Late production Lee Enfield finish

[Gaz]

I have an interesting No.4 (in .22!) that I want to refinish. It's a Fazackerley-built rifle which is in pretty good nick under the woodwork, but a previous owner decided to scrub off the original black Suncorite finish on the exposed areas, leaving it in a sorry state.

This leaves me with two problems:

a) Being a Faz rifle, all the original markings were electro-pencilled into the (finished?) receiver. They're barely visible now and any coat of paint would completely cover them up.
b) I don't have an electro-pencil (surprisingly), so redoing them myself is probably out of the question.

So, um, yeah. Short of using a commercial cold blue to refinish the receiver, any ideas?

[channel12]

I have an interesting No.4 (in .22!) that I want to refinish. It's a Fazackerley-built rifle which is in pretty good nick under the woodwork, but a previous owner decided to scrub off the original black Suncorite finish on the exposed areas, leaving it in a sorry state.

This leaves me with two problems:

a) Being a Faz rifle, all the original markings were electro-pencilled into the (finished?) receiver. They're barely visible now and any coat of paint would completely cover them up.
b) I don't have an electro-pencil (surprisingly), so redoing them myself is probably out of the question.

So, um, yeah. Short of using a commercial cold blue to refinish the receiver, any ideas?

It's a No.8 if it was built as a .22 not a No.4 ?

[Gaz]

Nope - it's a No.4 sleeved to .22. Mechanically it's identical to the C No.7, and has a No.7 mag and rearsight, although the barrel is the original (matching numbers) with a sleeve inserted rather than being a scratchbuilt .22 unit as the true C No.7 was.

[saddler]

It's a No.8 if it was built as a .22 not a No.4 ?

[The Gun Pimp]

I have an interesting No.4 (in .22!) that I want to refinish. It's a Fazackerley-built rifle which is in pretty good nick under the woodwork, but a previous owner decided to scrub off the original black Suncorite finish on the exposed areas, leaving it in a sorry state.

This leaves me with two problems:

a) Being a Faz rifle, all the original markings were electro-pencilled into the (finished?) receiver. They're barely visible now and any coat of paint would completely cover them up.
b) I don't have an electro-pencil (surprisingly), so redoing them myself is probably out of the question.

So, um, yeah. Short of using a commercial cold blue to refinish the receiver, any ideas?

Cerakote is only one thou. thick.

[Rearlugs]

Since the rifle is not going to be very original anyway, you could try deepening the electro-pencil by going over it with a diamond drill in a Dremmel or similar. You do need to use a vice, a very bright light, a magnifying glass - and a steady hand!

If you deepen the electro-pencil, you can then re-suncorite the rifle. Fresh suncorite should be thin enough allow all marking to show through, but if you buy a can of the thickened date-expired stuff thats on eBay, you might need to thin it a bit with methylated spirit.

If you spray the suncorite and then bake it on, the electropencil should be visible enough to go over it with a diamond drill so that the digits turn silver again.

Its a fiddly process, but you can get back to something that looks like a service finish.