Antiquing my 92

[kokopelli]

I decided I would 'age' my 92. I like the look of an old, used antique Winchester 1892 so I figured mine was a good candidate for a project.
So far I have the metal looking the way I want. It was readily apparent that these are made of lots of different steel alloys. The metal on the receiver and internals and the butt plate and bands let go of their finish almost instantly, but the barrel and the mag tube had to soak for a long time, and even then I had to scrub on them to finish getting it all off.

The wood is proving more difficult. I started with rubbing in Tru Oil to the factory finish. I was left with a sticky mess. I sanded everything down and then started over using a Minwax stain for color. I had to try a couple different colors. The 'walnut' looked like a Hershey chocolate bar. So I sanded it off and started again. I'm pleased with 'Red Mahogany'. I added some nicks and marks for character. On the forearm I sanded off the sharp corners and rounded off the front to mimic the original Winchester design. The buttstock is giving me fits. It is from a different tree. The stains look different and take on a different character than they did on the forearm, so I'm still working on it to duplicate the look.

I may leave the bands and receiver in contrast to the barrel and tube, or I may brown them too, I'm not sure. I removed the stupid safety, I'll be adding a plug for the moment. Long term plan is to have it welded up and ground down smooth to make it like it was never there.

Here's what I have at this point mocked up:

[Trailboss]

kokopelli,

Looks great. I really like the vintage look. I had the same issue with my wood, had to strip the brown goo off before finishing. Look forward to a photo when it's complete.

Ken

[akuser47]

Good work not used to seeing this done on levers I have seen plenty of battle field pick up finishses on ak's. I like this better. Old West hand me down look I await to see her finshed.

[pricedo]

Congrats on a fantastic job .......that gun looks like it's been hidden in an attic for 100 years.
You should post the step-by-step details of your process for giving a stock Rossi levergun the legacy look.

[Ranch Dog]

Very nice!

[kokopelli]

[kokopelli]

This was really easy to do- just time consuming. I soaked everything in white vinegar first, This strips most of the blueing off just sitting in the vinegar. A little scrubbing was needed on the barrel and in some joints. I've de-blued using Birchwood Casey blue remover in the past also, but it completely removes all the blueing everywhere uniformly and looks like a chemical strip; the vinegar leaves more of a vintage look to the metal.

After everything was stripped I used Plum Brown on the barrel and mag tube, and used it sparingly on other parts, wiping off most of it with more vinegar, just to get a yellow hue on a few parts, such as the sides of the lever, the buttplate and the hammer and trigger. The Plum Brown is easy to use- heat up the metal to 275 degrees and then swab it on. it will sizzle off. Wipe it down and repeat until you're happy with the results. One important tip with the Plum Brown- use some steel wool or scotch pad with some oil on it to wipe it down. This evens out the tone and removes the scaling that can occur between layers.
You can see the difference in colors between the metals and how the finish takes with the barrel and tube.
Another metallurgical weirdness is with some of the screws. Most of them returned to the 'white' stage with the vinegar, but a couple, including the tang screw were a dark charcoal color after the blue came off. -?-

As far as the wood- that was not easy. It think I stripped it back to bare wood three times before I got it right. I faux aged the wood by hitting it with a couple different objects to make marks and scratches into it, and then started on the refinish. What worked for me was to 'rough up' a few places on the wood with a very coarse paper on a belt sander. I then wiped it down with my stain; the stain soaked into the roughed up areas and the marks deeper than the surface wood. I then sanded the whole surface down to smooth it out, but it left the darker color in the previously rough patches, and I then put on a couple more coats of stain on the whole wood. Once the stain is completely dried I'll do a few coats of Tru Oil.


These pics show the receiver coloring a little better:




My intention was to create a rifle that looked like John Wayne's and other's much used and worn rifles, sort of the 'battle damage' look. I like how it turned out. I think I'll be doing my Uberti SAA clones next!

[akuser47]

Nice work and thank you for the how too. Thatn looks so good I like it alot.

[Maximumbob54]

I've VERY impresses with this look. I've thought before about trying this with an old Marlin 336 I have that already has some finish wear in the bluing. These pics offer all sorts of ideas.

[Rooster59]

Great job. Looks like an old scabbard gun to me.