This thread reminds me of another, a few months back, when we were talking about "My Grandfather's Axe; 3 new handles, and 2 new heads".
I'm certainly no one to question the motives of someone who wants to restore something that could easily (or at least with less trouble) be replaced. I spent 5 years, and more money than i'd care to admit, restoring an 1892 steam launch. I didn't learn from that lesson and am now having a 1928 Old Town canoe restored. The company in Maine, doing the restoration could have built me a new one for around a grand less than the restoration.
Chuck, with all due respect, I can't help but think you're over-simplifying what is involved in restoring this gun, or at least, restoring it properly. The welding required to bring the frame back to it's original dimension will require post weld heat treat, to relieve the stresses. This will bring the basemetal to a soft, annealed condition, and then require another heat treat cycle to get it back to a suitable tensile strength, and ductility. The temps required, as Brad pointed out, are way higher than whats involved in simply renewing the colors achieved in re coloring an action. Distortion of the already machined surfaces are more than a likely result. This is all before getting to splicing in a new set of tubes and fitting new wood. In the end, anything that can be built, can be re-built, but at what cost?
|
Hybrid Mode