No 4 Mk2 disassembly, what is the trick?

[Seaspriter]

All it takes is a bit of flat steel with a notch ground in the end.

There are lots of ways to grind a screwdriver for the devilish slotted blade. Over the years (after messing up trying to use files, grinding wheels, and brute aggravation) my preference is to use several stacked cutting wafers in my Dremel tool mounted horizontally in a mini-drill press, and the sacrificial driver blade mounted in a adjustable position carrier vise.

While you are at it, if your front sight is the screw version, make a slotted driver for it too. Take an old screw driver with ~.25" diameter shank. Cut off the blade, leaving ~2.5" length of shank. Cut a slot ~.07" wide & ~.06" deep to fit the front sight adjustment screw. (apparently some MK2s don't have the screw adjustment, so if yours doesn't, relax, sip an English cup of tea, and enjoy a free moment to contemplate another project.)

I'm sure others have better methods and specs (so chime in), but this will get you started.
Anyone have a good method and specs for making the Striker Pin extraction tool?

[snipershot1944]

Well, that worked just fine. Clamp screwdriver in padded vise, carefully notch blade with dremel, trial and error till notch is deep enough. Polish to remove any burrs. It worked like a champ. Thanks all.

[Kiwi]

If anyone out there doesn't want to make their own forked screwdriver, the correct tool is listed on 'That site' (please note I am not endorsing the product or know the seller, just thought I'l throw it out there). Search: "Enfield No.4 Mk.II / 2 Stock Tool - UNISSUED".

[snipershot1944]

Now you tell me.

[Peter Laidler]

I wouldn't loose any sleep snipershot. All Armourers usually made their own sets of tools during their training/apprenticeships which lasted their whole lifetime. One of the best materials is those worn out 18" long industrial hacksaw blades. You know the things....., blue coloured, 1.25" deep and 1/8" thick. Can be annealed, worked hardened and tempered to suit any application. I still have loads of my oild hand made tools including my unique 91 degree square. Apparently it was the only 91 degree square in the class.

Incidentally, one of the old wartime apprentices told me several years ago that they were required to make a set of SMLE/No1 rifle taps on a lathe during their basic bench fitting phase. Then test against a master gauge. These were used to clean-up threaded holes and re-cut damaged threads. And THEN, use those newly made and tempered taps to manufacture a die plate which was used to re-cut damaged screw threads.

You can guess what happened........ The hardening and tempering of the taps was flawed for the first few tries so you started again until you got it dead right and only THEN could you successfully cut the die plate.

[RobD]

Peter, the 91 deg square reminds me - when oh when will someone mint a 99c coin to make store purchases simpler?

[Seaspriter]

my unique 91 degree square

Captain, there is actually a very good use for squares that aren't square. In every one of the several 18th century houses I restored, the old beauties had sagged and sloped as their joists, posts, and sills either rotted or became compressed over a 200-300 year period.

This made every window and door frame out of square -- typically anywhere from 1-5 degrees (sometimes even more). When restoring or replacing old moldings, we had to cut a miter to the odd angle. Historic restoration carpenters (and shipwrights) thus became "masters of weird angles." Either you used an out-of-square tool, or made one to fit the weird angle, or used a protractor with variable positions (my preference). So perhaps your unique device has a future, in the hands of one of the masters of weird angles. (of course you could just peen the thing on 89 degree side and bring it back into spec, but then you'd no longer have a story to tell. )