

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

Attachment 125042

Huh...trying to be sassy with ya helmet,aye? Here's a swift kick to ya goolie's mate!

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