One of the inherited guns in my collection is a Stevens Arms 1913 single barrel .410 shotgun. I want to say it was my great grandmothers shotgun.
Been in the safe forever and finally decided to give it the 100 year make over.
First thing I did was take off all the wood, which was in horrible shape. With the wood gone, I took the shotgun apart down to every last pin. Every piece got scrubbed, polished, and cleaned of 100 years of junk and gunk. Unfortunately the barrel has some pitting in it, so it's doubtful that will ever be fired again. Somehow, I managed to get the gun put back together in working order with no pieces left over.
On to the wood. The forearm is in pretty good shape and I left that as-is. The stock was an abortion. Someone in the life of this gun had decided to in lay mother of pearl (or ivory) in the stock. One piece was completely missing and the other piece was broken in half and held in place by a 30 year piece of scotch tape. There were scratches, pen, pencil, paint, crayon, and god knows what else marks and stuff on the stock.
Sanding down the stock was the easy part. Since I was bother to give this gun a makeover, I decided now was a good time to learn how to in-lay mother of pearl. Took some homework, but I eventually figured out what I needed to do. Got on the onlines and ordered me up the bulk MOP, and all the speciality tools that I didn't have that would be needed for the project.
With the supplies ordered, I re-finished the stock in Permalyn's Sealer and Gun Finish. Wasn't my first stock that I had oiled, so knowing what to do, this one came out really nice.
(Note that it is critical that you save up a bunch of the sanded wood of the stock *BEFORE* you finish the gun and start the in lay)
Once the MOP and tools came in, I decided to inlaw a 1.5" long by 1/2" wide piece of MOP. I used a new jewelers saw to cut out the rectangular MOP. From there, I put a 1/2 washer on the end of the MOP and used a pencil to shape the edges. The MOP was rounded with a small bench grinder. With the pieces of MOP ready, they were put over the existing in lay holes on the stock and traced over. I used a 1/2 routing bit on my Dremmel and ripped out a new hole for the MOP. Took a bit of fine cutting/shaping of the trace by hand, but eventually, I was able to fit both pieces of MOP in the stock.
Using the stock saw dust mentioned above, I mixed that up in some clear epoxy, covered the hole and set in the MOP on both sides of the stock and let that sit for a couple of days. The saw dust mixed with epoxy was the same color as the stock and filled in all the little micro gaps in the in lay.
From there, it was sanding, sanding, and more sanding. Starting with 120 grit over the MOP to shape it down smooth. Once smooth, it was 220, 320, 600, 100, and 1600 (all wet) to polish up the MOP.
Lastly, the wood that got sanded a bit was re-oiled.
Turned out nice. The stock looks great. The gun looks like it's a 100 years old, but with nice wood, will make a great mantle piece.
Bad picture that really doesn't show how cool the oil finish is and what the MOP in lay looks like. Not gonna go all BigStick to get the perfect picture. It is, what it is.
I just wish I had taken a "pre" photo.
if you want to of course...
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