u/Open-Truth-245

Racked it off the lees, and pulled a sample bottle. Bit on the plain side so today I added long pepper, ginger, clove and black k pepper to give it a kick. Will test it in a day or 3....

Our area has been hit with thunderstorms and hot humid days! I tried to spend as much time as possible in the basement. I bottled my first cyser Saturday morning, had to backsweeten it a bit - fairly full.bodied compared to what I've made before. Today I did a refurbish (citric acid bath and scrub) on this antique corker I bought a few years ago - before I got into mead or wine making. And got to reassemble the wine rack I got a week or 2 ago. I still need to add a base and shim it to level.

#3 is a cyser, fairly full bodied.

#4 is pear wine, very tart had to back sweaten.

#5 is traditional mead just under a month old and actually quite good. Costco wildflower and 1116 yeast, you can actually taste the floral notes.

I am very happy, I picked up this rack after work - about 75 miles round trip - hope to reassemble it tomorrow. The challenge will be filling it!

Have finished 2 traditional batches, have a cyser, a pear wine and another traditional underway. The latest traditional (1116) seems to have stopped fermenting, netting 11%abv and is the smoothest I've ever had a first racking. Gotta start another batch! :) Oh and I bought a shelf and wine bottle rack, feeling tidy is nice!

I got this today at a garage sale for cheap. Is this the Special aka cheapest Epiphone SG? Im not a guitar guy so bear with the newbie questions. I think the bridge pickup is not working, and theres a hum, have heard it might be a bad ground. Am going to open it tomorrow and look for loose wires or cold solder joints. I didn't see a serial number on it, is iy inside or under a panel?

First time doing a full hot caustic bluing and was very happy with it. Bit of a challenge getting all the bits back in the frame let me tell you! After and before photos.

From my 1951 Stoeger catalog

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Just sharing from a 1951 Stoeger Catalog I have.

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Bought this about a month ago at a local auction for a good price had been looking for a project like this to refinish. It's hard to get good photos because the pits blow up so much. But hope you get the idea. I need to reassemble and may blue the locking pin.

Bought this about a month ago at a local auction for a good price had been looking for a project like this to refinish. It's hard to get good photos because the pits blow up so much. But hope you get the idea. I need to reassemble and may blue the locking pin.

Some of you might remember this gem I got last year. MAB GZ. Slide painted red, grips taped over.... I stripped the slide, draw filed and wet sanded it down a lot to a polish and just did my first hot caustic blue. Some of the previous life scratches still show through, but it shines and reflects light! The flaws show up more in the photos than with the naked eye. I am pretty happy with it so far, and its a cheap piece to practice on. Am working towards a Ruger Standard.

I have been looking for a project to refinish and got this recently at a local auction . It is rought but I think its coming along well. I am planning to nitre blue it. I havent started on the frame yet. Question though, I know I can't get all the pits, but is it polished enough for nitre to give a nice luster? Boiled and carded at first but that was insufficient, and switched to wet/dry 400, 1000, then 3000 by hand, no power tools.

As found pics, and a current status photo.

Have been looking for a project like this for a while - 1961 Ruger Standard. Has some outer corrosion, and way too much oil on the inside. Backstrap mechanism was very stiff, I dont think its been apart in a long time. Going to start with a boil and a card this weekend to see how bad the pitting is.

I'm on my 2nd batch (traditional). I added bentonite 18 days in about 2 days prior to 1st racking. Now its 23 days since pitching and its even clearer. Next time I'll let the B do its thing longer before racking. Tested at 14.1ABV. Using D47 in a cool basement. Will use spakoloid later on.

I have never seen one of these but had to have it, bought at an estate sale. Seems to have the original stone with label on it too.

Appears to be Lily White Washita stone. End label says Fine. Can I clean this up with mineral spirits or such?