I Antiqued my Rodeo...

[Snake River James]

Posted about it in the gunsmithing forum under the Antiquing How To post.  The pic didn't insert, but there is a link to a photo at photobucket.com.  Might as well post the link here too...


http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e184/srjames/MyRodeo1.jpg

[Capt. John Fitzgerald]

Beautiful job, SRJ!  Looks just as good as the factory finish on the USFA "Gunslinger."
Sure hope Rawhide Rio sees this!  A couple of months back he was talking about doing the same thing to his Rodeo.

[RRio]

Great job, Snake River James!  That really looks great!

I trimmed your orginial picture and inserted it into your post if you don't mind.

[River Jordan]

Your Rodeo looks great. Are those real stag?

[Doc Sunrise]

Wow!  That thing looks just like my Colt 1st generation from 1899.  Looks great!

[Virginia Gentleman]

Sure looks as good as the gunslinger finish and you saved some $ in the process.  I have always been in the school of why pay for aging when I can do it myself.

[Snake River James]

Thanks.  The grips are real stag.  I got them recently off Ebay.  I left some of the factory matt finish in some of the recesses, then used a combination of Birchwood-Casey Super Blue and Van's Gun Blue with B-C Plum Brown.  The Van's produces more of a real blue color and is especially useful for duplicating faded case colors.  I've found that applying the plum brown by using a fine misting spray bottle really helps.  Using a dauber or similar tends to result in streaks.  The fine mist can be controlled by how close you hold the spray bottle and the number of spritzes applied.  Works pretty well.

Just couldn't bring myself to antique the nicely factory case colored hammer.  Guess I'll let time and use take care of that.

Thanks for the posting assist, Rawhide!