Now, the really interesting question is: what do I do with the old girl now?
I initially found myself a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to do, to be quite honest. After a while, I realised that the most I can do for now is to prevent things getting any worse, before another fascinating piece of workmanship (or rather, several of them!) falls to bits. To that end I began by starting to gently, with oil and 0000 wire wool, remove the rust from the outer surfaces of the barrel. That, so far, has yielded good results. Close examination has also revealed what may be traces of silver decoration, which I hope to be able to photo soon, towards the muzzle.
My impression is that this barrel is Persian; any comment on that?
The lock has proven challenging. The rust is very, very thick, and bonded very hard to the sound steel. In a few cases, I've soaked the parts in Renaissance Metal De-Corroder, which has thinned the corrosion down to a point where its mechanical removal becomes much easier; however, in view of RMDC's propensity to leave behind a very dull, matte finish, I'm reluctant to use it for anything external, or any internal parts that don't need it.
An interesting feature is the mainspring. This is fairly strong and has no cracks or other flaws; however, a small "bridge" of steel joins together the two arms. I've never seen this before, and was wondering if anyone else had. A quick test scratch with a file confirmed that, under the rust, this is definitely steel. It considerably diminishes the power of the mainspring; once the tip of the long arm has descended sufficiently to push the tumbler beyond half-cock, it seems to place no further downward force on the tumbler. Any ideas?
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