MP-28 buttstock

[Vincent]

The good news is it doesn’t have any cracks. The bad news is it’s filthy and badly beaten up.

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I am thinking I would like it to be cleaner, but I don’t want to go beyond that. So I am looking for some help from the woodworking experts. What’s the best way to remove the filth while keeping the patina? The small area around the cartouche looks pretty good. How do I make the rest of it look like that?

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[browningautorifle]

You can use the standard liquid stripper here and it will do magic. Things like acetone and varsol will take a while and you may saturate it a bit. You could try them on a rag though if you have them...I'd use a liquid striper, maybe a steam gun. That will also lift some of the dents...which I'm sure you aren't adverse to.

[Vincent]

Okay then. Stripper it will be.

It’s in pretty sad shape, but MP28 parts are not thick on the ground here.

[browningautorifle]

As a gun they're pretty forgiving so this should work out well. Besides, you've shown us you can rebuild it...this ought to be good. You do have the rest?

[Vincent]

No. I don’t have all the rest, yet. It’s another one of my part-by-part projects.

I think the cartouche is Anciens Etablissements Pieper. There’s also a Liège proof mark on the magazine housing.

[browningautorifle]

Back in the '80s, a good friend of mine had one here. It seemed a bit heavier than the MP 40 say, but I guess it would be functional. Good luck on the build.

[Peter Laidler]

Just illustrates the Lanchester ancestry doesn't it? But from that came the Sterling series although Patchett would never admit it!

[browningautorifle]

Lanchester ancestry

That's right...

[Vincent]

Yes, the MP28 is clearly the ancestor of the Lanchester. There’s even some parts interchangeability. The early Lanchester barrel seems to be identical to the MP28 barrel.

My Lanchester firing pin broke. It took a little fitting to get the MP28 firing pin in the Lanchester breach block and to my surprise it increased the rate of fire noticeably.

[peregrinvs]

I thought the Lanchester was basically a reverse engineered copy of the MP28? i.e. an SMG was desperately needed in 1940 and the MP28 was known to work.

Slight change of subject; I was pleased to pick up a 'Lanchester specific' WWII Admiralty contract 1907 Pattern bayonet for my Lanchester yesterday. They are distinguished by the fact that they are marked 'WSC S294' on the ricasso and have a blackened blade.