Aperture retaining ring on a brass lens

[Jim C.]

Guess this is the place for this question, since it's a DIY.

I took delivery of a nice old brass lens, supposedly a petzval, took a quick look and
shot some fujiroids but there was no joy in swirly land, very nice bokeh tho.
The rear elements can be taken out easily ( uh-oh ! ) the front element is easy to get off ( uh-oh again ! )
but it's tough to get the glass element retaining ring off but that's not the issue.
Whomever owned the lens apparently tried to remove the ring that holds
the aperture blades in place, the reason for the uh-oh's.
I guess they were trying to repair the blades, two seem to be out of it's pivots.
The ring is ever so slightly skewed and you can feel the bump that was left from
the tool they tried to pry it out with.
The ring seems ok, not mangled by their attempt, so I guess if I tap it back to square I'm OK.

My question is what was the technique used by anyone who has attempted to remove this ring ?

[Steven Tribe]

You need photos as, especialy in the early days, there were a number of systems to mount iris retaining rings.

[Jim C.]

Seems the iris retaining ring is a press fit, it also looks on closer inspection that it was taken out
but poorly replaced based on the inner lens barrel scratches.

[Jim C.]

Well, there was some pitting on the lens barrel and after hitting it with a scotchbrite wheel
there were fine scratches on barrel that I decided to buff out, buffing the barrel heated it
and I gave the iris retaining ring a nudge to see it the barrel expanded enough to move it
and it did, I was able to rock the retaining ring, and it inched up, and I take back what I said
about the retaining ring being poorly removed previously you have to really work it out,
so back to the buffer it went...
and I snagged the barrel on the buffer wheel which took it out of my hands. Oh fun !
no dents to the barrel but -

First picture is the retaining ring out, second is the beginning of me putting back the iris
blades sans 3 which the pivot pins were either missing or fell off the blade.