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I've been working on an Ishapore build for several weeks. I decided to fabricate the front hand guard with some walnut I had left over from another project. Next step is to make all the parts the same color. I was thinking of bleaching and staining. Any other suggestions on how to color match?
I can't help you on your color question but your wood shaping looks really nice! I just bought a well-preserved 2A1 and understand how complex the fitting is. Hopefully someone like Rick B will wander along and help you with the coloring. Are you planning to make the stock parts look new or hoping to add a little relic patina?
Bob
When I have uneven color I use a leather die if it's too light and won't take stain or use the appropriate Watco Danish oil stain. You could use two different colors... As for bleaching, I am reluctant to use bleach on walnut or wood work of any kind.
"I was thinking of bleaching and staining..."
My preferred method, too. With metallic spirit dye you can usually just keep reapplying dye to the lighter wood until you reach the color match you desire. The advantage of bleaching before dye-ing is to be able to add the same "tone" to each stock part which helps match up the coloration after final finishing.
Best wishes. Dave
My only question is did Ishapore 2A's and 2A1's all have matching wood sets? The wood on my all-matching 2A1 doesn't match up in color.
I am new to this but have done some research. Some sources have said that Ishapore recycled surplus No. MkIII stocks when they started producing 2As and 2A1s. That would militate for mixed stocks. Of course, HERE on the adjacent Jay Currah Enfield site it shows that there are six places on a Mk.III where the serial number is stamped and one is the fore-end of the stock. Of course, you couldn't put a stock with one serial on a rifle with another. I don't know whether they sanded the serial off or didn't reuse that part or what. That would be a lot of wood to remove. If the Indian manufacturers were anything like the U.S. field armorers the color of the stock components meant little to them when they were putting together a working rifle.
Bob.
Thanks for the suggestions. I just ordered some leather dye. We'll see how well I can match the colors. All my wood parts are from different sources. In addition to fabricating the front hand guard I patched the rear handguard. Fore end and butt were in good shape by soaked in oil.
I finally got the stock finished. I used leather dye as suggested (Fiebing's). I did not bleach.
After a little experimenting on pieces of scrap wood I decided on 4 parts Cordovan to 1 part Oxblood, and then diluted the mixture 1:4 with denatured alcohol. Finish is 3 coats of Danish oil.
Looks pretty good too. The alcohol cuts it enough to let it penetrate and then evaporates...very nice.
Wow! Very nice!!
Nicely done!
Bob
]I finally have her finished. I rust blued all the metal parts. It was time consuming, but I'm really happy with how it turned out! The only thing that's missing is the extractor spring (I broke it when I tried to install). As soon as the new one arrives I'll try her out. Headspace passed with a field gauge - I'm wondering if I should invest in go / no-go gauges.
I realize building them this way is more expensive than buying a completed rifle, but I learned a lot doing it this way and I found it quite rewarding.
Next project is an Arisaka series 20.
If its a 308 as appears by the mag there was something one of the guru's here pointed out with regards to the max weight projie and loading to be used in the MKIII conversion. May have been Bruce From Oz posted something about it with the MKIII Ishie's. Perhaps the OP of that information may chime in as I think the No.4 action is a bit stronger than the MkIII and can handle the higher pressure of the NATO cartridge but its still pretty high for the action.
Very nice build by the way a range report of course......:cheers:
Very nice looking rifle!!!
Bob
Very nice!! Its amazing what you find under all of that Suncorite or black paint.
A great job. Done a couple rebuilds myself, a krag and two ‘03s, mostly stockwork. Nice looking rifle.
Beautiful, very nice work. I wish mine looked that nice but if it did I probably wouldn't use it. They didn't look that nice when they left the Ishapore factory!