I'm looking for advice on how to draw file and polish a flare sided low wall action. It's is not in bad shape, but a little work could make it as good as original. My problem is that I've tried polishing non-flat surfaces before and have not been totally happy about it. A photo of the action is below.

you can see it is a broad flat side - great. Except for the flares at front and rear where the metal flares off the sides. How is this action polished so that there is no obvious transition in the quality of the finish between this flared portion and the flat body?

Is it possible to do this with files and wet-dry papers? I would like to avoid buying stones and have lots of paper on hand.

I had a similar action case colored at Ballard Rifles - they did the polishing. And for my money they needed to take it at least one grit further. I'm not sure how to get the almost-glossy CC that I associate with original rifles. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Thanks, Brent

PS. when flat draw filing, how often do you clean your files (assuming new and in excellent condition)? I find that when draw filing barrel flats, I get clogged teeth and resulting scratches even if I carefully clean the file with a wire brush between every single stroke. This is tedious. What am I doing wrong?

Brent:

There are a number of ways to polish the flares on the various flat actions.

I use a knife makers belt grider with a 3M A16 belt with about a 1/4 inch of the belt hanging off of the side of the wheel.

You can achieve the same effect by hand polishing with wet or dry silicon carbide paper backed with an appropriately sized dowel.

I never use files because of the ease of scratching with them. I have had excellent luck using silicon carbide paper wrapped around files, rods, and steel bars. Take it very slow and careful not to round edges over. I lust shipped a highwall to Turnbull's for CC. I took mine to 600 grit SC paper then used 600 again with oil for the final polish. It turned out very nice. I just cant wait to get it back to see Turnbulls work. Ballard does very nice work also. They did a 94 in 38/55 for me a couple years ago.

Brent... you can take a wood dowel and some Si cloth strips and zip through that spot no problem. I use 1.5 or 2 in. strips. Hold the dowel with your thumb with the strip under it and pull it strait up. Watch your exit angle though as you may errode the top of the wall down a bit. You can also use some HARD flexable sprinkler tubeing.... it will be in a coil form, black, .5" dia is good, you can always buy bigger and pinch shut the radi" you want.

Brent,

To keep from undercutting your flat adjacent to the concave portion, try filing one long edge of a piece of 3/4"x1/4"x3"stock(hardwood ,aluminum, etc,)to match the curve. Then use the stripping technique described by smallfry, so that you are working an area 3/4" wide adjacent to the curve. If you take each curve down as far as neccesary to clear any blemishes first, it should then be fairly easy to polish the large flat to meet each end evenly, then procede to the next grit.

On drawfiling,I have not had the problem you describe. I use a single cut 12" mill bastard and lube it with my kids sidewalk chalk. Perhaps you have chosen too fine a file?

One more thought, don't wait to try stones for polishing. I got mine just a month ago and haven't wrapped a file in wet or dry finer than 400 grit since.

Doug

Regarding scratches when draw filing: clean the file and the surface you are cleaning with acetone to remove all oil, including finger/skin oil. I tried this once at someone's suggestion, and damn if it didn't, to my surprise, make a difference. I think contaminants on the metal surface hold metal shavings, resulting in gouges.

Todd

Brent, yes use chalk as LocalHand suggests. I bought a whole bucket of Railroad chalk about 5 years ago. Everything has to be degreased and dry, files and gun. Buy some EDM stones also. I but the 1x.5x6" in 180,240,320,400, and 600. but have many other stones I use also. I use ATF as a lubricant when stoning. When drawfiling... loaded it up with chalk and rap it hard on the bench every 1-3 or 5-10 draw strokes depending on the metal. Buy as large as a file as you can, and then diamond saw a section to whatever length you want to use. The "Long angled" lathe files are great for draw filing.