How to Fix No4 MkII mistake

[muffett.2008]

Not dead yet Pete.

[Peter Laidler]

Good to hear from you again Muffer.

But back to the original thread. The trouble with 'home gunsmiths' using scotchbrite or even fine sandpaper etc etc is that they will insist in rounding off the corners and edges, by accident or design. It's one of these failings that there is no way back from. Sandpaper used a sanding block and follow it through. Other stuff, never go within an inch of the edges or corners

[mrclark303]

Good to hear from you again Muffer.

But back to the original thread. The trouble with 'home gunsmiths' using scotchbrite or even fine sandpaper etc etc is that they will insist in rounding off the corners and edges, by accident or design. It's one of these failings that there is no way back from. Sandpaper used a sanding block and follow it through. Other stuff, never go within an inch of the edges or corners

Afternoon Peter, the beauty of scotchbrite (red in this case) is that it its very gentle on wood and will only remove the general crud from the grain and not affect corners, edges markings etc.

Its one of those modern materials that work extremely well with most materials. I say that with 20 + years experience in refinishing.

[browningautorifle]

scotchbrite (red in this case)

We only had green, originally for cleaning the stoves and pot/pan sets. SOMEHOW it migrated across to gas pistons and such...

[Brian Dick]

I buy the Scotcbrite with sponge on one side and the green scrubby on the other. I like them best when very well used and am extremely careful when they are new. It takes very little pressure to clean off caked grimy spots, especially when cleaning with clear ammonia, ( I can only dream of a boiling trichlorethane tank Peter!). I've never damaged or scratched up any wood with them but don't really use them as sandpaper. It's apples and oranges. I try to avoid scraping and sanding if possible on collectable rifles but do it carefully when called for and always use a sanding block. I'd love to have a heated linseed tank for working in the winter but I simply don't need it here in summer when it's 100f in the sun out back. At around $55 a gallon with shipping, I can make it last a long, long time by applying it the TLC way.

[mrclark303]

I buy the Scotcbrite with sponge on one side and the green scrubby on the other. I like them best when very well used and am extremely careful when they are new. It takes very little pressure to clean off caked grimy spots, especially when cleaning with clear ammonia, ( I can only dream of a boiling trichlorethane tank Peter!). I've never damaged or scratched up any wood with them but don't really use them as sandpaper. It's apples and oranges. I try to avoid scraping and sanding if possible on collectable rifles but do it carefully when called for and always use a sanding block. I'd love to have a heated linseed tank for working in the winter but I simply don't need it here in summer when it's 100f in the sun out back. At around $55 a gallon with shipping, I can make it last a long, long time by applying it the TLC way.

Absolutely Brian, it's a great 3M product.
It's available in grey (very fine) Red
(medium) and green (coarse) in the UK.

Using red with a spirit cleaner with a final rub over with grey and you can achieve a superb finish.

The red, when brand new and carefully applied, works particularly well for bluing preparation, especially if you are trying to replicate the dull luster blue of Russian firearms.

[browningautorifle]

I buy the Scotcbrite with sponge on one side and the green scrubby on the other.

Yes, I have those here...for various uses. Not really on firearms but I don't do much overhauling now days. I was shining up some arty brass recently though...

[muffett.2008]

.....and we used to get a green pad 2"x1.5" in the ration packs, put straight to the gun cleaning roll for gas pistons, dixies we scrubbed with a hand full of sand....got to get your priorities right.

[browningautorifle]

.and we used to get a green pad 2"x1.5" in the ration packs

I had forgotten that. It had a spot of soap inside and was originally for cleaning the canteen cup. The hexamine tablets made the bottom sticky and would cover in crap so you couldn't get heat to it.

[Peter Laidler]

Yes, those Hexamine tablets. Didn't they just make a mess of your mess tins and cooking pots. Someone showed me how to use an old tea bag - and that seemed to work. I still keep a couple of still-wrapped hexi-cookers, ....just in case! Jim is right about the bottom of the dixie being covered in that tar-like stuff. You'd end up putting more hexi blocks onto the cooker just to get more heat to the ALMOST boiling water and it'd never quite make it to tea-making temperature. Anyone remember the small tubes of 'milk' that looked like a thick creamy car polish? We only seemed to see that on ops alonmg with self heating cans of soup or M&V - or meat and veg to the civvies out there!!!!! As for the soup, every tin I ever saw was labelled as SOUP, Brown, Windsor. Whatever was in it is a bit of a mystery. But add some curry powder to it - and everything else and it all tasted, er........, like a better tasting crap!