The “Untouched” Martini-Henry, Part One

Martini-Henry rifles are breech-loading, singleshot, lever-actuated rifles that replaced the Snider- Enfield as British Army issue. Martini-Henry single shot rifles imported from over 100 years of storage in Nepal are on the market in both "Cleaned" and "Untouched" condition. This is what you should know before you tackle an untouched example. The .577/450 Martini-Henry is an interesting piece of firearms history.

After "starring" in the 1964 movie Zulu, it has become a much soughtafter addition to military firearms enthusiasts and collectors. The influx of the Enfield-made rifles has reduced the price of shootable examples to just under $1000 and the rough "Untouched" examples are available for a couple of hundred The stock was cut under the barrel band and anew piece spliced in, inletted, contoured, and stained to match the cleaned-up stock. dollars less.

That has tempted many to seriously consider if the lower priced "as found" rifle is a good deal. Recently, a friend of mine, who happens to be a talented gunsmith, thought he would like to pick up one of the Enfield-made Mark IV long-lever Martinis. Speculating that since the Mark IV was the last model and only in service use for a few years, he thought he would have a better chance of getting a gun with a good bore. I have emphasized "Enfield made" for a reason.

Many of the imported guns were made in Nepal and I have no idea of the grade of steel, level of fit and finish, headspace, or the heat treatment the Nepalese rifles were given. They may be wonderful bargains or they may be dangerous even at black powder pressures. I simply do not know. My friend and I reasoned that at least with the Enfield builds we knew they started out as wellmade, properly-fitted, headspaced, and heat-treated firearms. The rifle was ordered and arrived in a couple of days.

Service was friendly and prompt. The rifle had a very nice bore but the rest was indeed "untouched." A century of sitting in what amounts to an unheated stone barn left its mark, as did whomever handled and packed the gun for shipping from Nepal. The stock was nearly black with oil and dirt and the wood showed many signs of having be roughly handled both in the past and recently.

Besides the normal dings and chips expected from service use, there were some new gouges and scratches that could be identified by not being full of oil and dirt. The metal showed various degrees of pitting, most severely along and under the forend. Rust was evident most everyplace else. All the parts appeared to be present but the action would not cock. Bad as it sounds and looks, this rifle was not

This must be repeated. beyond salvaging but it is certainly not a job for a hobbyist or beginning gunsmith. Starting Restoration The first step in the restoration to make the gun shootable again was to complete disassembly and examining the parts to see what we actually had. My first tip to anyone tackling a project like this is to be patient. The wood is old, soaked with oil, and rotten in some places.

Screws that have been in place for over 100 years are going to be reluctant to come out and some may simply be impossible to unscrew. Driving out a pin that is surrounded by oil-softened or rotten wood presents the problem of keeping the face of the punch on the pin. It will want to slide off the pin and go through the softer wood. The solution is to use cup-tipped punches or at least a nail set to at least get them broken free and started.

Screws should be soaked in penetrating oil if there is any hope of removing them. In extreme cases, be ready to drill them out. Fortunately, the internal parts of the receiver were only covered with surface rust and cleaned up relatively easily. In fact, the face of the breech was so smooth and pristine it looks like it had been shot very little. The mystery of the refusal of the gun to cock was cleared up when the firing pin was found to be missing.

In one case, we had to saw the pin clamping the barrel band around the stock in half in order to remove the band as the head of the screw was gone. Inspection of the wood after it was removed from the gun and all the hardware was stripped off showed a solid buttstock and forend that required a lot of restoration work.

In fact, we discussed simply making a replacement forend but decided to use some armorer’s techniques to show you how it might have been repaired "back in the day." The first order of business was to start cleaning the stock. With an old military stock that is oil soaked and dirty, there are several methods that can be used to salvage it. The first step is to attack it with hot water, soap, and a reasonably stiff brush.

It is a simple solution the won’t get to "like new" condition but will remove oil and dirt from the surface and make the next steps faster. Once scrubbed and dry, the wood can be evaluated and a decision made on how to best proceed. My

If you look closely you can see the 45 degree line where the replacement wood has been spliced and glued to the forend. You can also see the wood added to the top of the forend just below where it meets the barrel. The bottom tang is rusted in place, the screws are rusted in place, and the wood has rotted away. friend is always afraid of damaging the wood with harsh chemicals and is blessed with the patience of a rock. He heats the stock over a hot air gun and wipes off the oil that bubbles up out of the wood.

Frankly, I don’t have the patience for that method because it’s possible to draw oil out Glued on, the cleaned-up bottom metal is inletted. The next step will be to contour the new wood to match the line of the forend. This was replaced with new walnut. the stock and lays it out in the sun. Then every 15 minutes or so he goes out with a rag dampened with acetone or mineral spirits and wipes the oil off.

Given that I have the patience of a four-year-old that wants it now, I usually lay a stock out in the sun to get it hot, then spray it with oven cleaner, wash it off, and let it heat up again before repeating the process. Unfortunately, both of these methods are time consuming, laof the wood for weeks. On hot days, he puts aluminum foil under bor intensive, and only remove the oil from the surface of the wood.

Oil that has soaked into the stock deeper is going to migrate back to the surface and the gun will end up just slightly less oil soaked than before. I normally use three steps to remove the oil and dirt. First is washing in hot soapy water, followed by the heat and oven cleaner. The stock is washed and scrubbed again to remove the oven cleaner and then followed up by soaking in turpentine. In an old bluing tank, pour in two gallons of turpentine and weight the stock down to keep it covered.

Let it soak for a week or two and then hang it outside or in the garage for another week or two until you can stand the smell before bringing it into the shop. I’m told the same thing can be done with odorless mineral spirits and that removes the need for a two-week hang to quit stinking, but I haven’t tried that yet. While all that time passes, the metal work can be done. I’ll cover that in Part Two.

After pulling as much of the oil out of the stock as it was ever going to give up, we found much of the forend wood was rotted or broken away. It was so bad I suggested we save the buttstock and simply make anew forend but my friend would have none of it. This was a res- (Continued on page 23)

toration project and he was bound and determined to restore, not replace. The end of the forend where it met the barrel was unsalvageable as were the steps in the stock where the barrel bands had trapped moisture under them and rotted the wood away. In each case the rotted wood was cut away, anew piece spliced in and glued in place, and then inletted for the hardware. Most of the top edges of the forearm where it meets the barrel was simply broken away and hid the worst of the barrel pitting.

My friend whittled out new pieces and made them a bit higher than the original. As I mentioned, he is an excellent craftsman and he can make wood splices that are nearly undetectable. When I try my hand at it the results are pretty awful. With all the wood pieces in place and the glue allowed to set up, everything has been sanded down and inletted. The repairs leave a piebald stock. To make the new wood match the old in color is something of an art in itself.

The trick is to buy a dark walnut stain and apply it to the new wood until you get the color as close as you can to the old wood. I want to emphasize the stain should not be a normal walnut stain but specifically labeled as dark. The goal is to match the old wood that has been oil soaked to new, unfinished wood. You can always sand the darker color back to achieve a lighter tone but it is hard to darken a stain that is too light.

Once you have come as close as you can to the color of the original wood, put a final coat of stain over everything and wipe it down with a soft cloth. It’s up to your judgement on whether to apply some linseed oil or tung oil. When finished you should have an interesting Martini-Henry that looks like it held off the Zulus at Rorke’s Drift. AG