re blue

[XLR8]

A friend of mine has an old ww2 psitole and on thhe barrel the buling is almost all gone. He would like to keep it as a collector's piece but the question is should he get it re blued ?

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[sdh1911]

Most collectors don't go for the re-blued guns. I know first hand that I would much rather have a piece that shows a little mileage on it rather than a re-blue, HTH-SDH

[stencollector]

A friend of mine has an old ww2 psitole and on thhe barrel the buling is almost all gone. He would like to keep it as a collector's piece but the question is should he get it re blued ?

Personally I would rather buy a gun in "been there/done that" condition than one which has been prettied up. You often destroy the collectors value when you reblue an older handgun.

Since you are asking this on a collectors forum, I suspect the others will say the same.

[Sigismund]

I actually prefer the worn look.

Collector value would be hurt by re-blueing it.

[Claven2]

Agreed. A reblue would devalue the piece.

[JHC II]

So I know its not that good to re do the bluing, but how about the wood? If you can refinish without doing any dammage to the cartouches would that hurt?

[sdh1911]

A good cleaning and a coat of oil is about as far as you'd want to go-SDH

[Claven2]

Agreed. Don't strip it or anything. Clean it up non-invasively and apply some oil, preferably boiled linseed oil for most guns. What model pistol is it?

Also, you do want the grips to appear in similar condition to the rest of the piece.

[englishman_ca]

Same deal as antique furnature, leave the worn finish alone, just clean it up a bit. If you reblue, you take away the signs of age, which is the main attraction to antiques. If someone wanted something looking spiffy and new, they would buy something new. Something with a worn finish, I can tell that it is old but something with a refinish, I couldn't tell ya for sure.

Nothing wrong with honest wear in my eyes. I can still remember as a kid in the 1960's looking at the GPMGs and SLRs carried by Brit troops. Most were so well handled and cleaned so often, they had very little of the original finish on them. All were polished steel grey at the edges and wear points. Just a mental image that has stuck with me, I think it looks good, it 'speaks' to me!

Refinishing will devalue any antique piece by min 50% sometimes more. So if you have a 'collectible', leave it alone, otherwise you will have a 'not so collectible'!

Clean the metal with fine steel wool dabbed in gun oil, try not to remove the patina on the surface of the metal but remove the dirt and any rust.

Clean the wood with very fine steel wool dabbed in boiled linseed oil. Work gently and carefully stroking in the direction of the wood grain, just enough to remove old oxidised oil, dirt, sweat and skin cells from the surface. If there is chequering, use a tooth brush dipped in BLO. Wipe oil off and let it dry, that's it.

My tuppence worth.

[sdh1911]

Most collectors that venture into anything at all go for the clean and hold approach. This does not mean strip clean, just the basics. You don't want to disturb anything that may attract the serious collector. I use butchers wax to clean and protect, it serves me well and doesn't cost a fortune, HTH-SDH