Refinish Eddystone M1917?

[SPAD 124]

Recently I bought an Eddystone M1917 with the receiver and barrel still in military configuration, nothing cut down, but in a Boyds sporter stock. The receiver SN seems to date to October 1918 and it has an Eddystone 10 18 barrel. The bore is bright and clean with great rifling. Also has original E trigger and trigger guard, but a Remington bolt.

The receiver has maybe 15% of the finish remaining, but the barrel has 90-95% greenish parkerizing. (Looks it was rebarreled sometime?) I'm not sure whether to have the receiver and barrel refinished. Because the finish is so different between the two it looks kind of odd, but then, refinishing kind of takes away from the history of the piece. I'm currently looking for a military stock and have obtained E stock hardware--some blue, some parkerized. I'll most likely refinish the stock hardware so the finish is the same.

The question is, because I wouldn't have an original stock and stock hardware anyway, does it detract from the history of the piece to refinish the receiver and barrel? Because stocks seem to be scarce--and pricey, I might buy a new replacement anyway.

I'm new to the forum, and will try to figure out how to post pix

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[jamie5070]

My opinion would be to refinish it. I donot think that it left the U.S. arsenals like that.
john

[Aragorn243]

I don't know about the refinishing question without seeing it but there is an Eddystone stock on ebay right now in the $150 range. The auction ends Easter Sunday afternoon. I had thought about bidding on it but it's out of my price range. It is missing the handguard and does not appear to have any metal and it would need refinished or cleaned.

[SPAD 124]

Thanks for the opinions.

Aragorn243, I've been watching that stock. It looks kind of rough for the price, like the finish has been scraped off. Seems like there were a lot of bids early. A stock only is ok, I ordered NOS handguards from Sarco, should have them soon. There are a couple of gun shows coming up in my area in May and June. I might try there.

I read that Eddystone started parkerizing instead of bluing in October or November 1918. Is that accurate?

Also, I'm considering a Boyds 95% inlet military stock. Does anyone have experience with a Boyds stock?

[Calif-Steve]

I do run into M1917 wood at the big gunshows. That would be your best bet. Find a nice stock, then get the metal parkerized.