Antiquing "How-To"

[Remington Kid]

Here is a picture of my new 1851 Navy I just antiqued the other day.

[Wolfcamp Hill]

splendid looking weppin.

[Yankee John]

Well,  I had to go and change my antiqued Uberti Cattleman again (slightly).

I changed out the brass grip frame for blued steel,  and added some Buffalo Brothers stag grips.  These grips took quite a lot of fitting & sanding,  but they are NICE!!!

I think I'll call this one- DONE!

John

[stepnmud]

I had posted the problem I was having with this Rifle on the Gunsmithing forum under extracting problems, but seem to have everything running properly now. Anyhow I followed Longshot Logan's refinishing methods sorta of, and really liked the paint stick with removing the finish trick.
Except I used 0000 steel wool and Formby's lemon oil to hand rub the wood finish. Also changed out the front & rear sight to Marbles 3/32" gold bead and full buckhorn.

before:


after:


before:


after:

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

Here's a Leech & Rigdon I just finished for a good friend of mine. When re-doing a firearm the buffing is the key eliment. Prior to rebluing I buffed it out with a 650 rouge compound using a buffing wheel. That is why when you look at the gun you can see into the finish, almost like a candy apple finish on a car that has been highly buffed out. The gun was hot blued and buffed out to give it a old style charcoal blue look. and I re-color cased harden the frame and hammer and left the screws uncolored. We were trying to give this particular gun a 10 to 15 year old appearance. Oh yea, we buffed out the engraved navy scene on the cylinder as the Confederate Leech & Rigdon did not originally have it. A real pretty pistol...
Bill

[Curley Cole]

Here is an old Dakota I got about 22 years ago as a "kit". I cold blued it to make it look old, and worked pretty good. It had brass backstrap/triggerguard till about a year ago and I just couldn't stand it any longer so stuck on  an Armi San Marcos tg/bs. The pix of it on the book is a pic of one of Doc Hollidays 45, and I couldn't believe how much they looked alike (except the length of barrels)
The blue wear is almost identical, the picture in the book didn't come out as clear to do real justice.
anyways the gun back then cost me $129.

was kinda fun
cc
 

[ColonelFlashman]

My question is WHY?
We are depecting the Era that these were Originally Designed & Manufactured in.
They'd NOT look like they were an Antique, but New w/ Slight holster wear on them.

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

My question is WHY?
We are depecting the Era that these were Originally Designed & Manufactured in.
They'd NOT look like they were an Antique, but New w/ Slight holster wear on them.

Colonel,
I agree with you, to a point. I do a 1870-1878 Chiricahua Apache scout impression. So, when I re-do my guns, I try to add about ten-fifteen years to them (see the Leech & Rigdon post above), particularly if the firearms happen to be conversions, or percussion revolvers that I would have carried in that time frame. Also, the finish they put on our firearms today is nothing like the finish used back in the 19th century, way too dark. I tend to put that original type of finish on my guns, and then bring out the added wear to them.

Bill

[Curley Cole]

Col. Flash:

I agree, the Dakota I did just shows a good amount of wear...(as can be seen by comparing it with Doc's gun, it appears to be an appropriate amount.

the 1875 Remingtons I won at GBJL had the "antique" finish on them and I thought the looked kinda fake. I polished them a bit with Semichrome polish and smoothed it out a bit, so now they look like the finish is worn off...at least it looks better to my eyes...

cc

[Whiskey Kid]

I picked up this vaquero at my local shop for $150.00 a while back. The bore was clean and it is totally functional I assure you, but the finish was in bad shape. So I cleaned it, stripped it and re-blued it, steel wooled the heck outta it, and fitted some new grips.

I'm pretty happy with it, but I'm lookin for some input from more experienced folk on if I went to far with my "antiquing" .....
Any comments are much obliged......

[J.J. Ferrett]

First attempt at 'antiquing'. My personal pref is that I dont like the look of a deep blued 'old' revolver. I like the battered look.
I used white vinegar to remove the blue. Then I used ammonia bleach to pit and rust. 10 mins in the bleach, wash off and neutralise, then wire wool. I repeated this until I was happy (3 times). I then used Plum Brown and carded most off. The metal still has a tendancy to get 'rust dust' but, if i wipe the rust spots down with Balistol, they turn dark brown/black, and fade over a couple of weeks.

[Dakota Widowmaker]

Damn fine job on your Rem and Colt.As long as they still shoot like their new, who cares what they look like!!!

Here is a tip for folks who antique and don't want further rust.

Take the gun apart and put it in a zip-lock type bag with either CLP or some other gun oil that prevents rust yet penetrates.

Do NOT put the wood grips in the bag.

Fire up your outdoor grill and put a big deep pan or pot of water to boil on the side burner.

Get it rolling with bubles.

Place the bag with the gun and oil into the boiling water for 10-15 minutes.

Since water is only 212 F, there is no chance of the gun loosing its temper. 212 is too low for oil to self ignite.

Also 212 F is too low for it to take the temper out of springs and such.

Remove from the bag and then wipe with a towel. I sitll prefer to use a bit of kroil on the bore afterwards.

This should completely clean and prevent any further rust for a good long while.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I have an MVA #108 sight.  Shiny blue, mounted on a browned 'gemmerized" pedersoli Sharps.  I am after a # 130 for my original Win Hi-Wall.  MVA say they don't offer a brown optional finish.  Is there a way to get my sights to more closely match the rifles?

[geo]

i found out that using one to one measures of white vinegar and water heated will dissolve blueing right off a gun. not that i wanted this to happen. just got careless while cleaning the bp walker revolver. now i read people actually want to do this! and i thought i'd been really otl. good luck, geo.

[RRio]

Rodeos. Anybody antique a Rodeo?

Let's see some pictures and us know how you did it.

RRio

[fourfingersofdeath]

Different strokes for different folks. The only trouble is that those guns that are antiques now were new guns then.

I used to help my grandpa who used to do repairs for a big slum lord in sydney and he did plumbing, painting and carpentry work as well (he had all three trades). We went into one house which had bare sandstock brick walls. Most were calcumined and painted. Nowadays folks buy these houses and spend lots of time and elbow grease removing the calcumine and paint and gettingthat nice bare brick look, very trendy, lots of work or expense getting it on old inner city houses. As we got out of his utility, he said 'Now Michael, these people are very poor and they do not have paint on the walls. You are not to mention it or pay any attention to it, but just be polite and treat them as you treat any other person. They have no money, but have a few chooks out the back. They will offer us some eggs in payment, we will have a cup of tea and I will forget to take the eggs, as I always do. Do not notice this and do not remind me about the eggs, they need the food more than we do. Treat all people as though they run the country. If they do, they deserve the respect and if they don't they probably need it' I have to smile when I see tose trendy houses with the bare old sandstone brick walls nowadays.

[Riot Earp]

LOL!  That's a damn shame to do that to a brand spanking new revolver, IMHO.  If you want it to look 'old', then use it for a while or buy a used one for cripe's sake.

I'm afraid to shoot "brand spanking new revolvers." With some hard use, they often look like crap. With an antiqued gun, you can beat the snot out of it and it will only add to its character. But then, I don't go as far as some do--I add a patina, but no pitting.

[Springfield Slim]

Sure, the guns were new in 1873, but do you really think they looked new a couple of years later after being used and abused and rained on and dropped in the dirt while doing normal cowboy work? Ever see any old police guns? Just shooting them every 6 months and cleaning them will put some decent wear on them. I mean, if you shoot a '92 or '94 Winchester in cas then your 1873 SAA pistol is theoretically 20 years old if you bought it new, or inherited it from your father.   

[River City John]

Here's the pic of my Leech & Rigdon I mentioned in another thread on finishes on the originals. (Riot Earp was interested in this revolver. I'd say go for it, you'll like it.) The L & R is one of my favorites.
As I wrote, the current copies from Uberti use the roll-engraved cylinder from the '51 as a manufacturing shortcut. Since the L & R had a plain cylinder, and I could not locate a plain cylinder through any of the aftermarket sources, I had OCB remove the engraved scene before refinishing.





And here's an original. The Uberti clone is very accurate.

[Riot Earp]

Thanks for the pic!

Love that round barrel.