To Blue Or Not To Blue

To blue or not to blue? This is a question that will inevitably cross every gun collectors mind at some point in time. Should you make a gun look pretty because it is yours or should you leave it as is so you don’t depreciate the value? Does it make good fiscal sense to refinish a firearm? Question after grueling question will haunt many a man’s dreams. Allow me to give my unsolicited, unprofessional, low budget, ghetto-hillbilly opinion of best practices regarding firearm restoration.

The first thing to consider is why you bought the gun in the first place. Simply stated, we can buy it for investment reasons or we can buy them because they’re just something we want for no good reason. You may have a hundred other guns in your collection, but you can always use at least one more. The investment collector has it fairly easy. If a restoration will diminish the value of the gun then you leave it as is. The folks who own a gun because they want to for no good reason have to consider some other points.

Whenever you buy a gun you have to be prepared to either keep it forever and ever more or have a solid plan for selling it. Acquiring the gun for the right price is only half the battle, especially if you intend to spend between one hundred and four hundred of your hard earned bucks to have it professionally reconditioned. That additional cost could completely make a decent investment turn into a bad deal. You can refinish it yourself for a fraction of the cost, but that is a risky gamble if you don’t get everything absolutely right.

So what is there to get wrong? That is exactly the question an unscrupulous gun dealer is hoping you’d need to ask. If you know your gun guy and are sure he wouldn’t rake you over the coals then you’re already in a good place. If you don’t know him so well you could end up literally giving away an expensive rifle for pennies on the dollar. If you don’t have a go-to gun appraisal resource that you absolutely, unconditionally, implicitly, totally, and completely trust then you must do lots of homework before making any transactions or alterations to a piece.

On one occasion I purchased a rifle on a whim, as I couldn’t fully identify it. When I took it to a dealer he assure me it wasn’t worth any more than the two hundred dollars I shelled out for it. Fortunately, I kept the gun despite his wagging eye brows and later found the same gun at a show selling for just under a thousand. Yes, my dear friends, getting screwed over can happen that quickly. The same can be said if someone grades a firearm you own and tells you it isn’t worth anything. So again, what is there to get wrong? Let’s consider a firearm.

Picture, in your mind, an older firearm you own or have held and looked at. First, is it complete? I don’t just mean are all the parts there. I mean are all the correct parts there? Does anything look modified or out of place, like it was a part from another gun that just happened to fit? Often, a part will be missing or replaced which will impact the value of a firearm. I once had yet another in a chain of shameless dealers try and know a hundred dollars off the price of something I had because the rear sight blade was gone. So I lost a picture of Mr. Franklin over something that was worth about as much as a picture of Mr. Lincoln.

So, you’ve looked the gun over and determined it is complete. No look very close at the finish. You’ll need good light and eyes to see, but after looking for some time you’ll notice a definite pattern in the finish. This is the result of the polishing and carding process while the gun is being blued or otherwise finished. This rule does not apply to every gun as every manufacturer doesn’t put that level of quality into their products.

But if you try to sell a Winchester rifle to a die-hard Winchester collector I can almost guarantee you he or she will be able to tell if the piece has been refinished just by taking a long, hard look at the finish. Here’s a thing that can go wrong if you elect to refinish a piece. If you, or your gunsmith, don’t know or pay attention to the finish of the piece you could wreck the value by doing something wrong, like carding the finish from a different angle. While this may not be a big issue for lower end firearms, it is practically a stoning offense for the most fanatical of collectors.

Use that mind’s eye to look yet closer at the firearm. On most commercially produced firearms there is a stamp somewhere on the barrel. What that stamp may say isn’t as important to my point as the letters themselves. If you look close you’ll see the letters have sharp angles. They’re crisp and clean, having little to no dull edges depending on the age and condition of the piece. This is another tell-tale sign a weapon has not been refinished. An unpracticed gunsmith, either a professional or a do-it-yourselfer, will almost always sand, grind, or card down the edges on a stamp.

Next, open the chamber and look in the barrel. If you do nothing else before buying a gun, you need to check the bore. It can have specks of dirt in it, which simply means it needs cleaned. But otherwise it needs to be nice and shiny. If, however, it has scores, pits, scratches, or anything of the sort you need to get away as fast as you can. Scores and scratches come from foreign debris in the barrel that will actually mar the metal in the bore. Pits show up as a dull bore, and are the sign of using a corrosive gun powder. This is common in firearms that are chambered to use cheaper imported ammunition.

The stock is a pretty straight forward thing to look at. It needs to be complete and tight. Otherwise it is mostly a matter of woodworking. However, you again need to do some homework to make sure you get the right finish. You also want to make sure you or your gunsmith can make any replacement stock fit properly will as little hassle as possible. Aside from cracks, one of the most common things regarding stocks are pieces that have been shortened to accommodate use by a smaller kid. This is fairly easy to spot since the butt-plate usually doesn’t go back on seamlessly.

Those are just a few, and I stress “few,” things that can go askew if you elect to refinish a firearm. The best practice is to have that gun guy in your back pocket to guide you. Regardless if they tell you it’s worth it or not, you’ll at least have a professional opinion to base your decision on. Likewise, you can protect yourself from a less than favorable purchase if you have some knowledge of what to look for in a prospective purchase.

Now, it’s time to ask yourself again, should I restore it. If you’re not following the money and are making a decision based on your personal ideals then there is no wrong answer. When I elected not to refinish my favorite squirrel rifle a friend commended me because I was saving the resale value. I simply stated I didn’t give a metric crap-load about the value as it was my Grandfather’s and I wanted to keep it in the same weathered condition I had used it in for years. In that case the gun is a literal part of my hunting childhood and family heritage, so there is no sticker value that can be attached.

Still other pieces in my collection I restored, not to make them more valuable, but in reality because they weren’t worth a whole lot anyways. They were the perfect guns to practice my gunsmithing on and they look all the better in my collection now. Yet others were restored so I, and my little tribe of future Bambi-killers, may continue to use them effectively for years to come. So, you can again see there is no right or wrong answer about refinishing as long as you’re well educated about the item you want to make all shiny again.

For the firearm collector on a budget, it may be difficult to pay the prices at a professional gunsmith’s shop. Depending on the gun and the work you want done you can get into hundreds of dollars. This isn’t the best thing to do when you may very well end up spending more for the gunsmith than the actual weapon is worth. This compels the skinflint in us all to try to accomplish it his or herself.

The stock is the most exciting part and the dullest part of a restoration. I don’t need to spend a lot of time describing the mind-numbing excitement of hours spent sanding down a piece of wood. I would, however, like to point out that a stock does not need to stay the same once you’ve sanded it down. It’s a simple matter to take an old walnut stock and change it up a bit before you finish the piece. As a do-it-yourselfer who simply wants a nice weapon in his or her collection you can take that stock from brown to blonde very easily. Just make sure you follow the manufacturer’s directions when you pick your finish for the stock. I personally like a blonde, so I’ll leave it at that not waste any more time talking about stocks.

I’ve seen a number of websites, vlogs, blogs, YouTube videos, and magazine articles that demand you remove the barrel from the receiver when you strip your weapon. I personally do not have the tools to properly head-space the barrel during reassembly, so I always elect to keep the barrel and receiver in one piece. This is a controversial point, but I have found it works just as well without the risk of having to go to a gunsmith anyway. However, to what degree you disassemble your firearm is your own discretion.

The most involved part of the restoration is the finish of the metal parts themselves. Begin with some three-thousand grit sandpaper, steel wool, and any form of high revolution buffing device. I actually used the buffer I have for waxing my car. You need to strip all the old finish off the metal parts, without leaving large scores or striations. This will be a long and arduous process, but patience will reward you handsomely. Be sure to get as much of the grease and finish as possible in the cracks and crevasses. Almost everyone in the field uses acetone to do a final cleaning of the firearm.

Now you have a barreled receiver, with a small collection of small parts that has been cleaned and degreased. They are neatly laid out on a clean towel and ready for the bluing solution to be introduced. For the do-it-yourselfer’s purposes this will be a basic cold bluing procedure. The only problem with a cold blue is it isn’t very effective. Generally, a cold blue is a selenium dioxide compound that is supposed to make the metal black, but usually only succeeds in turning it a dark grey. Further, cold bluing doesn’t offer the same protection as hot bluing.

I have found through a lot of internet research that applying an initial series of a browning agent will enhance both the functionality and eye appeal of you do-it-at-home restoration project. Be careful when using browning solutions as they can be very toxic to humans, so you’ll want to work in a well ventilated area. It’s a simple matter of apply a base finish of browning according to the manufacturer’s directions. Once completed you can proceed with applying a series of bluing applications until the desired finish is achieved.

 Before you actually start the finishing process you will want to make some form of wooden or plastic plug to seal off the barrel. You will also want to have a gun cleaning rod with an attached mop in case any of the finish solution gets into the bore. Make sure you have all your tools and materials laid out and ready as when you start applying your finishing products you are basically committed. It will also be beneficial to have some sort or rack which can hold your barrel and receiver. Any uneven spots in the application will show as streaks in the finished surface.

 While applying all these varying layers of finish I gave the barrel a rub down with some clean, degreased steel wool. I then used my car buffer to give the barrel a thorough polishing. Be sure to change pads when you switch from browning to bluing. Also, remember to wear vinyl or rubber exam gloves and degrease every rag or other tool with acetone as you go. The slightest exposure to any kind of oil, grease, or other foreign compound will mar the final product. The last thing you’re going to want it to spend all this nerve-racking time to refinish a firearm, just to have a thumb-print in the finish that you don’t see until two weeks later.

Now, with your piece dried, the bore plugged, and everything stable you can do something I’ve recently discovered that may help further improve the quality of your refinishing job. If you were to watch Larry Potterfield, from Midway USA, you’ll see a video in which he applies a thin coat of lacquer to a barrel her is working on. When I dug deeper I found this is not a commonly heard of thing among armatures, but actually provides one more layer of shine and protection for a barrel. However, when I say one thin coat I mean one thin coat. Not two thin coats, not one heavy coat, not three light coats. I mean one thin coat. It may help to make it even, but in the end it needs to be one thin coat.

When reassembling the firearm you should keep the gloves on as well. If you’ve given all your products enough time to properly cure there should be little to no issues with damage to the new finish, but it never hurts to be a little overcautious. You’ll also want to take you time as to avoid any slips of a screwdriver that will scratch you beautiful blonde stock. Even if you like brunettes, you don’t want to mess up at this point.

So now you’re done with a simple, do-it-yourself, skinflint style restoration job on your firearm. All that is left is to give it a good cleaning, bore sight it, and get ready to take your prize out for a walk. For some final thoughts I will stress homework. Make sure refinishing the piece is the right thing to do. Make sure you are doing the job for the love of your guns and not to benefit anyone else. If you wreck the sticker value, but refinish your Grandfather’s rifle to pristine condition it’s only something that needs to matter to you.

 I will stress patience. Take your time, take your time, take your time. There is no point in trying to restore a firearm for any reason if you are simply going to rush the job and end up with a soppy finished product. Then it’s not worth as much and it looks like hell, which is ne benefit to anyone. I recommend going to YouTube and looking at some of Midway USA’s videos so you can have a solid enough grasp on the project before you start. Once you know what you want and roughly what you’re doing then you really just need to take your time and do it.

Finally, and first, be safe. Make sure to buy, store, clean, refinish, and use your firearms in a safe and responsible manner. Make sure to clear your chambers and keep your weapon pointed in a safe direction. As a final note, which I’ve said a number of times, the best way to get back at the ones who want our guns gone is to be safe and responsible gun owners. Good luck with your restoration project.