Advice on 1917 Remington Restoration

[FAL-Ordinance]

It's certainly not meant to be taken that way, and I definitely never said anything about protecting historical accuracy - that's a whole different subject than trying to protect the monetary collectible value of a firearm where the overall value difference would be $100-$200 because the value of the firearm as a whole is only $500-$700 anyway.

I guess it depends on what you want to do. Refinishing and fixing the furniture on an antique Winchester, Colt, Luger, etc, is a whole different ballgame than refinishing and fixing the furniture on a WW1 or WW2 battle rifle. It also depends on whether or not the person is a collector who intends to sell/flip their guns and therefore needs to maintain it. Clearly some people think it's important, but it's perfectly ok that I have different opinion on it when it comes to guns where the difference in the monetary value between changed and preserved is negligible.

I mentioned my Dad earlier in the thread because he was the guy who didn't ever really flip guns. He liked to accumulate and shoot, so for him, picking up old battle rifles was a matter of personal interest because he just wanted to have those guns, so he'd pick up one and then take steps to clean them up to the point where I'm certain that it "devalued" whatever it was.

But how much was it really devalued?

What is "value?"

For Dad, the "value" was in something he enjoyed working on, looking at, and shooting - he didn't really care so much about what the dollar value might be, with the aforementioned Colts, Winchesters and Lugers being the exceptions.

I definitely hear yours and tallen702's points. In a lot of ways I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder on these things. My initial goal when I bought two rifles was to bring both back to their true form. For the first, I was hoping to restore in a way that preserves the authenticity and collector value (using stocks pictured), the second was going to be brand new 100 year old shooter to have fun on weekends with. Both have value IMO, just a different type.

 

[Doco Overboard]

Thanks for the insight - giving both a try makes a lot of sense. As for the remaining stock, your point is well taken. Never know when I'll come across a deal on another Enfield that would make a good candidate for restoration. I've certainly seen more sporterized enfields, then whole stocks themselves. As for cleaning, it was mentioned previously that using water and a bit of vinegar can do wonders (without damaging or altering the original finish). Do you believe this is okay to do, or does it run the risk of upsetting the purist collectors (if I ever did intend to sell)?

Introducing water and vinegar could potentially create unnecessary problems such as blackening of the wood creating a mold or fungus that would be difficult to manage at some point.
I'm not saying this is always the case or water and vinegar doesn't work, my statement is for awareness purposes only.
Vinegar is an acid so are the components of the tannin's and oils/dirt already in your stock. To what extant this would be problematic in your case I cannot say.
Vinegar is also a good cleaning agent as well so that concept would be wise to take into account is all I'm attempting to communicate. As always with any vintage weaponry keep in mind the least harmful approach in small increments until the effects are understood is usually the best approach.
As for the spare stock, I would keep it. Other m17 parts can usually be found in abundance but as we already know spares are becoming harder to source in a rapid manner for various vintage rifle systems as a whole.
M17 stocks that haven't been cut or altered are some of the most difficult to source maybe even as much as Krag stocks.
I still own quite a number of m17's and continue to regularly shoot them. Repair, re-barrel stock fit using traditional methods etc not to mention various other examples of vintage US and foreign martial arms as well.
From a purist perspective, at least in my mind usually money is best spent on the best example that can be found in original condition that is unmolested, period correct and certainly not over cleaned to the extent a trace of original finish or patina has been removed unnecessarily that does not prohibit efficient safe/ use of the weapon.
Now that I think about it, I think you mentioned you had a spare reciever additional parts to build another rifle up from with spare stock ,including a cbi barrel maybe in an earlier post. This purist will offer to install the barrel/HS to inspected reciever as long as you keep the stock to understand the value of what you have available to you in that piece of timber alone.
Clean your stock with warmed RLO or boiled oil and some turpentine drops with a piece of cheese cloth removing the dirt on top until its right and your happy with it. Just be mindful once that dirt seat and grunge is gone, it can never be replaced or duplicated.
Thats the difference between a 400 dollar rifle and a thousand dollar rifle when a 28 dollar rifle was originally manufactured.

 

[Oswaldo87]

Last year I bought a horribly sporterized Winchester with a handful of chrome parts but the receiver was cherry. I was able to snag a new 1917 barrel from CMP. I took off the cut down sewer pipe that was on the rifle and finished chambered the new barrel. I had to buy a handful of new (to the rifle) parts to complete but it performs great now. I also bought one of Numrich’s Italian repro stock sets since, as mentioned above, take off wood is very scarce. I didn’t want to mess with my 1918 Remington edition but wanted an accurate shooter. I just need to inlet the bolt/safety area as it doesn’t engage fully at the moment.