Sterlingworth safety difficult to move...

[Silvers]

I wouldn't do either. Just work it back and forth quite a few times, usually that will round off any sharp edges. A TINY swipe of heavy grease will probably help also, something that won't migrate to the wood. I wouldn't use oil. Silvers

[mollow]

OK, I'll try that first.

[Twice Barrel]

Should I be thinking about flattening the spring (bow) a little so there's less tension or slightly file down the bump? Or something else I haven't thought of?

NO just lube everything as recommended put it back together. If you screw up the tension spring you may end up with a gun that returns to safe after firing the first barrel which is definitely not good and you are looking at a $50.00 repair at least.

[mollow]

I'll try the grease solution after I'm done cleaning it. As far as the stock goes, soaking it in acetone will remove the original finish?

Mike

[marine.802]

yOU CAN NOT REMOVE SUBSURFACE GRIME, OIL ETC. WITHOUT FIRST REMOVING THE SURFACE. nOW COMES WHAT i FEEL IS THE MOST ENJOYABLE PART SINCE IT IS WINTER AND THE GUBN CAN NBE TIED UP ABIT. i DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT REFINISHING TECHNIQUES SO i WILL JUST CAST MY METHOD (NOT REALLY MINE) OUT THERE. oNCE THE OIL ETC HAS BEEN REMOVED AND ALL IS DRY CHECK IT OVER FOR DINGS. sOME FOLKS WANT IT DINGLESS, OTHERS FEEL A FEW ADDS CHARACTER AND THE REMAINING THINK YOU HAVE ALREADY COMITED A SIN GOING AS FAR AS YOU HAVGE ALREADY. dEEP DENTS, NOT SCRATCHES OR GOUGES CAN BE PARTIALLY OR FULLY REMOVED BY USING A DAMP CLOTHE AND AN IRON TO CAUSE THE CRUSHED STRANDS TO SWELL. sOME WILL CLEAN UP THE CHECKERING OTHERS WON'T, IT IS A PERSONAL THING. nOW YOU SAND IN STAGES. i start out with a 180 grit and work my way up in stages (220, 320, 4000) aFTER EACH SANDING WET DOWN THE STOCK AND EITHER DRY OUT WITH A SMALL SOLDERING TORCH, BE CAREFUL NOT TO SCORCH THE WOOD. ANOTHER WAY IS TO ALLOW THE WOOD TO DRY (ABOUT 10 - 20 MINUTES) AND THEN SMOOTH OFF WITH #0000 STEEL WOOL, NEVER SAND PAPER!! this process is called whiskering. The wet wood swells up the fubers cut by sanding. The torch drys the wood and removes these fibers at the same time. The steel wool is not needed with the torch. It will cut off the fibers where as sandpaper just smashes them down and they will return. Now you must seal the wood pours. There are any number of brands, talk to someone knowledge able in your local hardware store. Follow the procedure accompanying the product you use. Two or three coats are usually necessary. This process seals up all the lottle pores of the wood and pevents tye orange peel appearence.Lastly buy yourself some good tung oil. I use it rather than linseed oil because the rags from tung oil are not suseptible to spontaneous combustion as are rags soaked in linseed oil. Use clean soft lint free rags or pads, doing a small area at a time going with the grain when possible. Again follow directions as to method. Now set it aside and let it dry. Putting more oi over an undried layer is only a recipe for disaster. Ince dry repEAT THE APPLICATION PROCESS. I perfer oil to varnish or polyurethane because it is easier to clean up after a tough day afield and it is easier to repair damage to the wood itself. And the appearence of a well done job is hard to beat. When doing this be patient, rushing only leads to problems.

Semper Fi

Dave

[mollow]

Thanks Dave, I have exactly the oil you are talking about and I have done that procedure on other wood items. I, also, don't like polyurethane.

[mollow]

OK, now what! Safety did not glide easier as anticipated. What would be your next move?

Mike

[Twice Barrel]

Try a drop or two of Breakfree between the safety and the top tang and on the roller on the safety spring working them back and forth a few times. If that doesnt work send the receiver to Buck Hamlin or Dewey Vicknair.

[mollow]

That sounds reasonable to me. Thanks.

[Silvers]

Regarding the stiff safety operation, unless it was changed a 1913 Sterlingworth probably has a spring without a roller on its end. If the grease or Breakfree doesn't help I'd suggest sending the gun to a professional for evaluation and possible reprofiling of the fire and safe mill cuts in its frame tang.

Regarding the WD40 that was sprayed into the tang area of the stock.... I don't want this to sound like an organic chemistry paper, but let me explain the rationale in my previous reply. A simple explanation is the WD40 (mostly composed of mineral oil and hexane) has been absorbed through capillary action into the wood fibers. This is similar to paper chromatography as you may remember from high school chemistry. It is almost impossible to remove that WD40 from deep inside the wood fibers, same as trying to get chemicals to run backwards on the chromatography strip. Soaking the stock in acetone or oven cleaner will not remove much of the WD40 components beyond the surface and slightly underneath - because there is nothing mechanical happening to "flush" the deep wood fibers. The problem with soaking in a ketone like acetone, or an oven cleaner solution (sodium hydroxide or similar strong caustics) is they may react with the lignin (glue) that holds the cellulose fibers together. This is a complex organic reaction that in effect, may soften the stock and cause setback problems down the road due to recoil.

The first post described a mechanical problem with the safety, and nothing was noted about problems with the stock. A later post asked if acetone would damage the stock finish. Therefore I was thinking your stock is good and it has a least some original finish on it. IMO most people here on the Fox forum would do all they can to preserve an original 1913 Sterlingworth, than to refinish its stock and turn an early SW worth $ X into one that might bring a small fraction of X. That's why I suggested using compressed air to remove and exaporate what you can of the WD40, followed up by wood-based solvents like methanol or turpentine only in the inletting cuts. Either is less likely to create a reaction product with the lignin. IMO you're not going to remove the deeply absorbed WD40 no matter what you do.

If you do decide to refinish the stock, the directions for wood surface prep provided by Mr. marine 802 are very good and I'm sure they will do the job. I wish you well with this work and your project. Silvers

[mollow]

Thanks Silvers-- Those were my thoughts exactly as far as the mill cuts were concerned. I'm not a gunsmith, but I have every appropriate tool for this job (I'm a dentist). I'm going to start by polishing the ramp that is holding me up. I'd like to polish the underside of the part that the bow-spring compresses, but it looks like the pin won't come out easily.

Mike

[mollow]

Total success! By recontouring (slightly) the rearmost safe mill cut in the frame tang and then polishing it up to a mirror shine I can now operate the safety without a struggle. There is still a very positive feel when on either "safe" or "fire" (no play). Taking apart the gun to this extent also allowed me to clean years worth of gunk out, and the parts seem to fit more snug than ever. I used a couple of teeny bits of grease wherever there seemed to be an obvious moving part, but that's it. No oil. Thanks again for all your help-- it was invaluable.

Mike

[marine.802]

Great Job. The more you know about your gun the better off you will be when taking care of it. Jelwers rouge judiciously used can solve many problems.In the future try using a digitsl camera to record how theparts are related. If you already own a camera it will prove to be a tremendous time saver.

Semper Fi

[Chukarman]

An acetone bath is a pretty extreme move to remove oil from the head of the stock. Removing the stock and using a heat gun and whiting powder will (with a number of cycles of heat and powder application, followed by wiping with a cloth) remove a lot of oil.

As for your safety slide, my bet is that the slide spring under the top tang is either rusted or full of crud. A thorough cleaning and a little polishing will likely put it right.

[bbman3]

Flatten the spring bow,never file down the bump