Ruger 10-22 bolt jeweling

[Randall Va]

Would like to jewel the bolt on my 10-22,how do I do it?thanks Randall

[Gunbuilder]

Randall Va,
Have you checked Brownells? I know of two ways to Jewel, on is with a Cratex stick. The other is with a small wire brush and abrasive in oil. But I have not used either process yet, that is a good idea. I should find a piece of scrap and figure it out, with winter coming I don't have time yet. That is a good winter project to get started with, when I can't work outside.

Thanks,
Paul

[Randall Va]

Thanks for the help,Randall

[steamin10]

Valve lapping compound with a wood plug or plastic rod. The spun fishcale effect is quite rapid, but the compound must be renewed less it gets finer and the spin finish will vary accordingly.

[S.Turf]

This short vid will give you the basic idea. You can make your own fixture and experiment a little before you attempt it on your actual bolt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7xNhUyufEY

[already-old]

steamin10 is right on using wooden pegs.

The best bet is to decide the size you need and get hard wood dowels. Then make up a set of them say 3 or 4. Precharge them with compound you want to use on both ends. When one wears out turn it around, then go to the next one when it wears out. To have consistency you can only do several jewel marks before the change.

With a 22 auto the jewel pattern will not last long on the bolt. This is common on most high use bolts. Any sand or dust on the bolt puts wear on the pattern FAST!! Most bolts on ALL rifles are of a soft steel and not heat treated.

To stave off this wear on the bolt jeweling I have in the past have had the bolts after jeweling had them plated with industrial hard chrome. This chrome has a definite steely look to it not the shinny stuff you see on cars. But when you do this, a more coarse compound is used, than if it is non plated. When these bolts are done this way you will also find the performance of the bolt to be far superior than a plain steel polished bolt.

I learned this from a master gunsmith 20 years ago, that worked on all my gunsmith jobs. Iam not a gunsmith and only made production parts for guns in my machine shop for some different gun makers.

[JackF]

Big Dave and already-old,

How do you get a wooden rod to conform to the curvature of the bolt?

Jack.

[Steve S]

I would imagine the dowel rods may work on the 10-22 bolt because of the flat side of the bolt . Are both side to be jewelled ? The swirls also help to hold oil on the bolt . Are you going to polish the bolt before jeweling ?

I use the wire brush method , wrapping wire around the brush end to get nicer looking swirls . The bolt is held in a jig mounted to the milling table . I like to use valve lapping compound .

I've seen the Cratex rods but have not tried them for jeweling ....

Steve S

[steamin10]

Fishscale and swirl jeweling is normally done on flat or surface sheet that is curved afterward.

I saw a Rugar Pistol barrel done with cratex in a very abreviated scale due to the curve, and it looked good, like that of dragon skin. Very tedious I imagine.

I have cratex stones (?) that are rubber laced with abrasive, for dremel tools. They can be used verical, but require a hack saw cut across the face to work well. If they get hot they go away pretty quickly too. About 1/2 inch diameter.

[Gunparts]

you need to highly polish the Bolt or it will not turn out very week. Good luck, Brian G

[Rex]

Go to the office supply and get some replacement erasers for ink pens.
They are usually off-white. They have imbedded abrasive like a Cratex, and they are approx 1/4" diameter. It's easy to make a chuck/holder to fit.

[Papa]

Would like to jewel the bolt on my 10-22,how do I do it?thanks Randall

Randall,

I use the eraser end on a standard wooden pencil chucked in a drill press. The project to be jeweled just rests in a machinist V-block - larger pieces (such as the titanium mug shown below), I use a lathe and Dremel (mounted on a homemade fixture). It doesn't take much pratice to run uniform, evenly spaced rows, but I prefer the 'hand-made' random look. If you use a drill press/pencil, you can clean and/or square-off the end of the eraser by occasionally down-stroking the chucked, spinning pencil onto a small scrap of 220 laying flat - then continue where you left off.



Here's a bicycle crankset I did too...