refinished early lever - 12/05/23
I had a local gunsmith who is now semi-retired color case harden a couple pieces for me. I'm happy with how these came out. The lever is an early type to replace a chrome plated one on a custom engraved 1899. It had little original finish on the exposed part when I got it. The part of the lever normally inside the receiver still had a lot of color on it and I didn't polish any of that, the old finish was left as it was and it came out OK. I won't know if the lever warped any until installation, but I did try the pivot hole and a pin from another gun fits it. I don't know if the colors are close to the originals or not, but it should look a lot better than a chromed one.
I haven't put anything on the lever since I got it, I am thinking about trying to give it a coat of varnish, which I think was how they did the originals, so I don't want oil on it if I do that, but I don't know if varnish formulas available today will look the same.
The hammer is for a friend who has a nice long cartridge action Whitney-Kennedy saddle ring carbine that has the spur broken off. I tried a test fit on my Whitney and I found the hole is undersize, I didn't try this hammer on it before, so I'm not sure if it shrunk or if it started out the size it is. The pin in my gun is just over 1/4" at 0.254" and the hole in the 'new' hammer will just take a 0.250 drill bit. I ordered a 6.5 mm carbide drill bit (0.2559") to open it up a little. I've seen several Whitney's with broken hammer spurs and when a very nice hammer showed up on eBay several years ago it brought over $350 - my friend's losing bid.
I haven't put anything on the lever since I got it, I am thinking about trying to give it a coat of varnish, which I think was how they did the originals, so I don't want oil on it if I do that, but I don't know if varnish formulas available today will look the same.
The hammer is for a friend who has a nice long cartridge action Whitney-Kennedy saddle ring carbine that has the spur broken off. I tried a test fit on my Whitney and I found the hole is undersize, I didn't try this hammer on it before, so I'm not sure if it shrunk or if it started out the size it is. The pin in my gun is just over 1/4" at 0.254" and the hole in the 'new' hammer will just take a 0.250 drill bit. I ordered a 6.5 mm carbide drill bit (0.2559") to open it up a little. I've seen several Whitney's with broken hammer spurs and when a very nice hammer showed up on eBay several years ago it brought over $350 - my friend's losing bid.