New member has a Ithaca Lewis project

[DMason]

Jolly well stated. I have enjoyed the 12 year Redbreast, I'm sure the 15 year is even finer yet. I'm a highland single malt Scotch man myself, but the Irish is a pleasure as well. I will have to fill you in on fine Japanese whiskey one day, an absolutely amazing culture of distilling over there, some very good stuff. I learned of it through my interest in Japanese blades, the two go hand in hand.

I will continue with my hand finishing of the gun metal. And I agree, a paper backing and silicon carbide provides a predictable scratch pattern, especially if oiled. I am going to drop down in grit but I think you are right, 180 will be too coarse. I will most likely start tomorrow with about 320 grit, just to get rid of at least some of the marks that are bothering me.

I know 2000 grit or even finer sounds over the top, but as I have mentioned, I have been exposed to ridiculously highly polished steel with many of my Japanese blades, and thus have become quite fixated on a very smooth finish. I have Katanas that are polished to mind boggling lusters!

Good tip on taping Over current engraving. I would like to think of re-engraving this gun as a distant option and not a necessity. It is a family heirloom but I do have others, besides, I want to leave my mark on this one. I just hope the mark isn't too ugly!

[alcaviglia]

Would love to hear about Japanese whiskeys. My old man used to have tons of it when he worked for IBM, but I never knew what of it was good.

[DMason]

I'll keep this short, this not being a whisky forum...

First thing about Japanese whisky, drop the 'e'. Unlike America and Ireland, Japan shares with the Scotsmen (and the Canadians), the spelling. Even though the etymology of the word is Gaelic (Irish Gaelic not Scot Gaelic), so "whiskey" is probably correct, who cares though, if the Scots spell it without an e, then that spelling gets my vote too!

Next thing is, the Japanese have always pursued the flavour of Scotch. A Japanese chemist came back from years in Scotland and started the whole Japanese Whisky thing about 100 years ago.

The Japanese pride themselves in not selling off their extra stock to "Blenders", thus it is hard to find a Japanese Blend. Single malt rules in Japan.

My current stock:
1. Nikka Miyagikyo, 12 year, 90 proof, slow building lasting flavour, in fact when you first pour it, you can't smell anything. Then ten minutes in the glass and you can smell it from your chair. Really something.
2. Suntory Yamazaki, 12 year, 86 proof, very light and absolutely delicious. Yamazaki is a neighborhood in Kyoto, used to have more distilleries there than all of Japan combined.
3. Suntory Hibiki, 12 year, 86 proof, very full bodied, heavy, smokey, good with a cigar.

There are so many others, but...

There ends my first intro into Japanese Whisky.

Hope the moderators on this forum don't delete this! I promise, my next post will be about double guns!

[alcaviglia]

Japan is on my list of future fishing locations. A couple of years ago I discovered Tenkara and really enjoy it's simplicity.

Very interesting Dan, thanks for the info. Definitely something I will check out.

[DMason]

I hear Tenkara fly rigs are fine indeed.

I have had a rough discovery on my Lewis. I stripped the varnish off the funrniture and am not happy. The varnish was dark, I never suspected any issues, but upon stripping the butt stock I now have a new challenge on my hands. There is a chip at least an inch long right above the right hammer. It had been filled in with glue and sawdust! There are at least three hairline cracks right up by the action in the thin inletted sections on both sides! And, there are scrape marks (almost like random carving marks) all around the last three or four inches of the rear of the stock. Then as icing on the cake, the oil soaking is extensive. No fun.

The front splinter stock seems fine but it too has a bit of oil soaking, but looks to be removable.

This project is growing rather large...

I think I might be in the market for a new stock, we will see. I have epoxied missing chips on to other gun stocks but this missing chip is in such a delicate an thin part of the stock. I have also injected epoxy into hairline cracks always with success, so that part may be OK. I have also drawn oil out of stocks, so that part might be doable but there is a lot of oil! I have already done three or four acetone soaks and the oil is still there... But that missing chip. I think that is a tough nut. I don't know if even a reinforced and epoxied new piece of wood will be strong enough. I will post pictures soon.

Any tips on this would as usual in this thread, be very much appreciated.

[alcaviglia]

If you can upload some good photos, that would be very helpful. The expertise of Mr. Dudley will come in handy, here.

Without seeing the missing wood, I would think of looking into some glass bedding. When done properly, it can work very well in such a case. (I recently saw a 0 frame VH for sale that I believe was glassed by Bob Blake.) Especially if you're worried about there being a very limited amount of contact with the receiver.

As I recall, the wood is extremely thin in areas on the head of that stock. I'm not sure how much success you'll have with epoxy on those areas without some other reinforcement. When you reinstall the butt-stock, you'll find a fair amount of torque is put on it when pinning everything together. That is how these typically are. That force may pop your epoxy with the wood being so thin. Maybe it's worth a shot, but add the additional shock-load of recoil and you may be doing a fair bit of work for nothing, in the end. I think it really depends on how severe and settled you think the cracks are.

[B. Dudley]

Ithaca Lewis buttstocks are a pain in the rear! All that inletting in the face of the head for clearance of the hammers makes them very prone to damage and difficult to repair.

[Bach Melick]

Originally Posted by alcaviglia

I recently posted a reply to a different thread that explains how to install the mainsprings. It is in this forum under the title "New Project: Ithaca Crass". The entire post may prove helpful to you, but the install section is on the last or next to last page of the thread (with photos).

Al, your reply with photos explaining how to use the flathead screwdriver clamped in a bench vise worked perfectly for me to finally install both mainsprings in my Ithaca Crass this afternoon, many thanks!

[alcaviglia]

I'm glad to hear that it's properly (and safely) cocking again.

[Bach Melick]

Originally Posted by alcaviglia

I'm glad to hear that it's properly (and safely) cocking again.

it would be nice if I could safely fire it just a few times