The restoration of a Cond. IV .22

[Roy]

The remains of this 1892 Sparkbrook MLM II - Cond. II 1905 (EFD) - SHT .22 III - .22 IV* (NZ) Came from the basement of the late Din Collings of Wellington. I scrounged around for enough parts to complete it as a range pattern style rifle until I had the parts to put it back to what it might have looked like circa 1927 when it was rebarreled and converted to a MkIV* by the NZ army replacing its earlier conversions of MLE rifles to a .22 trainers.
The work involved heavy reconstruction of a pretty far gone rear handguard and making from scratch a front one, fortunately I have nice set of Mk1 wood work to copy. The most tricky bit was extending my MLE range pattern stock and inletting it by hand for a Sht LE Mk1 nosecap. A messed up SMLE nosecap was sacrificed in order to make a test fitting template.

It was quite a interesting few days in the workshop and i'm quite pleased with the results.

Thanks to stevesmle for answering my many questions on Cond. rifles

-it was a Cond II not a Cond IV, but you cant edit the title.

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[M2phil]

WOW!!! Apologies for being unable to say anything more constructive or helpful than that, but you've really done nice work on that old Sparkbrook. Since its last (of three?) rebuild(s) was ca. 100 years ago, it was due for another one.

[Roy]

Thanks phil. i'll add the rifle actually had five guises, sometime shortly after WW2 the NZ army turned many of its MkIV* trainers in to 'Trentham' trainers which were in a sporter configuration and had a crude peep sight set for 25 yards brazed on to the left side of the receiver. When I got the rifle the brass sight block was still there but the peep sight and the original woodwork were long gone. the 'Tentham' trainer was removed from service with the adoption of the no8 and no9 rifles in the 50' and 60's. So this rifle has an active service life of some 70 years!

[Peter Laidler]

You have truly been blessed with exceptional wood working skills. I can safely say that you'd be top of our class of 1963 Carlisle apprentices. Another pure pleasure to see.

While we're here, what's the cap badge? It looks like the old Duke of Wellingtons Regiment - or Duke of Boots! I do have a funny feeling that I've asked this before but Oceana doesn't tie in with the IP sniper. Mind you, Oceana doesn't really tie in with any of my old school geography lessons!

[browningautorifle]

The remains of this 1892 Sparkbrook

Very, very nice detailed painstaking work. Well done that. A definite star to add to your rack. Very nice.

[Brian Dick]

Fantastic job Roy!

[P246]

Thanks for sharing very nice work....hats off

[Roy]

Thank you all!

The cap badge is from the 7th Wellington West Coast (NZ) territorial battalion c1900-1915 they provided a company to the Wellington Battalion when the NZEF embarked for Egypt in 1915. The Wellingtons led the August attack on Chunuk Bair and most of them lie there still. Old Nosey was a patron of the 'New Zealand Company' which founded Wellington city in 1840.

For exercise I did the draws for good measure.

[Peter Laidler]

That's the reason the cap badge looks very similar to the UK Duke of Wellingtons Regiment. Alas, no more as it's been shrunk down to The Yorkshire Regiment.

[mike1967]

Top shelf work Roy, can i ask what stain you used to get such a close match?

Regards.