Hello Seanmp,
You probably already know this, but what you have appears to be a shotgun produced in Belgium in the period 1890-1920. It's the sort of shotgun bought in and sold by the thousands all over the North American Continent by Hardware and or General stores mainly in the 10-20 Dollar price range. It isn't a quality shotgun as I think you already know or suspect. Evidence of this is the soft materials used, see the 'boogered' hammer screws and the mushroomed heads on the firing pins. The engraving is, so to speak, far from being good quality. 

I think that a previous owner was just too lazy to give it a regular oiling on the stock and the metal parts and thought he would save himself further trouble by just varnishing it all over. The same person or another, thought so highly of it he couldn't be bothered to even move it whist decorating, hence the paint.

I'd take it apart and remove the varnish, peen the metal back into place on the hammer screws, reshape the slots and harden them, remove the mushrooming from the firing pins, correct the shape and harden them as well. Notice the hinge pin? it's rotated out of position, something else to correct there. 

Refinish the stock with oil or varnish, keeping it off the metal. If necessary re-blue the barrels but don't hot dip them whatever you do or you'll have a major problem soldering all the barrel parts together again. 

I'm not being critical, or running your shotgun down, it's just my honest opinion. However, you could ask here:-

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There are a number of shotgun restorers there. So don't just take my word for it, ask around.
Good luck with it.

Harry

It is possible it was varnished at the factory to make it shine in the showroom; would save on polishing. Varnish may be a lifesaver to make the paint easier to remove.
Chuck

Excellent excellent.

It's real value is what it will mean to me over my shoulder grouse hunting this fall. I've already have brass casings on their way.
I will have to brush up my technique and see if I can get some colour on those screws when I harden them. I've only had limited success with small parts.

Marlinguy
It's funny you mention that distinction between North American and Europeans. An acquintance of mine who was a gunsmith all his life and in his retirement only restores English fowlers. He has no compunction stripping, boiling rebluing anything. And his finished guns sell at the 10K mark.

He's the fellow that supplies me my express blue at the low price of $18 an oz

Bent_Ramrod wrote on Mar 7^th, 2015 at 5:54pm:

Yes it's truly a spirit varnish.  I'm working on the barrels right now and denatured Alcohol is washing the finish off with ease. I have disassembled some pieces and because the spirit varnish is a continuous coat it has caused flaking on the separation edge. The finish will have to be dissolved or re suspended with alcohol.
Now I'm using the term Spirit varnish as differentiated from pure shellac. Spirit varnishes can be very robust depending on what other resins were blended with the shellac to make the varnish. But this one is made up from the poorer resins I'm afraid.
That being said I'm going to wash it off entirely with alcohol and put on a London Oil finish. I did know that the London Finish is traditionally a mixture of linseed oil and a varnish "resin" I havent ever read exactly what resin I just assumed that each maker would have a personal concoction.
The one I use is "Tried and True Varnish oil" Its a pure cold pressed linseed with sandarac and venice turp resin. It's made in the historic way with no chemical or metallic driers. Its absolutely non toxic. The only reason I use that one in particular is I like their mantra and its available from Lee Valley. To that I add 50% by volume of powdered alkanet root by filling an 8oz brown lab bottle half full with alkanet and topping it with the Tried and True Oil. This just gets turned daily for several weeks then I decant the now "Red Root Oil" into a 4oz brown bottle. This is enough oil for many many stocks. As I said though it has no driers. So it's helpful to stimulate it with strong UV light

Quote:

Yup I went through the marks with a fine tooth comb and the manuscript of proof marks from the DoubleGun ppl

It's proofed for Black. Actually it has that weird proof mark that only existed for a couple years that means "at least" or " at a minimum"

In truth I have no intentions of ever shooting it with anything but black. I purchase new guns based on whether or not I can shoot them with black. That being, in my totally unesteemed opinion, the holiest of hole makers

I now only need to find a nice 20ga to round out the stable of 2 1/2" chambered fowlers.

sakoman wrote on Mar 15^th, 2015 at 12:06am:


That's a certainly a possibility Sakoman, but it could also be with the apparent lack of care taken by the previous owner(s) that the hinge pin has locked itself to the hinge by corrosion. Sean will soon find out if he doesn't already know.

Harry

Shotgun shooters are far more tolerant than American gun collectors when it comes to re-finish.  Look at my Parker 10 G hammer gun photos in our off topic section. Gun had good wood metal poorly refinished many years ago. Stock re-finished checkering recut it's likely to resell for more than its purchase price 

It's not likely to resell for more  than purchase price and cost of the re finish job.   Caution here is if the refurbishment is not well done it cuts salability to near zero. Condition of the barrels is a key. Thin to start they don't have much metal to work with polishing out or honing. Many are too thin from over polishing 

I bought my 10 to shoot and sounds like that's your plan for that nice hammer gun.  Personally I won't walk up to the line with something that looks like it came out of the attic. Clean it up and shoot.