Refinishing a Nambu Type 14

rawhide85

I am about to begin refinishing my Type 14 and would like some advice. The metal has surface rust throughout but does not have heavy pitting. Some have recommended buffing wheel which I do not have, so it will be done by hand. I was considering either steel wool or wet dry emery paper. Finaly, I will use a "cold" bluing process. Thanks in advance for any help.

rufe-snow

If you want a even finished surface that will disguise the surface rusting? Take it/send it to somebody who has a sandblaster. It will achieve a even finish over the whole exterior surface that will be very hard to achieve by sanding it by hand. When it blued it gives the appearance of being pakerized.

gotstolefrom

From your description of the condition, metal wools and wet 600 grit papers (and finer) does sound like the way to start getting the metalwork in shape. What you need the most of is time and patience.

If you are going to blue it, prep-work is important. For the most part, you want a mirror-like smoothness. Doing this without any 'powered buffing' (aka 'rouge wheel'), is going to be really hard to do. You want a 'perfect' prep for a good blue.

For me, the use of 0000 metal wool and wet/oiled 600+ paper just gets the piece ready for buffing. That is, ready to starting buffing with a coarse compound (for example,black or rouge) and finishing with a fine compound (white).

A sewn cloth 'rouge wheel' for a bench grinder will help a bunch. If you don't have a bench grinder..get one. For buffing work you may want 360 degree access to the wheel. Buffing wheels for drills, etc., are more trouble than they are worth.

I have never done a whole gun with cold blue and been happy with it...maybe that's just me.

Some of the new 'duracoat' (?) spray on finishes I have seen put a good finish on....but not like a good deep blue.
This is getting too long for one guy's opinion...
Search this forum for other entries on bluing...you will get plenty of information. Consider doing all the prep and going to a pro for the blue.
ENJOY !

Fatstrat

I would recomend that you ask your question over on the Gunboards.com Japanese Colectors forum. I used to collect Arisaka's, but never got into the pistols. But even as bad of condition as your Nambu sounds, there is a good chance that your stated plans may actually cause it to worth less than it presently is. Usually on these types of things, the less you do to remove originality the better.
I'm sure the Japanese guru's over on Gunboards could give you a better sense of what options you have and how to restore to retain max colector value. IMO it's worth asking 1st.

Grasshopper

Leave it "as is", imo,,Cold blue and buffing bring shudders to me. I used to collect these and since have given them to my son[:)], I would never refinish one no matter how it looks...My 2 cents...mm8nambu

king999

my take has been: for every $ you invest in altering a collectable military arm, you REDUCE its value by $2. On someting like a reasonably nice nambu, i would suggest that that the loss would be $5!!
morty

rufe-snow

quote:Originally posted by king999
my take has been: for every $ you invest in altering a collectable military arm, you REDUCE its value by $2. On someting like a reasonably nice nambu, i would suggest that that the loss would be $5!!
morty



My experience is that collectors don't want and won't buy guns, no matter how historical, with "surface rust throughout". ( god knows, I've owned many similar turds in the same condition over the years. Best that you can hope for, is to find somebody who will buy it as a "shooter" ). The only way a Nambu in this condition would be viable is if it was some rare Papa/Baby that a collector would be willing to buy for restoration. A plain vanilla Type 14 would not be in this category. If rawhide wants to refinish his Type 14, it's no big deal, as I see it. Very unlikely to affect either it's historical, or collectors value.