ABBD’s Ithaca Flues restoration project

Cooking day. Pack the parts in charcoal inside of a steel crucible and stick it in the oven. Heat to 1400F and dwell at that temp for 1.5 hours. Quench in distilled water and see what you get. You never know, and there is really not much you can do to manipulate the outcome. Most of it is to do with the castings. Ithaca’s typically color quite well.

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Stock stripped. Glass bedding the action to the head of the stock to build back missing material in the inletting, and to fill gaps between wood and metal fit. Once dry, the stock will be sanded and whiskered to 320 grit, stained, finished, and sent off for checkering.

You already do this after the color casing is done because the metal will change shape slightly when you do the heat treating (1400 degrees) and quench in ice water.

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dbarale said:
Probably a stupid question but why is the checkering done after the refinishing? Is it to avoid filling in the cuts with the finish?
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Many stocks had flat top checkering. In that case, you want finish on the flat tops, which would best happen if the finish is already there.

Some say the checkering cutter cuts better when there is finish.

In this case, it was just the way it timed out.
 
Every time I think you can’t get any better, you come along and do something like this! Wow once again I’m speechless.
 
Great work Bill. You’re a true artist
 
Outstanding! Thanks for bringing us along with your projects. They never cease to amaze.
 
Picked this beauty up today. Words cannot express my appreciation to Mr. Graham for breathing life back into my grandfathers gun. This shotgun was in sad… sad shape and not functional any longer. I remember shooting this shotgun as a kid… called it “the mule”. I’m so glad I can eventually pass it down to another generation to create their own memories with. What a fantastic job!
 
I've done two or three restorations, not even CLOSE to the quality of this one. Now I'm just gonna find me another old gun to fix up. Thanks for this thread. I really enjoyed it.
 
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