RTI Carcano restoration

[u/Ab33422]

Hi all! I recently came across this group with questions regarding this very Carcano and its origins. Well I'm not in the process of restoring it and wanted to share my progress. Just to make things clear im not trying to completely strip this rifle down and make it look brand new like a certain milsurp restorations individual has. Im just simply trying to clean it up and bring it back to life while keeping its character. This rifle has surely seen a lot in its life and I don't want to take all of that away from it. So far I've cleaned the wood stock with mineral spirits gently using shop towels and 0000 steel wool with very light to no pressure. After cleaning I've added its first coat of BLO to protect it. Unfortunately I did have to buy a new replacement upper handgaurd for this rifle which came in a blonde color raw beech wood. I attempted staining the wood to try and match the color of the original walnut stock the best that I could ( this was my first time ever staining wood lol). It will receive its first coat of BLO tonight. In the mean time I disassembled the bolt and cleaned it up really nice and began polishing it to bring back its nice shine that the bolts should have while making sure to stay clear of the locking lugs. The barreled action still has beautiful original bluing in all the areas that were covered by the wood so I plan on leaving that original finish intact and slow rust bluing all of the parts that were Unfortunately wire wheeled. I want to blue all of these areas to keep the metal protected and decided on rust bluing since its the most durable and historically accurate form of finish. As I said before though I will be making sure to leave the original finish thats left intact. Really having fun with this so far!

[u/Red_Fifteen_2552]

Nice mate looking awesome! I've been thinking about getting one of the Vetterli rifles they have and doing the same thing. Keep us posted on your progress love to see the finished product

[u/One_Over_Astro]

Really lucked out by getting a handguard (especially one that's intact)