How to "antique" a revolver

[Razor]

I just bought a Pietta 1860 Army revolver...new..
Beautiful bluing on it..
Kinda hate to mess with it, but...
I want to "antique" it...
Anyone know how it definish it ??
Short of Naval Jelly and sand paper..?
Was thinking of taking it to work and sandblasting it .....

Any pointers greatly appreciated.

Razor
:castmine:

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Bury it in your back yard for a month or two.:mrgreen:
Morgan

[ARKANSAS PACKRAT]

Razor, the Naval jelly will remove the blueing, probably safer than my old standby, muiratic acid & water.
Muiratic mixed about 1 to 1 with water will remove it almost instantly, and lightly etch the surface. BE PREPARED TO NEUTRALIZE THE PARTS IMMEDIATLY, THEY WILL RUST AS YOU WATCH, AND THE ACID WILL CONTINUE TO WORK TILL IT'S NEUTRAL!
I used a boiling soda bath with fresh rinse to neutralize. Parts coming out of the soda bath will flash rust as they are raw steel. I protect the bore with a wax coating, grease would probably work as well.

All acid precautions are required and recomended, your results may not match mine!!:roll:

That said, I'd recomend the Naval jelly.........safer for you and the parts!![smilie=1:

What "antique" look are you looking for??

Luck, Nick:drinks:

[Razor]

Hey Nick..

I'm wanting the bluing-wore-off-gunmetal-grey look..
Mebbe a few light pits here and there..
The real-well-used-but-not-abused thing...

Real Seriously thinking of the sandblasting thing..

Morgan...
How about shooing, NOT cleaning and hanging outside in the rain ????

Thanks


Razor
:castmine:

[StrawHat]

Razor,

Look at some original, well used guns. Not antiques, just well used.

The finish is missing from the unprotected areas of the gun.

Sandblasting will remove it from everywhere and it won't look right.

Steel wool will get you going in the right direction. Just don't fit it tightly into the corners.

The top gun in this pic has been carried a lot, since about 1978, the other is as old but came to me almost unused.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc194/StrawHat/Piettapair.jpg

In this photo, the top gun is the well used one and the bottom had been poorly cared for, steel wool was used to take most of the finish off

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc194/StrawHat/1860008Small.jpg

Some of the finish stays in place on a well used gun, under the lever, in the nooks and crannies, and other protected spots. To my eye, if you clean those areas down to bare metal, it just looks raw.

Maybe if you cleaned it and only gave it a light wipe down after shooting it would darken in the correct areas. Never tried that.

Good luck

[leftiye]

You could put it in your clothes dryer with a box of rocks.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Got my joke in, now here's a suggestion. 75%-25% muriatic acid-water, on a slightly dampened cloth. Just rub the areas that would normally get holster and handling wear. You can stretch a 6" wide piece of dampened canvas between two boards clamped to the edge of your workbench or around a tree fork, and wipe the gun across this, occasionaly rotating the cylinder. This way, the blue(or case hardening) won't be removed from areas it shouldn't. After neutralizing, dry, and give it a very light coat of oil(not grease), and wipe it down with paper towels. You don't want to completely remove the oil. Then, with a cloth slightly dampened with Brownells Oxpho Blue, rub the gun down just enough to get a dull gray color, not dark enough to look blued. That's the reason for the oil, to slow down the blueing. Oxpho Blue, like all cold blues, works best on a hot gun, stripped of any oil. When the color looks right, rub it down with a piece of dry flannel, and the coat well with Birchwood Casey Sheath. I've used this system, along with less orthodox tricks, to "antique" replacement lock plates and other parts, to match the other furniture on original ML's.
Morgan

[jhrosier]

Loan to your best friend for bear season...
I got mine back, two months later, "antiqued" to a "t".:(
Haven't loaned a gun since.

If I had wanted to do that, I would wipe down the outside of the gun with a fine scotchbrite pad, dipped in oil.

Jack

[xtimberman]

One of my friends likes to put "instant" wear on some of his new reproduction firearms - not like the "antiqued" ones with no finish remaining.

He uses pieces of acrylic carpet ~4"x4" and rubs them on the high areas that would get normal holster and carrying wear while he's watching TV. After a week or two of doing this in the evenings, they look like firearms that have been carried and use-worn but well-cared-for.

He did this to a Sharps reproduction that started out bright blue and with case colors that were much too gaudy and bright for his taste. When he was finished, the cc was faded and with an attractive silvery finish except for protected areas, and the blue was worn and thin in just the right areas.

I asked him about the scotchbrite pads and he says they are a little too abrasive and work a little too fast for the final look he wants. I've used them on newly manufactured tang sights to get them to match the finish of an old gun.

xtm

[freedom475]

I just did this exact thing to my 74 Ped. Sharps, it was starting to show a little abuse and it just looked, well abused not old.

I took paper towels soaked in white vinegar and just wrapped them around the barrel, In about a half hour the blueing just wiped off. At first it looked a little shiney and there were spots that I missed but a few more aplications and the barrel looked great!

I then buffed it with 0000 steel wool and in a few days it took on a VERY nice patina.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Rubbing with a piece of apple also puts a nice patina on carbon steel. Ever notice what it does to a knife bade?

Morgan

[StrawHat]

Rubbing with a piece of apple also puts a nice patina on carbon steel. Ever notice what it does to a knife bade?

Morgan

Right you are, forgot about that trick.

Apple cider works good too, if it hasn't cracked yet.

[Razor]

Wow... great responses and suggestions...
Thanks Guys...
Gonna take some cogitating to figger out what I wanna do..
A friend at work pointed out the wear-on-the-high-spot-only look..I like that !
Thanks for the photos..they really help..

"clothes dryer & some rocks" ?? [smilie=s: I don't friggin' think so !!!!

Razor
:castmine:

[KCSO]

Why would anyone want to do this? No one carried ANTIQUED guns in the old days. I can just see someone in 1860 going in to a gun store and saying,"I want the one that's beat to S#!t". Just carry the gun and use it and take care of it and it will eventually look used.

[leftiye]

Yep, I must be getting old (ya think maybe??). In my world it's all about taking care of guns so that this doesn't happen (any sooner than is unavoidable).

[scrapcan]

KCSO and Leftiye I am with you guys. If you want one that looks like it had a rough life give it one, but do it by using it and taking care of it for a lifetime.

I am sure you don't want your cars or women to look that way, so why would you do it to a gun?

[StrawHat]

manleyjt, KCSO, and Leftiye

One of the reasons I stripped the finish off the second 1860 is that the bare metal was preferable to the condition in which it arrived.

The previous owner apparently fired it a bit and put it away after a quick wipe down.

The rust was spectacular. A nice overall coating, heavy in some spots and finer in others.

It took a bit of rubbing but it does look better.

The first 1860 in the photo has been used quite a bit and the finish is worn of of it.

The rest of my revolvers are in various stages of finish but they all shoot well, or the go down the road. As long as they are accurate, I don't care a lot about the finish.

At one time, I gave some thought to finishing one of the 1860s to match my Burnside but never did carry out that plan.

Different strokes...

Keep shooting.

[Razor]

Why would anyone want to do this?


Different strokes..

It's mine.. and..I like the look..:-D

Razor
:castmine:

[scrapcan]

Razor,

Your reason is a good as any. As you said, if you like the looks then it is for you.

I can understand that thought process.

Strawhat,

it is amazing at how quick these holy black shooters will rust if given a chance isn't it. Even out here where the relative humidity is so low we don't know what humidity is, they rust in a heartbeat. I always wanted to treat one that was in the shape like the one you talk about as if it was being browned or rust blued, I just have not had the chance.

I tend to think if we use them as intended and take care of them, the guns will get the patina of age in their own right. Shoot them and take care of them and they will be the beautiful pieces that we all want.

[KCSO]

Under those conditions here is how you get your aged look. Take rough paper towell and oil and rub rub rub.

[Char-Gar]

Your gun, so you can do anything with it you wish...but... I am with the guys who say just use and and take care of it and it will age naturaly.

[Razor]

Never fear Guys... I take REAL good care of my guns..
Like I said earlier, the finish is beautiful and I am highly reluctant to mess with it ..I just wanted to see if there were some 'gentle' ways of achieving the look I wanted...

I'm thinking that KSCO's idea of paper towel and oil sounds reasonable..

O'course, an idea I had earlier today seems like a good'un...
And that is ...buy another one[smilie=w:, one that has already been ''rode hard''...
pretty good.. huh ???[smilie=s:

Razor
:castmine:

[Frank V]

This thread is very interesting. I have wondered how to do aging also. I receintly looked at a couple new Cimarron Model Ps that were antiqued at the factory & wondered how they did it. I'm wondering if a very soft wire wheel & great care would work. I haven't tried it, & am curious. Thanks Frank

[Ricochet]

Guitar manufacturers are charging high premiums for "relic" guitars with various degrees of simulated wear and tear. Makes the players think they look like they've got credibility from having a worn looking guitar.

I think I'll open a business "antiquing" new cars to look like ones that have been driven for years in a Northern city. Don't want to look like that creampuff just rolled out of the showroom, do you now?

Might be a market in a certain segment of the churchgoing population for "preworn" Bibles, too.

FWIW, one of the best things I've found for rapidly corroding steel or nickel is ferric chloride printed circuit board etching solution. Another useful substance if you want to do that sort of thing is "killed acid," muriatic acid that's had zinc dissolved in it till no more will dissolve and no bubbles produced. Zinc chloride solution, in other words. Probably liquid soldering fluxes would be similar.

Peach juice attacks steel more aggressively than apple. My Walker has a little cluster of pits (might call 'em "peach pits") on top of the barrel. I had the revolver wrapped in a towel and it leaned against a basket of peaches on the way home. One peach got bruised and the juice soaked through the towel. Pitted deeply in about 2 hours.

[bushka]

Best thing to do IMHO< is to strip the bluing off the blued parts,and refinish them in a rust blue,quick or slow-durnt matter,like Mark Lees AND SUCH.
In time it will fade and brown,and fool alot of people.

[David2011]

I read about burnishing blued finshes in one of the early Brownell's Gunkinks books. The writer recommended, as KCSO said, using paper towels and specified the brown ones as they were the most abrasive. Maybe that is a good approach.

Scotchbrite is available is a much less abrasive form tham the green or red pads. The white pads are much more gentle than the more common green and red. They're available at auto paint supply stores.

David

[WildmanJack]

Well guys, after reading all the posts, I looked at my guns and said. Ya'll look fine to me. Then I looked at my girlfriend.And I thought hmmmmm, yer lookin a bit younger and a mite better shape than me. So I oiled up some rags and started rubbin her down. Well...... Wouldn't ya know it.. she liked it, and that led to stuff that made me not look older but sure made me feel older. The next day (after a lot of rest) I thought of trying the rocks and dryer suggestion, so after 10 minutes of her screamin an me tryin to keep the dryer door shut, she left! So what the hell do I do with the rocks and the broken dryer?? [smilie=1:

[badgeredd]

Wildmanjack,

You had me laughing so hard that the wife came to see what was so funny. Truth is, she didn't find it funny at all, go figure!

THANKS for a much needed laugh.

[leftiye]

Out here we drag 'em behint are truks to make dust.

[Steve]

We use toilet bowl cleaner to quickly strip bluing before refinishing to hot bath blue. It will leave a gray, smooth finish. You could then boil out in hot water then oil dip.

This make as much sense as a putting a shotgun bead on a 270.

[smokemjoe]

I you want to ruin it why boil it in bleach, OUTSIDE ONLY. Watch it very carefully with a wire tied to the parts, This eats steel up faster then straight Nitric acid or a chain saw. Joe

[carpetman]

I guess this will be a fairy tale vs a true story. A fairy tale starts out "once upon a time",a true story starts out "this aint no $hit". Once upon a time I bought an old relic of a pistol that had a screw missing. My gunsmith made a new one and it amazingly,well it looked new. A friend that is a knife maker said easiest way to age the screw was to place it in dog poop. He may be correct. I dont know,I didnt try it. As I said---once upon a time.

[hunter64]

I bought a used 1858 Pietta replica from a gun show a couple of years ago and I decided to make it look old. I only paid 90 bucks for it so I figured I had nothing to loose in the venture. This revolver had a few scrapes but basically look fairly new and according to the Italian proof marks on the side it was made in 1998 and the owner said he just didn't use it at all and wanted to get rid of it. I looked around on the Internet for pictures of old revolvers and read some write ups from various sites on how to do it and proceeded. I wanted to get rid of all the Italian marks on the side of the frame and "Black powder only" and all the other markings on the barrel to make it look more authentic.

1. Detail stripped it.

2. Using a fine file I removed the markings off of the barrel and the side of the frame, long careful strokes and took my time. The only manufactures mark I left on the barrel was underneath the loading lever so you could see who made it and of course the serial number on the frame. Just removed enough of the metal to erase the markings and then started smoothing the file marks out with 180 grit sandpaper and worked my way up to 400 grit. You would never know there were any marks on it at all now.

2. Using CLR I removed the bluing from only the outside of the frame, didn't touch the inside were the trigger/springs etc go, just left it as is. I plugged the barrel with corks so the CLR wouldn't go inside. This is great stuff, almost instantly removes bluing. I removed the bluing from the heads of the screws and all parts that are visible. For the cylinder I just wiped around it and on the inside of the channels where the nipples go without it getting into the cylinder or the nipple threads.

3. I washed everything in hot soapy water and rinsed and put in the oven on a cookie sheet and turned it to 200 F to dry everything out. Using gloves I took it out and applied Birchwood Casey Plum brown to everything in long even strokes.

4. I washed everything out again with hot soapy water and into the oven to dry everything out again.

5. Now to simply remove some of the browning I just used fine steel wool and removed the browning where it was a little to dark and to the way I wanted it.

6. For the shinny brass trigger guard I simply covered it with liquid Blue and it immediately tarnishes and looks old.

7. Oiled everything and put it back together and that was it. Total time was about 2 hours from start to finish.

It looked good without the browning applied and I just might remove some more off it to just have a slight tinge of a tan color and that is it but for now it was kind of fun experimenting. My camera is horrible and someday I will get a new digital one, the lighting was kind of off also but it does look cool and looks like it has seen some hard use.

First one was the first attempt with no rust, just various shades of browning, before I removed some of the extra browning. The second one is with some hydrogen peroxide/ salt mixture that was left on for a few weeks at high humidity then browned.

http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=im001814wz9.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/rebel727/Remingtons/100_0286.jpg

When I take it to the range, inevitably within 10 minutes I have a crowd of people watching me shoot it. There are no marks visible and people actually think that it is 150 years old. I actually had a guy beg me to shoot it and offered me 10 bucks to try it for 6 shots. He had me take a picture of him shooting it for his friends I guess.

[Razor]

Thanks for the replies fellas..
All are appreciated..some more than others...[smilie=s:

Hunter64..
The second photo..hydrogen peroxide and water huh ?
Really interesting looking but I wasn't thinking of going quite that far.

Still ain't been able to bring myself to mess with the 1860 Army..
('cept to shoot and clean)..
Still Think I'll go with buying another that's been rode hard...

Razor
:castmine:

[hunter64]

Razor: Hydrogen Peroxide and salt mixture was used. I dissolved a couple of tablespoons of salt in to about 1 cup of peroxide and used a spray bottle to apply it. I plugged the barrel and detail stripped it and tapped up on the inside of the frame so that no salt would get inside the frame or the barrel. Since it is so dry where I live I left the frame and the parts that needed to be antiqued out on the bathroom sink and in my busy home with everyone scrambling to shower in the morning and at night it didn't take long for the rust to show up. Removed most of the rust with 600 grit sandpaper and there you have it.

[Shotgun Luckey]

some really good ideas here

[mazo kid]

I've used Smokemjoe's method except that I didn't boil the parts in bleach....just paint it on where you want the bluing gone. Let it sit a while, steel wool it off and rinse well.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/mazokid/BleachedColtc.jpg

[Hobie]

The best way to antique it is to shoot/carry/use it. ;)

[Ricochet]

I'm presently rust bluing a reproduction Mosin M91 cleaning rod with ferric chloride printed circuit board etching solution. (Available from electronics parts suppliers.) In a humid environment, a thin coat of this stuff produces a nice red-brown rust coat in hours. (Then I'm steaming and carding it, and repeating.)

[yondering]

I've learned a couple tricks for knifemaking for putting a nice grey patina on carbon steel, which may or may not be to your liking:

For a smooth even dark grey, on bare steel, boil it in a mixture of water and lemon juice. The concentration of lemon juice and the amount of time you boil it will vary the color from almost nothing, to very dark.

For a worn color case hardening look, put drops of yellow mustard on the bare steel, and let it dry. Overnight usually is all you need. You can repeat this as many times as you need, and you can make patterns with the mustard. You end up with dark areas around the edges of the mustard drops. This can be done to look like color case hardening when the color is gone but the pattern is still there.

After the mustard treatment, you can do the lemon juice treatment above. I've done this on a knife or two, and it can look very nice if done right. A little buffing afterwards to create some worn spots helps the "aged" look.

I like the idea of the acrylic carpet squares too.