Wow, I never made the association before today, between this old thread and the rifle sent.
I just figured it was another Belgian rifle stored in a high humidity area, in case that trapped moisture. I've refinished dozens of Belgian rifles - some from fires, some from Katrina, some from trapped moisture storage.
I was surprised, actually, that the anodized aluminum parts suffered greater corrosion than the paint/park pieces.
This was a "best judgement" case. Some will recall the curious para stock I posted, that I thought may be Argentine, due to the atypical chamfer of the hinge mechanism. Turns out, it MAY be late FN. But pitted original was still, in my best judgement, a better choice than the better condition replacement that just wasn't right. But customer has both so can swap if desired.
Trying to decide what parts (blued bolt carrier, hinge assembly) should be left as is, which had developed the very classic patina tint to the Parkerizing, and which were too far gone for anything but complete refinish . .. It was tough. I did the best I could. My research could not come up with a 50:63 with the vertical lock lever (James Julia Auctions, et al).
My conclusion was that certain parts, even with mitigated pitting, were better than non-original replacement parts.
I could not remove the pitting from the type 3 flats without making the markings obviously more shallow than they should be. So I split the difference. Pitting is still visible, but about half the depth I started with.
Here are some other pics.
I'm sorry the OP got screwed. I'm sorry a low-life piece of shit, con-artist seller would stoop to pretending being a veteran somehow makes one honorable (some of the lowest character people I have ever met were veterans). I hope my efforts resulted in this "holy grail" of pre-ban Belgians being returned to the best it could be.
I just figured it was another Belgian rifle stored in a high humidity area, in case that trapped moisture. I've refinished dozens of Belgian rifles - some from fires, some from Katrina, some from trapped moisture storage.
I was surprised, actually, that the anodized aluminum parts suffered greater corrosion than the paint/park pieces.
This was a "best judgement" case. Some will recall the curious para stock I posted, that I thought may be Argentine, due to the atypical chamfer of the hinge mechanism. Turns out, it MAY be late FN. But pitted original was still, in my best judgement, a better choice than the better condition replacement that just wasn't right. But customer has both so can swap if desired.
Trying to decide what parts (blued bolt carrier, hinge assembly) should be left as is, which had developed the very classic patina tint to the Parkerizing, and which were too far gone for anything but complete refinish . .. It was tough. I did the best I could. My research could not come up with a 50:63 with the vertical lock lever (James Julia Auctions, et al).
My conclusion was that certain parts, even with mitigated pitting, were better than non-original replacement parts.
I could not remove the pitting from the type 3 flats without making the markings obviously more shallow than they should be. So I split the difference. Pitting is still visible, but about half the depth I started with.
Here are some other pics.
I'm sorry the OP got screwed. I'm sorry a low-life piece of shit, con-artist seller would stoop to pretending being a veteran somehow makes one honorable (some of the lowest character people I have ever met were veterans). I hope my efforts resulted in this "holy grail" of pre-ban Belgians being returned to the best it could be.
