Anvil 095: Remington 81 Reset 

We obtained ammo, ran this here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uu_hTovcklE.html Bruno had a blast

"The best way to not screw something up is to just not screw it up." -Mark Novak, Philosopher, poet, Rhodes scholar?

I love seeing people who take pride in their craft and truly know what they are doing.

Maybe this video will help explain to people why quality work is so expensive. A friend of mine said... " i only charge 25 an hour to do the work, the other 100 is knowing what and how to do it. " 👍💪

Somebody suggested I watch 'Repair Shop' on Netflix. I gotta say, after watching Anvil, This Old Tony, and others, I'm amazed how little repair work they show in syndicated TV shows about repair work. These guys on RU-vid easily have them blown out of the water in this field. Keep up the work.

I wish that the internet, youtube and your videos had been around 50 years ago when I started collecting ! Thanks for giving people the opportunity to learn how to look after their guns !

Mark that 81 is an early model, you can tell by the forearm, it is fatter than the late one and the late is flat on the sides, the early cuts in at the back. that is a good gun he has there. tell Bruno when he loads the magazine to tip the round up and insert the rim in first and then push it in, it is a lot easer than he did in the last video where he was struggling with loading it.

Thank you for this Have a 104 year old Winchester I'm restoring, and a 112 year old Stevens This is exactly what I needed to see the wood work from the ground up.

I live in a very cold snowy place 8 months out of a year. The undersides of trucks take a serious beating from all the salt. One of my dad's old timer buddies takes wax toilet rings and melts them down in used motor oil and sprays the underside of his trucks once a year with the hot mixture. It looks heinous but it works great. He gets many years out of his plow trucks. Not sure what the point of my story is besides hearing the words "toilet rings" and thinking old timers are pretty ingenious.

The first firearm I ever owned was a Model 8 in .35. Someday I'll have another.

Thanks a lot. I learned a lot. Using water to raise the grain, then a heat gun to evaporate the water and allow the grain to relax to its’ original state was really a great eye opener for me. I build fancy small boxes, cigar cases and mantel clocks. This information has helped me a lot.

Without fail, I always wince watching you work. Like watching a master artist, I worry you're going too far, pushing things a little much. There isn't an episode I don't suck through my teeth, not because I don't trust that you know what you're doing, but because I don't trust what I can see infront of me. There hasn't been a single episode in years of watching you work, that you don't prove that little wince and that little gasp completely wrong. There isn't a video of yours that I've seen, that you don't just restore what you're working on, you make sure it won't need restoring again for a long long time. I said "like a master artist" but there is no other accurate description of you. Another masterful piece of work, sir.

"Glock" is an excellent word to describe ugly, sticky residue. Thanks for another amazing video, Mark!

Holy shit I just realised your advise on having flex and a burr on your scraper is exactly the advise my mother gave me for using my thumbnail under a cloth for cleaning. You can feel what you're doing, identify where needs attention, and know how much pressure to apply so as not to damage the surface. That is a weirdly transferable skill.

Woah, and hour long Anvil. Six pack of soda , check. Fresh tin of Copenhagen, check. Popcorn, check. Cell phone off, check. I can smell the Kroil, down the rabbit hole we go!!!

Watching your videos while smoking a pipe of good Tobacco is a real pleasure. No fancy work shop, no circus, just pure transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settings. You Sir are a Master in your own right!

Ah, memories of changing fork seals on my 1st bike. Whilst trying to compress a 1" diameter 2' long monster spring, my buddy slipped.. He was almost beheaded as it fired off to ricochet into the roof beams. And then we had to find the jesus clip....

I'm a logger and I've got 100s of those chainsaw round files from over the years. Glad to see I'm not alone using them in stock work.

Nice work! You did an excellent job filming on your own. The scraping sounds were very enjoyable as well and then end results are fantastic. Outstanding!

A friend’s neighbor passed and his wife was selling his guns. After my friend had his pick he invited me to look at what was left. One was a Remington model 8 in .35. I’d never seen one before and I wasn’t familiar with the caliber. I bought it and a few other things including several boxes of ammo. We took it to the local range and I sat at the bench. BOOM. That is a powerful round and as the barrel recoiled in the action it gave me a wallop. The rest of the shots were taken standing and rolling with the recoil. I love this rifle and did lots of research to learn about it! Classic early 20th Century engineering by John Browning. A keeper for sure! Thanks for the excellent video.

Thanks to you and Bruno for all the work teaching the right way of doing it. I wish I could spend weeks in your shop just watching you perform your magic on firearms.

I’ve been using bowl wax since before I knew others were using it. I used to warm all of my wood handled tools before applying the wax. I don’t gunsmith, never have but I will say these tips are relevant for trades. Even wood cooking utensils will benefit from a little heat and a light food grade oil or waxing

I love how for Mark, "Glock" is a word that means "nasty resinous goo." whereas for the rest of the world it means very adequate pistol for people with rectangular hands.

The jeweler's bench blocks are very handy. I actually got mine off of Amazon. So they are still available.

Looks factory new! Beautiful. Hell, these days, .30 Remington is no harder to find than 9mm.

Gotta hand it to the man. He can sharpen a scraper properly. As a cabinetmaker, I take my hat off to you.

IT IS AN HONOR TO WATCH YOU WORK SIR...A TRUE CRAFTSMAN...BRUNO YOU ARE A LUCKY MAN TO GET TO WORK UNDER AND WATCH AND FILM MARK.....THANK YOU BOTH FOR THE EDUCATION THAT THIS OLD MAN IS ABLE TO GLEAN FROM WATCHING AND FOR THE PLEASURE OF GETTING TO WATCH A MASTER AT WORK.....

I remember a rifle that looked nearly identical but it was a Winchester model 94. It had hung in a two armed spot over a fireplace mantel for years. The wood was damaged from high heat but protected where the arms shielded it. The metal was nearly rust free from the dry location but had a lot of burnt/dried conventional oil on it. Some dried to resemble cosmoline! Nice wood work and video. Take Care and be safe, John I bet that Muthafrancis was hung over a mantel!!!

I said this on your recoil spring PSA vid but I'll put it here too: I prefer to remove the barrel nut before the barrel jacket nut, to try and reduce as much spring pressure and wear on the teeth of the barrel nut and its accompanying washer. The washer on mine has been worn nearly smooth at this point, and replacements are basically non-existent.

My compliments Mark. Absolutely beautiful!

Nearly spat out my whisky when you started telling the tale of my toilet ring 😆😆😆

With no desire to be redundant, since barrel shroud disassembly is sufficiently covered in a number of other videos on You Tube; I'd like to mention a couple of things regarding this. If you have an 8/81 and wish to disassemble the barrel and shroud, the method shown on the video is REALLY doing it the hard way. A simpler and MUCH faster way to accomplish this is 1: remove the barrel nut and set it aside. 2. withdraw the barrel from the back of the shroud and set it aside. 3. Unscrew the barrel jacket bushing about 3 or 4 turns. You can use a tool specially made for this or a piece of metal stock as the videographer does. If you do it that way, be careful not to bugger up the slots. There's a good chance this part hasn't been removed in close to a hundred years so the right tool is better, and some mild (very mild) warming may be necessary as well to get it started. 4. Insert a barrel spring compression tool into the hole. This tool is really just two dowels, one inside the other. The large one fits just inside the shroud and the smaller and longer one keeps the spring from kinking. A screwdriver of proper size can be substituted if absolutely necessary, but I prefer to tool, which is about 12" long. Finish unscrewing the jacket bushing while holding the recoil spring back with the tool. Done this way, you'll have full control of all the parts without having to worry about their getting away from you. Once the jacket bushing is free, simply withdraw the compression tool on which you'll have the barrel nut washer and recoil spring. Lay them aside and dump out the recoil spring case and the buffer spring and you're done. Simply reassemble in reverse order, making very sure you get all the parts in line: buffer spring goes in first, recoil spring case and recoil spring next, then the jacket bushing with the washer underneath it. When the barrel is re-inserted, be careful to make sure the key on the washer gets in the keyway on the barrel. Replace the barrel nut and you're done. This can be accomplished is much less time than it takes to tell and is much easier than what's shown here.

Watching years and tears be coaxed away from a fine rifle is mesmerizing. Thanks for sharing your skills, Mark.

You can see this is extremely professional and proper work because there is no visible struggle with the process, which is very methodical and form A to Z with a flair of nonchalance that I like.

I like the way you keep it simple. Very important to not over think some things. My uncle had a rem 8 and it looked as though someone used it for a spring loaded shower curtain rod. The Crown was all dinged. But as you said Remington used to know how to blue a gun. I still remember the rich color to that was still evident. Nice work Mark

In terms of how careful you need to be with a heat gun- a friend of mine would use his to start charcoal.

“It’s not really a coat, it’s an application”. Instantly reminded me of my dad who’s an interior renovator. He says that all the time to customers 😂

It has been a distinct pleasure watching you go down these rabbit holes, I’ve learned a lot watching you work sir! If I had your address I send a measure of my appreciation!

It is guns like this that I love. Wood and metal and old fashioned craftsmanship.

It looks almost new. I love when you see a square body truck or something like that, that almost looks like it just rolled out of the factory. I really appreciate the time and effort you guys put in to disseminate information like this. I like to go by the local bookstore to pick up books on physics and things like that, but I have a hard time finding manuals on guns or smithing, and the man who runs the place feels like gunsmithing is a dying skill.

As my dad always said - it is better to screw up than to f**k up - because you can always unscrew something. Thanks for the fun Mark.

"Grab a tool and start screwing up!" The next sound cue after that should have been "Dare to be Stupid!"

Mark. This is GREAT stuff. I'm currently doing the same thing to a 1832 springfield musket thats been neglected for years. I like the jig you have set up..

My first hunter safety course was from Jack First. Probably 1965? I played baseball with his daughter. Great family and memories. Thanks for the show and memories.

31:30 when he whips out the 40k melta gun you know he means business

excellent as always.....love your grammar lol. noticed the little slip up when you put the hot air gun on the paper towel and quickly removed it.....you are just like us and one of the guys and that what makes you likeable. you even making us brits talk with american lingo too

One of the most satisfying videos I have seen in awhile. Love the scraping technique!!

I rebuilt a Remington Model 42P .22 Cal with all old stock internals and a stock and forend refinish just like you have done. I stumbled across this way to scrape and refinish the stock 20 years ago when I rebuilt a charred and burned Enfield .303 bolt action. I was always looking for fire and rust damaged rifles to rebuild and use. Same for handguns and shotguns. Some furniture was totally lost due to rot and char, but I could get this from several gun parts places online or at a gun show. I only go to the Montgomery AL gunshows and several pawn shops now as I am 66, and no longer drive tr/tr over the road anymore but take great pride in finding old stuff that most think are totally lost to time and neglect. This way I keep busy in my "golden years" (what a crock today!). I have a whole shop dedicated to refinishing stocks alone. I get what beauty is left out of the old wood that isn't burned too bad, or eaten by various critters. I did a collectable Purdey in 28 gauge recently, and it shone like new after I was done. The original bluing was about 85% so I just helped it along a bit. Leave the wear on bluing alone to show the marks of time and not reduce the value of a collectors item.

Im glad marks little mistake was kept in. sometimes seeing what not to do is just as important as being told not to do it

Your process can be applied to so many other fields. As a GM dealership tech thats had a few students himself, thank you for verifying the way I try to teach. Seriously, thank you.

The Bob Ross of gunsmithing.

Lovely gun bruno

Omg lighting the cigar with the blowtorch brought back so many memories. A family friend used to light cigarettes with a blowtorch to be funny. Cracked me up!

Mark thank you for the video. I just started using a scraper on a stock this morning and it is much better than my old way of using chemical stripper, steel wool and sand paper. Thank you as always.

You were very fortunate to start off with a silk purse (in dirty disguise). So, amazing cosmetic improvements are possible with a little knowledge and not so little elbow grease. Damn nice result!!

Great episode! I love the Model 81, it's a very interesting weapon

I don't think there's a single gun of this model in my entire country, yet I couldn't stop watching...there's always something new to learn from you, that can be used when working on a different gun. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

I had a model 81 for about 5 or 6 years in the early '80s, a sweet rifle. I reloaded the .30 Remington with a Lee Loader. It was a bit more worn, now where near as pretty. I wish I had thought of using a scraper when I restored a 1968 Pocock Eight [rowing shell, 63 feet of cedar & spruce]. Very different finish though, light cotton guase covered with varnish. Thank you for glorious demonstrations.

A pure pleasure to watch someone who is at the pinnacle of the gunmaker/gunsmiths craft. Thanks Mark!

I have a 81. It's a beautiful rifle. It was favored by Washington Elk hunters for a long time. Mine had a 4 power weaver on it. I put a more modern scope on it , but had to rotate the scope 180 degrees so the knobs would clear the ejection port. When I bought it I cleaned the internals . It did have a ancient recoil pad on it. The pad was petrified and made shooting the weapon painful. So I replaced it. I don't know what everyone else thinks but to me the 81 is a Browning masterpiece. No one will ever make anything like it again.

Mark, I look forward to your video,s and even at 60+ still learning. I thank you.

I like the use of multiple scrapers. Many ears ago I made a set of 12 with various curves and corners for finishing carved furniture all from an old 4" band saw blade.

Thank you Mark for sharing your time and experience with us. I know you could get much more accomplished in the same amount of time if you weren't making a video for us. I don't care what you're working on, I watch from beginning to end just because I like to learn something new.

I love watching a master at work. Not enough true gunsmiths left.

THANK YOU for doing this video. Beautiful work!! I learned so much.

I always appreciate these videos. I watch them multiple times and never lose my fascination with it. Additionally, the way you do certain stuff has given me new ideas on how to do things in my luthier work.

The more I watch you, the more impressed I become you have the patience of job

Maaaaan, that’s a nice finish. Clean gun.

Always awesome! Thankyou!! I inherited a worn out, f'd up 5 screw triple lock... has been disfunctional since the 70's (as far back as I can remember).. you have given me (through many resto vids) the courage to tear it down and start investigating a re-do!!!

Whenever I find a need to run a hard steel rod thru a bore, I protect the bore by wrapping electricians tape over the rod thus helping prevent metan on metal contact. I own a Remington model 8 in .30 Remington.It is a sweet shooting,soft recoiling and accurate rifle. A real pleasure to shoot.

"i only light my cigars with tinders of first growth ceder, nurtured slowly in the forests of the cuban highlands. it makes my Black-n-Mild so much better..."

Thank you again for letting us in the shop! Its always interesting and informative.

Thank you. Your expertise and passion is obvious. Once again, you’ve converted a rather blemished beauty into a gorgeous rifle. It is a great pleasure to watch you work.

Bruno's grandson is going to LOVE inheriting that rifle!

Thank you Bruno. Behind the scenes makes the star look good.

Amazing work. You turned that thing into a real beauty!

I love what you do man you are amazing 👏

I'm watching this and cleaning up ancient stainless steel tubs in the winery I work at. Your scraping sounds just like my scrubbing.

I am torn tween watching this episode and the Pakistani truck repair channel...LOL

Respect Maestro, you brought back a true work of the Master J. BROWNING.

Is your metal just scrap or is it a wood scraper. I saw a previous "video" of yours where you flattened the end and then slightly softened the radius and assume that is how it's done. Scraper and a little bit of heat to pull up the oils was something I really enjoyed and much better than using solvents or gels. You really are the expert in your field. So many various skills to all have to possess. You deserve all you success and accolades.

I just started watching your vids and I gotta say they are great. Thanks for the info and entertainment. I love weapons! New or old, I just love to watch them be shot and shoot them myself. Getting to watch you restore them is just amazing.

Mark you are a true master at work

Mark way back in the 1876;s I found A M 81 in ..300 Savage in a FT Worth Texas pawn shop And the shop priced it at 75 Dollars and I paid their The only thing wrong with it was A rust pit in the muzzle.. I was stationed at what is now Joint services base Carswell. one of our range instructors was a good gunsmith I had him fix the pit the thing was still accurate enough for my brother to deer hunt.

Another great video, and one of my fav early semiauto rifles too. The history on them is amazing with the large magazine conversions for police use back in the first half of the 20th century

I enjoy every single video you post. Regards from Colombia.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall every time you actually discover hidden cosmoline in a gun. I know how messed up the stuff really is, but your reaction to it is pure gold to me. I know, I’m an ass for wishing it on you, but I just enjoy good TV.

Got here by accident, can't look away. Thank you!

Sold me on the scraper! Saves money on sandpaper and chemicals and keeps the stock's lines crisp and sharp. The nice thing about the checkering rotisserie is that it limits the amount of pressure you can put on the wood. Love the finish. I think I will try that on my current Win 1895 SRC new stock project. Thanks!!!

You do great work. It's better than paying for useless sitcom television.

These recent episodes have been incredibly illuminating, as I both plan to acquire an 81 in the near future and have a 1917 sporter stock that needs refinishing when I shape the forend and mount a recoil pad (it's beyond repair and isn't helpful as a donor, I'm just looking to make something of the sporters that are already out there). Thank you botb for putting out this kind of content

I’ve got a Rem 7400 (I believe) 30-06 that has been sitting for a while. It belonged to my Grandfather and then my dad. I know it’s not a super valuable firearm but I want to clean it up and get it back to new. I may do some carving and checkering and with the surface rust I may have to send it off for reblueing if I chicken out doing it myself. Your videos are helping me build up the courage. Thanks.

I love your channel keep the videos coming.

Mark is a pleasure to watch. A true craftsman. Keep up the informative videos. They are priceless. I have 13 model 8's and 81's collected over the years and some I have refinished. All have been disassembled, cleaned, fired and put away, although I do hunt bear with a model 81 in either 35 Remington or 300 Savage, but they are both hard on the shoulder especially with the new 200 grain ammo.

Mark, you always make it look so easy, I know from my limited experience what a job like this takes and you are the master. You get a lot of honorable mentions from the Cinibar ranch.

I did a few of these years ago. The NRA disassembly guide was a big help. I would not even want to do it nowadays. Too complicated. Thanks for going down the rabbit 🐰 hole!

Brilliant Mark love the gunsmithing experience ,and great tips for finishing wood A class act

A beautiful Remington 81 till today I'd never knew there was such a rifle and seeing how this one came out in the finish surely prompts me to try and conserve the relics I have.

Card scrapers are fantastic. If you can find an old stainless steel sink, you have all the sizes and shapes of scrapers that you feel like taking the time to cut out of it. Go Narrow ones, wide ones, smooth radiused curves, etc. You can have flat faces, you can have concave or convex faces. They're also nice because you can heat them slightly and bend them, and the stainless steel generally retains the bend without too much trouble. Plus they don't react with water or tannins in wood. Scrapers are the first thing I reach for if I need to remove the lacquer from an old Gibson or Fender neck. They're not so great on urethane finishes, but for lacquer, they are awesome. If the scraper isn't doing it, grab a heat gun and make a few passes and then try the scraper again. I usually try the scraper first on lighter colored wood since roasting or burning the wood means a lot of sanding and reshaping later on. Just remember to wear some safety glasses when grinding anything and DEFINITELY wear a respirator or at least an N95 mask when cutting or grinding stainless steel. Grinding (welding too) on stainless can produce hexavalent chromium and you do NOT want to breathe that in.

Gold. Uncle Al had an enviable collection of 8’s and 81’s in all the grades. He called them “autochuckers.” I called them beautiful. And Jack First is the shiz.