Found MUSKET in thrift store.

[Patrick Chadwick]

My apologies to gandog56 for copying this picture from the thread "My Pet Peeve" on the general discussion forum, but it's all staying in the family! It is just so appropriate to illustrate the point I wish to make to help DaveN. But be warned, it also illustrates one of my pet peeves!

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I would like all of you to imagine you are standing in front of this gentleman.

Now say, slowly and clearly after me:

"Sorry sarge, but I am not going to clean this rifle, it would damage the original patina"

The scenario lies somewhere between unbelievable and unimaginable. I am not quite sure what his reaction would be, but your life insurance might classify you as a suicide risk!

Let us assume he is, at heart, a humane person, and realises that he is confronted with a very difficult case. I imagine him explaining quite slowly and patiently that corrosion and dirt are not part of the original rifle, not "part of it's history", but the result of neglect and failure to maintain a soldier's most important item of equipment, and he would surely beseech you to bear that in mind as you spend the next days cleaning every rifle in the armory, lest you forget this lesson, which is that

CORROSION AND DIRT IS JUST THAT - CORROSION AND DIRT.

IT DESTROYS YOUR EQUIPMENT.

IT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE PRESERVED.

Now there is a type of dealer who, rather than honestly admitting he is buying and selling old tools of a military nature, perceives himself as a "Purveyor of Fine Antiques to the Discerning Gentry".

These people have accordingly invented some delicate expressions to cover the dismal state of some of their old equipment and sell it "as is" without going to the trouble of doing a proper (but time-consuming!) job of cleaning it up. So a finish turning into what to you and me is plain rust is described as "plum brown". There never was any such finish, it is just rust developing.
Likewise, filthy wood and brass covered in verdigris does not "show a fine patina", it needs cleaning.

But, but, but... there is nevertheless such a thing as patina. The surface of wood darkens with exposure to light - and handling, of course. Surfaces are rubbed in a various ways, depending, on their position. Dings appear from everyday usage. linseed oil and varnishes harden slowly over years. The combination of these long-term effects is a genuine patina. Complete removal of this layer will give any old piece of wood a falsely fresh look.

I am accordingly shocked when I read about ghastly recipes, such as smothering your gunstock in oven cleaner (which tends to be caustic soda with value-enhancing additives) and even putting it in the dishwasher for a really good clean. That wood is part of a complex tool. Skilled armorers spend years adjusting fits and bedding barrels so that rifles gives their best performance. The wood was selected, matured and carefully dried before use. It has settled down over a century or so to its present form. And now someone comes and soaks it right through to destroy that settled state and encourage it to warp, adds caustic chemicals to remove any real patina and really destroy the surface, attacks it with sandpaper, just in case there was still some original finish left, and presents the result as restoration.

Furniture restorers, museum staff, musical instrument makers - all would be horrified, and if they knew the term, would scream...

...that is NOT restoration, that is BUBBARING

It is therefore quite understandable, and correct advice to a beginner, to say "leave it alone", as some have already done. I said right at the start that it looked as if it needed professional restoration, and have not intervened further in the matter of restoration until now, as I am very busy on another "building site". But you have started the ball rolling by polishing the brass. And the surface of the wood looks as if it has been covered in floor varnish. That (if I am guessing right) is something to be removed. So before you do anything further, I implore you to read the series on refurbishing an Argentine Rolling Block on the restoration forum (The Restorer's Corner). Right from the start, please, as when I have managed this once, it would be pleasant not to have to repeat it!

Coming Soon to a Forum Near You! - Part 5 on refurbishing the stock.

Please note, these are tips on refurbishing old rifles, not on museum-level restoration - to make something fit for use without having to wrap it up in cotton wool or keep it in a glass showcase forever.

And if you don't do it properly - the ghosts of sergeants long past may come to haunt you!

Finally:

DON'T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY - IT'S YOUR RIFLE

- as you have quite correctly pointed out!

Enough for now, must get on with Part 5 a.s.a.p.

Patrick