A Word About Modern Gun Care Products

Many modern gun care products are quite simply incompatible with the finishes used on classic and custom firearms.  Many of these products contain silicone, teflon or some other type of "high-tech chemical enhancement" that is touted as the last word in gun protection, usually because these additives are used in some form in some unrelated industry.  It's called marketing, which is the way bullshit is spelled in the language of business.  The biggest hazards posed by these products are to organic oil-based stock finishes, including any variation of "London" oil finishes and oil-based film-type finishes.  Silicone (NOT silicon, which is what computer chips are made from) rags and sprays should not even be in the same zip-code as a gun with an organic stock finish.  Regardless of whether it's a spray or on a rag, IT WILL PENETRATE ANY ORGANIC STOCK FINISH and it will soften and ruin it.  As a side benefit, it will also completely prevent refinishing unless the contaminated original finish is chemically removed.  Depending upon the depth of the silicone contamination of the wood, complete removal ranges from merely damnably difficult, to almost impossible.

Keep the following AWAY from ANY organic stock finish:

- Silicone, in any form, be it spray, oil or cloth
- Rem-Oil in any amount, or really any gun oil for that matter
- Gun Scrubber, this stuff will dissolve even some synthetic finishes and some plastics

Probably 90 percent of the gun care products that exist only excel at separating money from one's wallet and the above are actually capable of damaging a fine gun's finishes.  A good oil that doesn't contain silicone, teflon or powdered space-shuttle tiles is all that is needed for the metalwork and if you feel the irresistible urge to fondle the wood, please only use a drop or two of boiled linseed oil.  Do NOT use LIN-SPEED or TRU-OIL (or their like) as "maintenance".  These are FINISHES (they are in fact varnishes), they are not used for maintenance any more than one would wipe one's car down with fresh paint to "freshen it up".  Speaking of cars reminds me of waxes and there is a certain brand of very expensive wax that some museums use, and many gun owners as well .  Do not use this on any stock that you ever plan to have refinished either.

There, you can't say that you were not warned.

I'm probably going to be asked: "Well then, you miserable prick, what do YOU suggest that I use?"
I'm glad you asked.  Below are my recommendations.

For general use (lubrication and "wiping down" of metal):

- Break Free CLP -  I know, it's supposed to have teflon in it but it must be a damned small amount.  In thirty years of using it, I've never seen it cause any issues with any finish.  Use it SPARINGLY though, it will migrate everywhere if over applied.
- Hoppe's Original Gun Oil - Still the best mineral based oil, it contains no "high-tech" or "space program approved" ingredients.  Again, as with any oil, use it sparingly.  There is a reason that your car has a dipstick and your gun does not.

For hinge pin and bites:

- Mobil 1 Synthetic wheel bearing grease - This is the red grease that I use.  In this application it will never get hot enough to turn to liquid and one tube will last even the most enthusiastic shooter at least one lifetime.
- Vaseline - This is the "classic" but its main problem is that in hot weather, it quickly turns from a grease into an oil.  This also occurs with extended use, and it can get messy.

For stock maintenance and cleaning:

- Boiled Linseed Oil - A couple of drops rubbed on any stock finish and then wiped off with a soft cloth will lift accumulated dirt off of the surface.  To clean out cruddy checkering, use a drop on an old toothbrush, followed by a dry old toothbrush.  Dispose of any oil-contaminated rags in a safe manner because of the danger of fire.

One last point:  If you store your guns in a safe, and you have the room, it is advisable that you store them muzzle down.  The reason is that, even though flat-earthers deny it, gravity actually exists and it will push any accumulated oil into the head of the buttstock.  The carpet in the bottom of your safe is much less costly to replace than the buttstock of a fine gun.

Restoration of a Fox XE Grade

Restoration, there's a word that makes me cringe whenever I hear it applied to guns.
All one needs to do is look on any gun collector forum to see proudly-displayed examples of most gunsmiths' "restoration" work.   What you'll likely see is funneled screwholes (thanks to the buffing wheel), metal finishes (usually incorrect) over rust pits, butchered screwslots, partially erased engraving, rounded corners and edges (the buffing wheel again) and wood usually below the metal (if not actually rounded over).   What is even worse is that many owners think that this work looks good.   Naturally their pride is bolstered by others chiming in with comments about how wonderful the work looks, either through their own inability to discern correct work from mediocre work or, heaven forbid, they might hurt someone's feelings.  Sadly, this inability to call a spade a spade is partly responsible for the proliferation of absolute hacks in this business.  Another reason is that some people are willing to price-shop this kind of work.  Personally, I don't think that substandard work is a bargain, no matter how cheap.
Here I will detail the CORRECT restoration of a Fox XE grade in 12 gauge.   The gun was in unenviable condition with an extensively broken (and sanded stock) no finish left on the frame, some rust pitting and a few small dents in the barrels.

Starting with the stock, which was broken in multiple places through the head and hand, had an inappropriate recoil pad and was sanded below the frame.   After removing the finish and the soaked oil, the first task is to make the stock structurally sound again.  In the first photo you can see that the entire triggerbox mortise is gone from the stock, thus providing no way for the breechscrew to draw the stock tight to the frame.   A new piece of walnut was machined to fit and it was all put back together.

With the stock structure repaired and refit to the frame, the next task is to "raise" the wood back to the level of the surrounding metal.  Obviously wood can't be built up by welding so a dyeable epoxy is used.

After the epoxy is fully cured it's filed and sanded flush to the metal.

I then went to work fitting a Silver's recoil pad.  This is the one area where I deviated from original practice in that I used a "spurred" pad, because it looks good.

After fitting the pad, the checkering was recut, the wood finished and the recoil pad was leather-faced, as was appropriate for an XE.

With the wood finished I then started the metal work.  The first project was to make new screws to replace the damaged breechscrew, breechscrew lock screw, triggerplate srew, hand screw and triggerguard screw.  At this point all of the metalwork has been annealed in preparation for for filing, polishing and recutting of the engraving.

With all of the screws made, the next step is to engrave them in the correct pattern.  All engraving is done with a push graver under a 20X microscope.

The forend iron suffered considerable pitting, which must be removed.  Following the removal of the pitting the engraving is recut.

There was also some pitting on the frame.  Again it was filed away, polished (by hand) and the engraving recut.

With the frame-related metal work finished the next step is the finishing of those parts.  Fox shotguns above C grade had all of the metalwork (aside from the barrels) color case hardened.  In the photos below the preparation for case hardening is detailed.

The parts after case hardening, cleaning and lacquering.

While the lacquer hardened on the frame and related parts I began work on the barrels.  The solder at the muzzles was mostly missing.  After clamping the muzzle so that nothing could move, I filled the gaps with solder, scraped the excess away with a chisel and finally polished the muzzle.

One of the extractor segments also had a broken/missing guide pin.

With the barrel repairs and polishing complete, the next step was to recut the engraving on the chamber area.

The barrels are blacked down on the frame and the last remaining operations are to rust blue the barrels and the detail polishing of the breech, flat and muzzle areas.

The barrels are blued and the detail polishing is done, finishing the job.

The glamour shots...