Henery golden boy receiver

David Jacobson · Mar 8, 2007

Does anyone know what kind of metal the reciever is. Its a henery repeating cowboy style "golden boy".
It looked like that phoney nickel silver, because it has a slight brass color. But when I sanded it the gold finish came off and it looks like nickel silver. Was it plated?

David.

JJ Roberts · Mar 9, 2007

David...We have discussed this subject I believe on this forum and the FEGA forum. Bob Evans FEGA historian
warned us in our newsletter when these Golden Boys came on the market that they were plated, and not to
even think about engraving them. To anyone who is going to work on firearms do some research first.

Yours truly,
JJ Roberts
School of Artistic Engraving
Manassas, VA

William Grubb · Mar 9, 2007

The Golden Boy Henry Rifle I've seen topics on this subject before ,and evidently
Henry made them both ways. Gold plated over Brass, and Gold plated over an alloy
I engraved one a year or so ago not knowing of the ones plated over the alloy. I was lucky and happened to get one that was gold plated brass. Mine was the 17 cal. HMR .

The brass is plated with copper first ,then gold plated so if you do decide to engrave one of these be aware that the copper will show up. How you would know if you have a alloy ,or brass reciever? I would suggest
contacting the manufacturer I'm shure they would know by serial numbers which ones where brass ,or alloy.

herrnusser · Mar 9, 2007

Hi guys! Ironically enough I took a L.E.O. tour of the Henry factory one week ago. Being familiar with the above posting, I inquired about the receive composition/ finishing process. Its seems after some experimentation they currently used 2 general types. Small bore (rimfire) in fact a propriatary Aluminiuim based alloy where as the larger (.45 colt etc.) are brass framed. Both are coated with various chemical finishes so it might be a good idea to recoat the finished work with a bake-on laquer type of finish similar to the Lauer type. The stuff works great and I'm sure that will be a future post.
ED

David Jacobson · Mar 10, 2007

Well I guess Iv'e done it now. I started sanding on the golden boy and the plating came off so I had to sand off the whole thing, now it's a silver boy. I started engraving on the casted material,

and you guys are right, It's terrible. It's hardness is inconsistont and it doesn't cut clean. It clobs up when you cut it. Inlaying gold would be imbosible. Luckely its my buddy brett's rifle, I don't think he will get too upset about it.
well I'm not too proud of it but heres what it looks like.
Dave
http://www.santacruziron.com

Barry Lee Hands · Mar 11, 2007

David, It looks like you are handling it fairly well, all things considered, best of luck with it.

loyd freeman · Mar 12, 2007

David.My first rifle to engrave was the 1866 Uberti and it was a joy to engrave. The only thing bad was taking the screws out. They must put them in with a drill press. The brass was like cutting butter.Loyd

FANCYGUN · Mar 12, 2007

One of the first things you learn, the hard way, when you engrave a Uberti is get a new set of screws. They do not use a drill press to install them but rather a relative of King Kong. The heads are soft and they are a bugger to get out and you will ruin them. Guaranteed. Of course this has never happend to me.......harumph

Marty

JJ Roberts · Mar 13, 2007

Loyd & Marty,

I have never had a problem getting any of the Uberti rifles apart. I have a set of Brownell screwdrivers..just make sure the hollow ground screw driver fits the screw..get a good grip on the screwdriver and tap on the
handle with a plastic mallet. I use a penetrating oil called P-B Blaster, especially good on older guns. Also I made a set of hollow ground screw drivers out of Allen Wrenches which I use in the drill press...I place the gun receiver in the drill press vise which is padded..put the hollow ground screw driver in the chuck..lower the screw driver into the screw..hold it down and with an adjustable wrench back the screw out very slowly..works like a charm. Hope this will be helpful to you.

Yours truly,
JJ Roberts
School of Artistic Engraving
Manassas, VA

www.angelfire.com/va2/engraver

Glenn · Mar 13, 2007

J.J. I love your comments. It's easy to see that you have been there, done that. Have you ever used brake fluid on screws as a penetrating oil? It seems to do the trick for me.

David Jacobson · Mar 13, 2007

I always take an old screwdriver and machine it to fit perfictley in the screw then I can realy torque on it and I dont buger up the edges.
Dave.
http://santacruziron.com

Andrew Biggs · Mar 13, 2007

Hi David

Considering the circumstances your doing well. The big thing is that you are finishing what you started. Sometimes the best lessons are the hard ones and we can learn a lot from them.

Please post a picture when she's all finished

Cheers
Andrew

JJ Roberts · Mar 13, 2007

Glenn..I have heard of brake fluid being used, but the PB-Blaster is the best I have used so far...it especially works well on the older firearms...keep up the good work.

JJ

Archie Woodworth · Mar 1, 2017

You might want to try ATF automatic transmission fluid and acetone 50/50 mix...IMHO its the best penetrating solution going.

Henery golden boy receiver

David Jacobson

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