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GOLD Plated SKS Trigger - 18kt
Iver Johnson Rescue Project
This started life as a cowboy gun close to 100 years ago. After some hard use and corrosion, it had been shelved for (possibly) the last 40 years. It needed some work.
Disassembly took around 20 minutes, so as not to EFF anything up.
First, it needed a severe cleaning. Total time spent:2 hours, seven passes with Kroil, 7 with Breakfree. Bronze and stainless steel brushes both.
Then all of the internals and springs were soaked in Kroil for 2 weeks-no lie. This allowed me to salvage most of the case color that remained under the grime.
Next step was to degrease using acetone, then Simple Green, then a special plating degreaser I use.
Total time combined there: Around 2 hours.
Then, I had to strip the old nickel. Total time there, around 2 more hours. After another quick degreasing at 140 degrees for 10 minutes, a quick sulfuric acid wash and distilled water rinse to activate the steel, and a 40 minute soak in the electroless nickel tank, it was time for an electrified bath in the copper tank, to fill most of the major pits.
The acid had revealed microcracks in the cylinder that were present under theoriginal nickel-modern reloads in a black powder gun are BAAAD, m' kay? I had to acquire another complete revolver just for the replacement cylinder. Luckily, a friend got use out of the springs, so it wasn't a total loss.
Post-copper (1 hour) and polishing (1 hour,) you get this:
Pretty cool to see the original forging marks in the barrel, eh?
After multiple copper and nickel layers alternated with polkishing, the deep pits were gone. As this was mostly for prqacticew, and I was closing in on 40 hours labor on a $60 revolver, it was time to do a final coat of nickel and go test fire her with the new cylinder. Nickel on the frame looked like this:
The orange is actually masking material for areas where I DIDN'T want any nickel to stick.
THen you get to burn up a Black & Decker wizard tool (old Dremel knock-off) running it with nickel polish, and then a wonder polish from Germany called Flitz. I adore that stuff!
Reassembled:
Test firing 50 rounds revealed a looseness in the frame lock-up that would require some serious correction. There was some in the pivot point, too, but that was easily corrected.The unfortunate side effect of the frame issue is that during rapid fire, the firing pin may not always nail the primer dead-on, leading to a misfire. I did what I could, but did not want to press too far without a hydraulic press. Hammers & anvils can only do so much. I also learned that the sights are apparently NOT set for a 6"1' 300 pound guy, and the frame wasnt't designed for that either, as the trigger guard backside kept slamming into my second knuckle. This is a chick gun, or a backup 100 years ago. It was born a secondary piece, and should stay that way. But at least now, it is rust free and as tightr as I can get it, with modern advantages like lock-tight on the pins and breakfree + WWII grease through and through. As long as the next owner NEVER gets ammonia or Hoppe's near the nickel, it should remain rust free for decades more to come.
(I couldn't help adding some gold to the front sight after all that work...)
Please ignore the fingerprints- I just had to seal it with reniassance museum-grade microcrystalline wax. Not particularly well suited to nickel, but will keep the next few years of black powder gunk out of any cracks that might miss getting oiled or cleaned.
From now on, these things get Duracoated.