Cleaning and Restoration of my Nepalese Gahendra and Francotte [PIC HEAVY]

[Mme. Ratchet]

So, I am still working on the smoking cap project! Don't you worry your pretty little heads. However, I also have a pair of Nepalese-made rifles, a Nepalese Martini-Francotte and a Nepalese Gahendra, both were purchased from IMA in "untouched" condition. They are filthy and need lots of fun work, and this will be fairly long to work on, but I thought you all might like to follow along!

Dearest admins, I wasn't sure where this would best fit, so if there is a special place that this should be at, please feel free to do your thing and move this there ^_^

[Mme. Ratchet]

So, here's the first bunch of pictures. Back in September when I bought the rifle from International Military Antiques, this is how it looked.






This is the super cool rear sight. On the opposite side, there are range markings (as well as on the leaf), written in sanskrit, which is pretty cool.




There is writing in here...


In here, too.


The only major wood damage on the entire thing. I'm not planning to repair this, because I believe it may be damage sustained during combat, as it would be easy to see a lot of different weapons causing it.




This is the other wood damage, and it has trapped the cleaning rod in place. It looks pretty nasty.

[Mme. Ratchet]

Partway through cleaning


The upper tang. Look, you can actually see the original sanskrit markings!


Started work on the stock, as well.


Partway through cleaning the receiver off. This is the left side.


The other side, partway through cleaning the receiver off.


The lower tang.


More of the wood.


After cleaning on the left side of the receiver.


Aaaaaaand the other side.

So, the above pictures here are the results of about two hours of scrubbing with 0000 steel wool and krud kutter.

[Keith_Beef]

Sanskrit might not be correct...

The writing system is Devenāgarī, which is used for writing several languages including Hindi and Nepali.

[Drew P]

What are you using to clean it? Molasses?

[Mme. Ratchet]

Krud kutter, 0000 steel wool, and elbow grease.

[Mme. Ratchet]

Sanskrit might not be correct...

The writing system is Devenāgarī, which is used for writing several languages including Hindi and Nepali.

The Nepalis have said sanskrit, but there are two distinct different types of writing on it

[Cora Courcelle]

Just had a thought - have you considered using the writing on the gun as the basis for the embroidery on the smoking cap?

[Mme. Ratchet]

Yeah, Id thought about it but decided against it. The information iscstuff that is specific to the gun. Seemed a might be odd.

[Mme. Ratchet]

So, figured I'd give an update on this project: I've been working on trying to get the Gahendra completely apart the last month or so, so very little cleaning has been going on, and I haven't even touched the Martini-Francotte yet.