The Nepal Martini Henry rifles...........
Before I get into the rifle I've got to apologize for not even realising this board was here, which is pretty unobservant for someone who has been on CSP almost since day one.
A friend of mine bought one of the Nepal rifles mail order and brought it to me to refinish for him. I have no idea which model it is other than there is no cocking lever on the right side of the receiver like the ones in the movie Zulu and it is the short levered model as opposed to the long lever.
The rifle is a mess. It is covered with 100 year old cosmoline and rust and the butt stock has a huge crack the length of it and about 1/32" wide going through to the center. He bought it with inspection and return rights and I told him to return it and by a M1 or a carbine instead but he insists that it's going to look beautiful on the wall of his eatery so refinish it.
I went to the Milsurps restoration forum and they told me to clean it "gently and lovingly" and not use steel wool or anything harsh on it, which is really good advice on a collector's grade rifle but this is a very neglected and sadly P.O.S. old rifle that's going to end up on the wall being glanced at by people between beers.
Long story short, a toothbrush with brass bristles, lots if OO and OOOO steel wool, half gallon of paint thinner and two rolls of paper towels later I've stumbled upon a rifle under all of that crud. The barrel has rifling, the short lever and drop block function flawlessly, it has a crisp trigger, great wood on the forearm, a rear sight no longer frozen in rust and generally "ain't too bad!"
I took the buttplate off, located the screw inside the hole that mounts the buttstock to the rifle and it won't budge after all this time. Question is, what to do? It's no longer a P.O.S. and it has great possibilites but it has that huge crack and I want to fix it somehow. If I could get that rusted screw out I might be able to clamp the wood and squeeze the crack together and get it to hold with some glue and a couple of countersunk screws. Or should I just use wood filler and let it go?????
Here is where I am at as of tonight.....................
First the forearm. I got the forearm off with little trouble since only one screw and one pin hold it in place. The big surprise was that a lot of the cosmoline was still pliable and that about 40% of the metal under the wood was good and showed a lot of blue. The metal along the edge where the wood and metal come together was a different story, Very bad pitting in that area.
The only markings that I have found are 5.939 etched on the barrel, receiver, middle band and front band. The lever has a row of several markings that are stamped in but I have no idea what they are. :dunno:
As to the buttstock, I did find a screwdriver that was long enough and did exactly fit the slot with no slop. I wrapped an old pair of sweatpants around the stock and placed it in a vise, put the screwdriver firmly into the slot, clamped vise grips on the screwdriver and twisted as hard as I could. Nothing! I took a hammer and hit the screwdriver hard several times trying to jar the threads and break them free but still nothing.
I finally fell back on an old tried and true way of filling cracks (although much smaller cracks) and sanded the stock, collected the dust, mixed it with wood glue, placed a split cardboard paper towel roll in the screwdriver hole and filled the crack a little at a time. Took quite a while but I finally filled the crack all the way to the cardboard roll (someday someone may really scratch their head on that one!) and am letting it dry so I can sand that area and see where I'm at with it.
Here's where it's at as of tonight...............
I did try the Kroil but it still wouldn't budge, and remembering that one of you had said there are no replacement stocks, I gave up on that idea before I broke the stock. I have it stabilized with a screw at the rear and one in the middle. The mixture of glue and sawdust does have the crack completely sealed and it doesn't show too obviously. The stock and forearm are both sanded and steel wooled and the raw umber tinting color has been applied. Next will come the BLO. I did find some numbers on the stock that have obviously been put in with an awl. The number is 3.84.
I went to the Nepalese website and as far as I can tell the lettering on the cocking lever seems to be Nepalese. Is there a chance that these rifles were actually made for the government of Nepal?
He also got a sling for the rifle. It has a fixed keeper on one end, a sliding keeper in the middle and the other end has four holes and a piece of leather thong. The sling has a crown imprinted into the leather on the end with the holes. Does anyone know how this sling goes on the rifle?