Finish on SLR rifles

[paul connor]

Ok i have a few and the finish varies, blue'ing, as i think its called.

 

I want to rub one down and refinish it again, what would be the best thing to use? rather than black paint?

 

Also, SLR stock (wood) what would the best varnish finish be for this?

 

Help would be appreciated

 

:-D

[hardyferret]

Paul, it would appear that bbq paint gives a good finish, proper blue or blacking is quite involved, and the finish you start off with, on the bare metal is what you see once blacked.

So if I were you look into the bbq paint!!!!

As for the wood, sand choice yours poss satin varnish would stay clean, and not stain, or your local gunsmith for some stock oil, or one of the Deks oil type products used on boats

 

or leave it's original patina :whistle: :whistle:

 

HF ;-)

[Richard Farrant]

Paul,

 

When I was rebuilding a huge batch of SLR rifles once, the metal work was painted with a special coating called Suncorite. A very, potent smelling stuff, it was also good for motor cycle exhausts and cylinder barrels ;-)

 

Richard

[AlienFTM]

Ok i have a few and the finish varies, blue'ing, as i think its called.

 

I want to rub one down and refinish it again, what would be the best thing to use? rather than black paint?

 

Also, SLR stock (wood) what would the best varnish finish be for this?

 

Help would be appreciated

 

:-D

 

 

My beloved wood-furnished SLR had a very light wood finish, probably more like pine with some yellow in than beech in colour. Straight out of preservation, the finish was definitely matt.

 

However, this furniture was much cleaner than any other wood-furnished SLR I ever saw: usually the wood was quite dark after much handling by dirty oilt hands and resting on the ground. TBH, I wouldn't get too precious about it.

 

If you want a touch of authenticity to set your SLR apart from the crowd, see if you cannot find a picture of an SLR in service showing a butt number.

 

When an armoury had maybe hundreds of otherwise similar SLRs (or any other type of weapon), which were otherwise only readily distinguishable from the bulk of the weapons there by their serial number, which is neither easy to read in the gloom of an armoury which of necessity has no windows, nor easy to remember, each weapon would have a butt number painted on (usually on the butt, hence the name (though for instance the SMG had no surface on the butt suitable, so, IIRC the butt number was painted on the top of the magazine housing). Thus an individual need only ask for his weapon by butt number and, with weapons stored sequentially by butt number, the arms storeman could find it in a second. With BAOR on permanent four hours' notice to move out of camp, fully equipped, throughout the Cold War, issuing the entire contents of an armoury in a hurry was vital.

 

Typically (in my experience) a butt number would be two digits. I think this would work in the infantry if the rifles were stored by company: you might just get away with two digits. They might also be marked by company: for example maybe A14. Once there are three characters involved, it could be three digits anyway, giving 1000 butt numbers, more than enough for a whole battalion.

 

There must have been as many styles of butt numbers as there were units, so I strongly recommend doing some study of contemporary pictures. Butt numbers were often applied roughly to weapons and painted over when the weapon changed units or any of a number of other reasons.

 

While SLR was only my personal weapon for a couple of short periods over 20 years ago, my memory suggests that typically an SLR butt number would be painted on a black square (obviously not necessary on black plastic, but probably necessary to make a white number stand out on a light wooden stock) in the middle of the left-hand side of the butt, the side resting against the chest of a right-handed firer and not easily visible when tactical. The black square might have been two inches by three and the characters (usually but not always in white) maybe an inch and a half high.

 

Of course, once your weapon has been thoroughly cleaned up, I'd expect you to do a neat job of applying a butt number as if to a new weapon.

 

HTH

[paul connor]

Hurray! for Jerry!

 

BBQ paint looks the business!!

 

Painted one coat, and looked shiney and nasty! i was upset! then alas dries to a super hard and mat finish!!! great stuff!!!

 

ill post a pic when its dry!

[Mrs Hardyferret]

Once again. the Hardyferret appreciation society break out in their rousing anthem :roll: :roll: :whistle:

 

He is ace

He is skill

His name's Hardyferret

And he thrills

 

 

HF........ modest to a fault :-D

[Guest Tin]

From experience, our armouries were allocated such that each squadron had its own individual armoury and therefore personal weapon numbers never exceeded for example 160 The figures would be as suggested in the case of SLRs on the butt, cheek side and on SMGs on the magazine housing upper side. This uniformity made it easy to pull the vehicles when the balloon went up. The figures would normally be in white and no bigger than 1 inch tall, usually stencilled.

I trust that this has been of some help

Mick

Ex Household Cavalry

PS wood stock SLRs which we used on special parades were always dark and a light wood finish would never be allowed.