A Pistol up from the ashes...

[Mad John]

In a previous thread I discussed my grandfather's World War One Remington Mark III flare pistol he used. It is the example I used to do the following restoration.
The Museum I do preservations for brought a Remington Mark III that had been in the fire at the museum. It had previously belonged to a prominent Veteran from World War One.
It was a real disaster and pretty scary looking. I dug around in my bag of tricks and found my "magic" wand and went to work. This is what happened....There was NO Charge......

 

[EZ-E]

Holly crap ... thats one hell of a magic wand. Looks beautiful John....great job on the restoration. You got MAD skills sir.


ETA... You need to get out of that Commie state, you have too much talent to be held back in such a craphole state.

 

[Mad John]

Holly crap ... thats one hell of a magic wand. Looks beautiful John....great job on the restoration. You got MAD skills sir.


ETA... You need to get out of that Commie state, you have too much talent to be held back in such a craphole state.

Thanks for the reply.
It certainly was a bit of a challenge. Not the worst by any means because there were so many badly burned antique arms. I have returned a bunch of so-called unrecoverable guns to displays.' The ones that were totally unrecoverable was a really sad experience. You just cannot recover melted metal and ashes. So much was discarded to the trash before I was assigned by their Director is impossible to imagine. I wish I had been there sooner before the thieves got their hands in there. It is a really sad story. I care about our history and that is I why I DO NOT charge any fee for my services.
Getting out of the Gulag is only a distant dream. I am behind enemy lines. Even finding a place to shoot requires at least a fifty mile drive, one way.

 

[Big Green]

So what does it take to get it back to that condition? Would it still be safe to fire?

 

[Mad John]

So what does it take to get it back to that condition? Would it still be safe to fire?

After the first project I did for them which was a badly burned Colt 1860 Army revolver. It took one month to do. It was pretty bad and the Museum Board thought it would scare me away. I returned it in very presentable condition and operable. I did fire it.
They wanted to know just what you asked. How do you do that? It was a conference call on speaker-phone. I told them it was just PFM, and let it go at that. We talked for a bit and one old man asked, "We passed a piece of paper around the table with PFM? on it and nobody know what that is?" I said, "It is just simply Pure Freaking Magic!" (PFM) They never asked again.
Actually alot of time after much experimentation and notes on what does and does not work. And a boatload of cussing!
Yes it was fully functioning. I fired a 10 Gauge blank out of it.
You have to have fun too!
OH! If you get one it will chamber 10 Gauge shotgun shells NEVER EVER Shoot an actual 10 Gauge in one of those! NOT a good thing to do.

 

[Mauiboy4lyph]

That thing turned out awsome. You do some mighty fine work there.

 

[Mad John]

That thing turned out awsome. You do some mighty fine work there.

Thanks! I try. It just takes time.

 

[AZ Refugee]

Very nice!

 

[Big Green]

Do you leave it soaking it a solution or just spray and start working on it? What do you attack first? Steel or brass? Are you able to disassemble before or are some too bad to see how they operate and the integrity of the parts?

 

[HKSig]

Nice work.

 

[sucker76]

Holy cow! Beautiful!

 

[jonevill]

That is very impressive.

 

[Mad John]

Do you leave it soaking it a solution or just spray and start working on it? What do you attack first? Steel or brass? Are you able to disassemble before or are some too bad to see how they operate and the integrity of the parts?

Well, I buy Kroil by the gallon! I use it in an ultrasound cleaner. When they are burned and corroded it may take days. I do everything possible to disassemble them without any further damage. Screw-jacks a under tension to hopefully get a screw to move. That may take days too submerged in Kroil.
A very slow process of preservation. I do all steel parts first then brass. Brass is weird and touchy with burned guns! I try all kinds of methods on JUNK first and take lots of notes both with Brass and Steel. Screws are a particular subject all their own to do correctly!
Learning new cuss words IS essential!

 

[Darkpriest667]

Please keep posting this stuff John, I don't know how busy you are, but I know I'd personally appreciate if you posted as much as you can on these topics and again.. contact Ian if you can. I'm sure he'd love to chat to you.

 

[Lonesome Dove]

That’s some amazing work done!

 

[Mad John]

Please keep posting this stuff John, I don't know how busy you are, but I know I'd personally appreciate if you posted as much as you can on these topics and again.. contact Ian if you can. I'm sure he'd love to chat to you.

I am only as busy as I want to be. I do not know what to keep posting. Mostly it depends on what the thread is and if I know enough to contribute anything of value I guess.
I don't know Ian.

 

[Glenn B]

You do nice work. It must be a joy to be so talented skilled.

 

[Mad John]

You do nice work. It must be a joy to be so talented skilled.

Thank You Sir.
It is rewarding and satisfying to give back to history. This work that I do for museums I do for free. I charge them for nothing... parts, time and expenses. HOWEVER for private individuals, I cannot give my efforts away. I get some guns from as far away as New Hampshire and Texas because there are so few that do what I do. AND there are some pieces that just cannot be fixed!
My biggest disappointment is when someone brings me a great old piece that has been catastrophically ABUSED beyond all hope.
John

 

[Mad John]

That thing turned out cool, u must take care of it, that it's awsome!!

This particular Remington MkIII does not belong to me. It belongs to a museum that I work for. It was donated to the museum by a prominent city resident, veteran of WW1.
I just brought it back to life for them....