removing paint from bolt

[browningautorifle]

No sweat Bill...

[painter777]

Type Of Paint:
If that paint is Oil based and if it's a OLD coating it could be Lead based, Regular Mineral spirits/Paint thinner isn't 'HOT ENOUGH' to strip it without consuming hours of work.
As your finding out.
There is no better first choice than Acetone. Acetone is the main ingredient in fingernail polish remover and also most Paint strippers.
Stay away from any type of Vinegar (as stated above) because of its Acidic nature It can 'Etch', Discolor and simulate aged patina on many metals.
No worries using Acetone on Non Porous metals especially Stainless steel. After stripping using Acetone and rinsing it off with warm soapy water, then dry it.
If you want to, you can use Apple Cinder Vinegar to polish the Stainless steel. Be sure its Apple cider vinegar (Because of its Low Acidity).

Type Of Paint:
If your paint is a Acrylic Latex you can use House hold Ammonia OR Denatured Alcohol

Make it easy on yourself, test the bolt handle knob by soaking it in Acetone.
Use gloves and eye protection with fresh air. A green kitchen sink scrubby pad and toothbrush will help you.

Any questions ? Hopefully there wont be any, but ask if needed.

Good Luck To You... Please keep us posted on your project.

CH-P777

[soonerfan66]

Thanks for all the replies guys and the heads up about the vinegar . I used the paint thinner cause it's what I had handy I can get some acetone easy enough . Guess the vinegar and ultra sonic cleaner idea was to good to be true ? It appears also that not all parts on the bolt are painted some are blued after all . Besides just good ole elbow grease is there away to use the ultra sonic cleaner to remove the paint that's left and the bluing cause now I have a pretty bare shiny bolt body and extractor but the other parts appear to be blued . I used Mothers Polish on the bolt body and it shined up pretty nice . If you have not figured it out yet I don't think there more then 2 parts on this rifle that have matching numbers .

[painter777]

In this link, see 1/2 way down in section 6, I'm gonna copy and paste part of it. Seems if Russian captured/rebuilt that they applied a coat of Shellac as a preservative.

LINK (See section 6):
https://www.milsurps.com/content.php...-Oberndorf-a-N)

Partly Copied/Pasted-

The Russians took all their K98k's, and totally disassembled them except for the barrel. Bores were inspected and those found to be acceptable (ie, some pitting OK - so long as it's still safely shootable, much like with their refurbed Mosins) were set aside. Those that were deemed too far gone were recycled into steel for tractor parts or Order of Lennin medals, or whatever.

The small parts were all hot-dip reblued. Rusty parts were wire brushed or sandblasted first. These were placed indiscriminately in bins. The stocks were also inspected for serviceability. Those deemed acceptable were retained, those unacceptable were burned.

When the rifles were re-assembled no effort was made to match parts. A new (used) bolt was assembled and fitted to the receiver and the whole affair was assembled into a rifle from the binned parts. When done, most parts were electropencilled with the rifle's serial number and a flat was sanded on the left side of the wood stock (think big belt sander and half-drunk worker). The rifle's serial number was stamped there running parallel to the rifle's bore line. (Yugos are stamped perpendicular, for comparison)

Once complete, the whole rifle was generally painted in cheap shellac as a preservative agent - these are often not cosmolened for some reason - crated up and sent to war reserve, especially in the frontier states like Ukraine (which stored them in underground "nuclear proof" depleted salt mines).

Anyone know if this would have been a Amber Colored Shellac? (nearly clear)
Or Tinted Black Shellac?

Asking because of being curious.. and don't know squat about them.
Stripping paint or Shellac I can help with.

Thx

[soonerfan66]

Thanks for the info . I was wondering if was just a miss mash of parts or a RC especially since not finding a X or were a X might have been at one time .

[Singer B]

I think we can take "painter"777's advice to the bank!! Thanks for the great info!