Refinishing the Crosman 101

The first part of the refinishing will be reblueing all the steel parts of the 101. I figured the butt plate was a good place to start...
Once the Birchwood Casey blueing is applied I'm protecting the finish with Ballistol. Ballistol is new to me but it has been around Europe for a 100+ years. I've read good things about it and thought it was worth a try.

I warmed the metal with a small butane torch before applying the blue. It gave the blue an iridescent look, similar to the look of case hardened steel. This was not intentional, but I like the way it turned out.

And a  few more parts done...

The pump linkage is next, the wooden pump handle needs to be removed. The trick here is that the holes for the pins don't go all the way through the wood. 

I clamped the handle to my bench and drove the pins down. Having the bench to back up the handle I was hoping to minimize any tear out when The pins broke through. 

Not to bad, I used a razor knife to trim the dimple created by the pin pushing through the wood.

Then I drove the pins through. 

Started out looking like this...

Ended up looking like this... 

Other than some screws, the steel parts are all reblued.  

The wood on the 101 stock was rough from a previous attempt at refinishing it. The pump handle had been spray painted black at some point.  

With the top layer sanded off the scratches really show up. I have plenty more sanding to do.

I continued with 150 grit and finished with 220 grit to get the scratches out. There were some flaws and scratches that I couldn't remove but I'm happy with the "character" the wood shows

I went with a Dark Walnut stain I thought a darker wood would look right for this rifle. 

These scratches were too deep to sand out, I'm hoping they aren't as noticeable after I apply the Birchwood Casey Tru oil. 

I'm happy with the way the stocks turned out. They still have some "character" but I think it fits with a rifle of this age.

Now it's on to stripping the paint from the pump tube, barrel and reciever.....

Before cleaning the old paint I straightened the front sight.

I used paint stripper to remove the old paint and spray paint. I can see why people leave the brass exposed on these old air guns... I'm going to paint mine, besides the dings and dents that I wouldn't be able to remove. Shiny just doesn't appeal to me. I didn't take many pictures during the paint removal, pretty boring stuff anyway.

 

I got busy (impatient) during the reassembly and didn't take any pictures. I should have let the paint cure for a few days but I couldn't wait. There is some touch up work to do on the paint on the muzzle. I mocked it up for these pictures. The valve still needs to be installed, I'm going to let the paint cure for a couple days before I handle it any more.

 I think it is looking good....