Good deal Vall. Can't wait to see it completely finishjed and ready to shoot. Dale.

That looks fantastic. Al is finishing my sons Ballard No. 8 this next week and I hope to drive out and get it to avoid anything like you experienced.

That is one heck of a heavy barrel Vall. Its gonna be an easy 10 hr drive each way for me

Had quite the battle with the 3F today! Seems C. Sharps didn't quite finish fitting the barrel as the sliding 2 piece extractors usually fall into their hole and this one had to be tapped into the hole in my new barrel! I had to remove the barrel back off the action and use a drill bit spun with my fingers to clean out burrs, then dress the hole with a jeweler's file and it finally slide in with just light resistance. Then I had to file the bevel at 6 0'clock below the barrel breech to clearance the breech block as it rises.
After that I assembled the barrel and action again, and when I tried to close the lever it locked up! I removed the extractor and tried again, but same issue. I figured the tang was not screwed back in the right number of turns, so backed it off one turn, but same thing again. Tried two turns, and all sorts of variations and still the lever wouldn't close and action locked up. I slid the buttstock on and it wouldn't seat against the receiver, so I turned it in until it did and it almost wanted to close. Used a screwdriver through the tang hole to give the block an assist and it closed!
Took it back apart and cleaned inside the receiver, and put a little lithium grease on the back of the tang, and it closed, but only if I snapped the lever shut. I snapped it shut a dozen times and suddenly it began working when operated slowly? Still not sure what was going on as I've never run into this on any Ballard before?
Got the forearm shaped down, but couldn't take it down like a factory forearm because of the larger barrel. So I left more wood on the forearm to make it stronger as it would have been paper thin at the sides if I worked it down to the receiver width. It is receiver width where it meets, but I made it sort of rounded down to size so it's stronger.
Need to begin applying some N35 reddish tint, and then my Wipe On Poly wet sanded until it matches the buttstock.

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Got my NOS original Ballard Vernier tang sight with Merit aperture, and wind gauge spirit level front globe on it. Been saving these for the right project for awhile!

A very lovely rifle, Vall.  But while I understand why you shaped its sides  as you did, I think that leaving the forearm "hanging" below the bottom of the frame looks awkward.  Can that area be thinned down without compromising the forearm?

Bill Lawrence

Testament to why you like the Ballard so much. That is a fine looking rifle. Hope it shoots as good as it looks...




JMH

ssdave wrote on Mar 9^th, 2025 at 12:34am:


I've had C Sharps fit barrels on a few guns previously and they came out great, but haven't had them do any in probably 5 years. I found a local friend who was doing this work, but he passed away last May, so I had Al take care of it this time, and he uses C Sharps. Al told me he cringes anytime a gun needs barrel work as he always hopes it comes back perfect. He used Curt Hardcastle and said everything Curt did was always perfect, not matter what the machine work was.
It wasn't hard to fix the barrel issues, but I felt I shouldn't have to finish work you paid to be finished. I'm just puzzled how anyone thought that the extractor hole was right when the extractor wouldn't go in the hole without being driven in with a punch? Even a beginner knows an extractor should move freely.

Sure shot wrote on Mar 9^th, 2025 at 12:51pm:


Impossible to find these days, but it was Tapadera's Winchester Red N35. Used to be a couple fellas in Idaho making it and I bought it at local gun shows. It disappeared, as did they, and guessing maybe one or both passed away?
I found a new bottle at the CGCA show in Greeley and bought one. I wish I knew the formula as it's very concentrated and I'd like to thin it out sometimes to not be quite as dark red.
Edit-I found this old post at Paco Kelleys Leverguns site just now! Appears it's alcohol base, so now I can thin mine to lighten it up and go further also!

"There is a huge difference between tapaderas stain and the minwax stains. Tapaderas stain is spirit based (ie: alcohol based). Minwax stains are not. I have experimented with stains for 35+ years now, and had settled on Pilkingtons red stain to match Winchesters color. That is, until I discovered Tapaderas stain. I cannot tell the difference between Pilkingtons red at 30$/bottle versus Tapaderas N35 red at 10$/bottle. They look, apply, and smell the same. Both are spirit stains. They say you can apply them over finish and they will penetrate. It seems like they do, but they do leave different luster when you do that requiring another finish coat. The spirit stains dry very fast, even here in humid Ohio. Tapaderas also sells a N35B which is a brown stain that can be mixed with the N35 red to get any shade of red-brown you desire. For the finish coat I use minwax polyurethane satin, and lately have experimented with Arm-R-Seal, but the minwax is a spray and I get a better finish versus any wipe on. For redoing old trapdoors I use hand rubbed coats of tung oil, but for the winchesters I prefer polyurethane. BTW, I once tried making my own finishes based on looking thru old time gunsmithing books. One recipe was 50% varnish and 50% boiled linseed. I tried it. Looked, smelled, applied, and dried exactly like tru-oil. Just my 2 cents. I would get the tapaderas and try it out on a sample of walnut."

MrTipUp wrote on Mar 8^th, 2025 at 8:42pm:


After sleeping on it I decided you were right Bill; it was too bulky and bulbous. Got at it again today and didn't just take off a lot of wood, but also shortened it so it matched proportionally to what Marlin did on forearms. Usually around 1/3rd of barrel length to forearm length, based on a 30" barrel. So I cut off 1.5" on the forearm rear, then planed it down close, and began sanding it smooth. Still need to put a slight roll to the two side where they meet the receiver, and have to decide how to do that without making the sides weaker.

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MrTipUp wrote on Mar 9^th, 2025 at 5:35pm:


Thanks Bill, and thanks for getting me on the right path too.
The #3F had plain buttstocks with no checkering standard. Someone ordered checkering and a cheekpiece on this one. But didn't order checkering on the forearm. Seems the few I've seen checkered also didn't have checkered forearms.

I rarely think restoration is a good idea personally as I appreciate some wear and history. But I've been looking at this gun for 30 years and thinking I wanted to get it shooting. I contemplated a reline, but didn't like the tiny 24" lightweight octagon barrels. I own a modern Cody Ballard Schoyen model and love the 30" full round extra heavy barrel it has. I decided to go a little shorter with this 27" barrel simply because Green Mountain didn't make a 30" .22RF barrel. 
I've set the original barrel and forearm aside just in case some future owner wants to put it back to original sometime.

Really lookin' good Vall.

Nice. Nothing better than a 3F.

bpjack wrote on Mar 12^th, 2025 at 8:36pm:


Thanks guys!

Yeah, got it from a friend! And it works good too! I need to get the broken one built up with tig and shape it back down for a spare.
Al sent me a set trigger hammer for a Ballard also! All color cased, and ready for a fly. Said he can't recall where it came from, but said it's better with me than his place.

Sure shot wrote on Mar 9^th, 2025 at 12:51pm:


Marlinguy would certainly know if there was any around but there is an answer.

Years ago I worked for wood boat builder in Florida and one of the crew’s father worked Palm Beach to Miami as the ‘ Furniture Doctor ‘ who learned the trade  at a famous school in Amsterdam, NY. Famous French Polisher. I learned a bit from him and patched cigarette burns in tables and fine pianos but I’m too old and crippled up to do your forearm. It is however a straight forward oil dye stain blending process with some shellac shading techniques then varnishing or suitable top coat. Find yourself a decent furniture refinisher who does color matching and he should be able to take care of this. Understand you’ll need to supply the butt stock to achieve a good match. And explain what you need as a topcoat, ie, varnish, lacquer, rubbed oil or do that yourself.

BTW years ago there was a skilled touch up color man named Luigi Cabazoni in Plantation Florida. He was younger than me so he still may be there. Sorry no contact info. 

Good Luck
Rick

Sure shot wrote on Mar 21^st, 2025 at 4:35pm:


Did you see my earlier reply Steve? 
Not sure I'll ever see anymore N35, but if I did it might be at the CGCA show in Greeley again this May. If I see someone selling it again I'll grab another bottle if you want one?
I did find out it's an alcohol based stain, and I was able to think a little bit of N35 to reduce it and avoid the new forearm from being too red when I stained it.

Sure shot wrote on Mar 21^st, 2025 at 5:20pm:


If you don't mind refinishing the stock, a scrubbing with a rag and acetone will remove finish, and pull out the dark stain too. Then you can refinish it to get the color you prefer. In stubborn cases I mix whiting powder into acetone and brush it onto stocks to draw out oils or stains. It doesn't evaporate as quickly and once it dries simply brush it off with a dry towel, and rinse with warm water. Then refinish the wood.

Thanks gentlemen. I'd prefer not to completely remove the finish on the stock. Even if I did completely remove the finish to bare wood,I have a feeling that 100 plus year old walnut isn't going to match new walnut without trying to stain to match. I'll probably try the mineral oil with turpentine to clean.

Well without being argumentative either, I've used acetone with whiting compound on many stocks and never had any ill affects. I don't use acetone to strip stocks, as I use Jasco chemical stripper. But once stripped I do use acetone to remove any traces of old finish, and then wash the stocks with hot soapy water and let them dry well before doing any restoration steps.
I've lost track of how many old oil soaked or oil stained stocks I've done with acetone/whiting compound to get the oil stains out. It always worked great for me.