Dreyse Restoration

[bombdoc]

Firstly my apologies for thread absence.. I lost my login, and various other minor disasters.. however back up an running..

I thought I would post this up as a restoration project, and let you see what I have been doing to maintain my sanity over the past month or two..

I have always wanted a Dreyse needle gun, but the prices have been silly! This one however I managed to grab off an auction at a reasonable price, although I was aware that it had "Issues".. yeah, woodworm issues...



As you can see, the stock was a goner, and split across the wrist! No amount of Acraglas was going to fix this one, and what was there was being held together with the varnish! The metalwork was however savable, pitted on the underside of the barrel, no doubt by the action of woodworm by products, but all the bits were there and the bore was minty. It had however been chrome plated on the action, making me think it had been a parade rifle or used as a "decoration piece"..

OK.. metalwork off to the local plater who did an excellent job of taking off the chrome without touching the base metal.. but the stock! Where was I going to get a big enough lump of wood for a full length military stock? Luckily I managed to find a lump of American Black Walnut in a local specialist wood shop and rescue it from becoming an electric guitar body.. The guy said "This is going to be expensive..!" OK how much.. £75! ($90) I almost ripped his arm off! OK it is not European Walnut, but that is unobtanium, even in Europe..



It fitted beautifully and I got a mate to bandsaw out the blank...



Now the slow bit.. I made up a headless pin for the body screw to align the action with the stock and drilled a hole through the top surface. This became the index for the inletting of the barrel and action into the stock blank...

It was then down to engineers blue, toothbrush, scorp and chisels for the next few weeks slowly sinking the action and barrel into the stock. I used a small hand router ("granny's tooth") to hog out wood and produce reference depths in key places. I also made myself a barrel groove tool with sharpened washers on a bent handle to give me the barrel profile..

The rest of the bits were then spotted off from the action screw and inlet on the underside..



Eventually it was there. My next task was to fit the butt plate, giving a touch of cast off as I had the opportunity! This set the profile for the butt, and gave me the lines to carve down to.



I mostly used a couple of spokeshaves to remove stock and a circular surform file for cross grain work. Most of the finishing work was done with a half round bastard file.. (sorry about the colour cast on this one... I ran out of blue candles!)



Finally the end cap and barrel bands were fitted and the forend profile worked down using the bands as guides..



Lastly the wood was sanded down to size, whiskered, grain sealed, treated with alkanet and finally oil finished...



I also had to make the tools to clean and strip the bolt and make the ammunition... but that is for another thread...

Still Sane!

Just...! All we need now is for the ranges to open!

[Daan Kemp]

Just awesome!

[mmppres]

wonderful work

[Singer B]

That effort was incredible!

[bombdoc]

Thanks for the positive feedback chaps...

The Dreyse M62 is not a bad candidate for this type of restoration for a number of reasons...

1. The stock is simpler than the original M41 as it is less fussy and does not have a raised comb/cheek piece..
2. As a single shot, there is no magazine well to bother with.
3. The stock is parallel either side of the receiver.. this is easier to carve and gives a solid location for holding in the vice.
4. Strangely enough, the Dreyse is built using Imperial rather than Metric measurements. Even the screws are mostly Whitworth or BA (the needle screw is 2BA! Who Knew?). Presumably the Prussians were not influenced by the French at that point in time

Originally the barrel ( and bayonet) on the M62 were browned.. mine was already in the white when I got it, and is even whiter now since its sojourn in the stripping tank. I have a bottle of LMF Brown sauce on the way from Brownell, so we will see!

I am about to post an entry on the ammunition thread about making Dreyse ammo if you are interested...

[Salt Flat]

Well, I am impressed with your skill and patience. You were lucky to find such a perfect blank for the project and it came out very nice. Salt Flat

[browningautorifle]

Very nice job. I had to come have a look after your input over on the thread about removing plating...very nice.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Admirable perseverance to produce a splendid result!