Pistol Restoration - How NOT To

[rickystl]

Hello all.
Well, this is the last Ethno gun in my collection, I think.
This is a great example of how NOT to restore an antique. It's obvious someone wanted this pistol for decoration, but had no idea what they were doing.
Here is what is wrong:
-The lock, barrel, and other iron mounts have been blued.
- The butt cap, which I believe is brass (a magnet won't stick to it) and the iron thimbles for the false ramrod, the brass wrist inlay (a poor replacement) all have this strange, brass colored paint-like substance on the parts. It's not plating. Don't know exactly what it is.
- Somehow, the silver wire inlay (99%there) has this same color added to it, with the stock refinished adding a coat of shinny shelac over all the wood.
-The lock is missing it's mainspring and hold down screw, and has a crude tumbler. As well, one of the lock plate screws is missing.
- There is a replacement piece of wood on the left side of the barrel tang. And a large gap in the wood at the rear of the lock mortice, that looks like it originally had some wood putty in it that fell out.

Don't know why whoever did this din't search out someone locally with a little knowledge in this area. But I guess we've all seen this before. Too bad.
Fortunately, I bought this gun VERY cheap. Now, what to do with it? I could easily remove the bluing off the iron parts. But hat would make it look even worse. LOL If I start to remove that shelac/finish it might turn into a gooy mess and risk damage to the wire inlay. I don't know how they got that color on the wire inlay without it bleeding over into the stock stain and vise versa. So I think I will just leave it alone and do the following fixes:

Lock: Install a new mainspring and screw. I'm hoping a pistol size mainspring from one of the contemporary lock makers can be made to fit. Otherwise, one will have to be made from scratch, which is more time consuming. I think the tumbler can be polished out and made to work (?) Otherwise, we'll have to try to find one that will work - or make a new one from scratch A new side plate screw, or pair to match will be easy to make.
Stock: I'll have to have that open gap in the rear of the lock mortise area restored. It would drive me crazy not having it done.

As long as I'm at it, I'll have the gunsmith remove the breech plug and inspect it. The bore actually appears in decent shape. This pistol would be a good candadite to make into a shooter since most of the collector value has already been diminished. I'll update here on the Forum after the work is done. Picture heavy so you get a full length horror film here. LOL
Rick.