How bad does a part have to be before you write it off?

[Patrick Chadwick]

That, of course, a very loose question. In some cases, parts that look like scrap can be recovered to working condition.

The question was posed on the Enfield forum, but the answer belongs here.

In the course of the thread on refurbishing an Argentine Rolling Block, I explained the basics of electrolytic cleaning of steel and iron, whereby the part to be cleaned forms the cathode in a weakly alkaline electrolytic bath. Regular readers will have seen how Joel, going from absolute beginer to compentent refurbisher in a matter of weeks, showed some excellent before and after pictures of the barrel which initally looked like a bin case. At least to the faint-hearted.

As Joel has gone rather quiet for a while, under the pressure of work, I have used the time to make a few photos of items I treated myself, in the hope that others may be encouraged to tackle components that look hopeless. It is no bad idea to practice on hopeless bits, as you are not losing anything, and you sharpen your judgement as to what can be done.

As the TV cooks say, "here is one I prepared earlier!" This is a double-set trigger, from the 1850s Anschütz that I am restoring. You have already seen the barrel plug and tang in the RB series. First, the trigger as set:

Attachment 20322

And now, the trigger as released:

Attachment 20321

Observe that although the baseplate is rusted, after electrolytic cleaning, followed immediately by cold bluing, all parts have an even color, which makes the rust pitting much less obvious. Because the reduced rust is, basically, the same as the "blued" surface. And the hardened parts have survived extraordinarily well for 160 years. All edges are still sharp, and this trigger is going back into service!

I tried the method out on a piece of what any sensible person would call scrap.

Attachment 20320

And after the electrolytic cleaning (no bluing) it looked like this:

Attachment 20323

Still gruesome, of course - but functional! In this photo it is set:

Attachment 20324

And in this one, it is released:

Attachment 20319

Now although one would be unlikely to use this mechanism in a rifle again, the recovered parts would be perfectly satisfactory as templates for making new components. That could not be said of the trigger as I first saw it!

Patrick

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