I own a 16 ga Lefever Nitro Special that is my favorite shotgun for shooting sporting clays, but it costs me about 50% more for 16 gauge ammo than 12 or 20 ga and the choices of type are also more limited. So I bid on an auction for a 1929 20 ga version of the same gun. Before it even arrived, my son claimed it 🙂 Anyway, it was in pretty good shape but it needed a little work. The stock had some dents in it as well as some portions of the finish failing. At some point someone had cut this stock down as its length of pull was only 13″ The butt pad was deteriorating and I could tell from the finish damage on the stock that it had spent some time with a slip-on butt pad. I tested the finish with a bit of alcohol and sure enough that softened it. This means the finish was shellac. I was able to just keep applying alcohol and wiping it down to remove most of the finish.
You can see where the years had not been kind to the shellac finish.
The receiver is in pretty good shape, other than some crud and a line of finish that had escaped from the wood and made it onto the metal. Thankfully the case colors were in pretty good shape.
Ithaca Lefever Nitro Special – stock refinish
Notice the few shiny spots after removing all the shellac with alcohol. I think this was either some plastic finish applied over the shellac or maybe some of the original Duco finish (an old type of nitrocellulose lacquer) under the shellac.
We used steam from an iron to raise many of the dents in the walnut stock.
Steaming the dents removed most of them, but let’s be serious, this gun is 95 yrs sold, it deserves to keep some of its scars.
Dark and shiny spots from some finish other than shellac. I had to cut into the butt pad in order to get to the screws because the end was covered in leather.
The shellac came off with alcohol, the lacquer or poly did not. So I used a scraper held almost completely flat, as shown, to carefully remove the finish that could not be wiped away. When I got to the checkering, I used a plastic hotel room key to avoid damaging it.
When sanding I used a wooden block to keep from rounding over edges. It is amazing to me how light this black walnut is. Seemed more like butternut.
I removed a bit of wood at the front of the comb. It lets the hand fit in there just a little cleaner.
To give the stock a bit of color, I used a mixture of black walnut and mahogany trans tint due. It looks a little purple after it dries, but takes on a better color once the Tung oil hits it.
With the original length of pull so short, I used a bit of the original butt pad as a temporary spacer while ordering a new spacer pad. The color of the stock was pretty light. The grain was definitely Walnut, but the color seemed more like Butternut (white walnut). So I returned it to what was likely its original shade with a 60/40 mixture of TransTint Dark Walnut dye and TransTint Red Mahogany dye. I put the dye in isopropyl alcohol so it dries quickly without raising the grain.
I stayed away from sanding the flat top checkering which was still in good shape and is original to the Lefever Nitro Special.
I use rottenstone as a pore filler and Tung oil as the binder
First, I apply the pure Tung oil first as a binder for the pore filling.
Rottenstone also known as tripolli is brick dust and when mixed with bit of Tung oil makes a great pore filler.
I used fine rottenstone as a pore filler. It looks great on Black Walnut because when it mixes with pure Tung oil it turns black so the pores contrast nicely with the brown wood. I start by putting a little pure Tung oil on the wood, just to get it a bit wet. Not too much though. Then I take my scrap of cloth and dip it into the gray rottenstone. Then I rub it on the wood. The fine brick dust and the oil make a slurry that fill in the open pores. The rottenstone is also a very fine grit polishing compound so it also smooths the stock. Rub the entire stock this way, with the exception of the checkering. It is best not to use the rottenstone on the checkering. Resist the urge to keep adding more oil to the stock. Less is more. When the entire stock is rubbed down this way, give it a final wipe down with a cloth or paper towel and hang the stock to cure.
One coat of Tung oil on, ready for some sunshine.
The subsequent coats on this stock will all be pure Tung oil because I think it is the best finish for gun stocks. I put on a light coat, none of this soaking the stock non-sense. Then I follow it up with 5-6 hours of sunlight to cure the finish. Then the next coat goes on.
For the second coat I apply another slurry of rottenstone and pure Tung oil to fill the pores and add more finish.
The new spacer showed up, so it needed some fitting.
The new 1/2″ Keek-eez spacer arrived to match the Kick-eez rocker pad we put on, so I had to take a break from finishing and get it blended in. I removed some of the bulk with a block plane, but the that was not ideal. I really like the feel of the Kick-eez recoil pads. They do a great job of dampening recoil, but they also do a good job of staying where you mount the gun. No sliding around.
I discovered that using a file to shape the spacer plate and the recoil pad works great. It got me to the lines, then I just had to follow up with some sandpaper on a block to smooth things out.
For the third time I rubbed in the slurry of rottenstone and Tung oil. Still a pretty matt finish at this point, but super smooth.
For the 4th coat, I am using just Tung oil. I am only applying a finger dab or two and am stretching that out to cover the entire stock. Of course after each application, it goes out in the sun to cure.
At 5 coats of Tung oil, the luster starts to show up. It is starting to take on a nice sheen.
6 coats of Tung oil are looking good. One more to go.
At 7 coats it has a bit of a film finish and I am calling it done.
Ithaca Nitro Special metal cleanup
With the stock refinished, it was time to turn attention to some minor problems with the metal finish.
The striations on the rib of this gun had seen some injury. The striations were dented enough to see bright spots on the metal.
The striations on the rib cam real close to matching the spacing on a 10-32 bolt.
I found that a 10-32 bolt, nearly matched the striations on the rib. The first 3 or 4 lines, matched up. So I used a 10-32 bolt to help refine the shape of the striations. I want to return the striations to their original shape. By rubbing the bolt firmly back and forth, the striations took shape.
Some of the damage was deeper than the machine screw could handle, so I rubbed a pick up and town the damaged groove.
One striation was particularly stubborn, so I used a diamond coated mini-file to give the striation some definition.
With the shape of the striations returned, it was time to make the color match.
Now that the grooves were fixed, it was time to get the silver damaged spots, back to the deep blue of the barrels. I degreased the area with alcohol the applied the Brownells Oxpho-Blue A few applications got the silver colored damage back to a blued finish. I rubbed the area down with bronze wool and the colors seems to match very well.
I used a bit of Naptha and Bronze wool to rub down the receiver and get rid of the grime without damaging the case colors.
A nice view of the firing pins on a Lefever Nitro Special.
Ithaca Lefever Nitro Special 20ga looks as nicely as she shoots.
This Lefever Nitro Special in 20ga by the Ithaca Gun Co, shoots very nicely and is ready for many years of sporting clays and 5-stand. I enjoyed working on it and taking care, realizing that it will make my son happy when he shoots with it.
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