Quote:
Hawg Haggen wrote:
"Heck Bill, it ain't used til it gets a lil rust on it.  "
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Hawg, I get why you and other people like that somewhat rusted, patina, worn, antique look. It's because some people like the idea of it looking like an antique from that era, even if it's not. But I like to think of myself using the revolver in the time period that it was made and thus I'd be using it before it became an antique. It wouldn't look like an antique at the time it was made.
Also when I was in the Marines, we were taught to keep our firearms meticulously clean and free of rust. That has stuck with me ever since. I just can't abide a rusty gun. Now I can accept a couple of small pits here and there especially if it's on a nickel plated revolver of mine. Even if it's on a blue one and it is so slight that it doesn't warrant a refinish of the revolver. But if the rust is bad or widespread, I have to remove it.
Naturally if I had an antique where the bluing had uniformly turned into an even brown patina, I wouldn't mess with that. But I don't have any like that.
I'm thinking of several different options for the finish of this Uberti Remy.
I am going to ask a friend of mine who does cerakote, duracoat, and hydroprinting, if there is any hard finish (like cerakote) that is clear. If there is, I might just mirror polish the revolver and have them apply the clear finish for me. Years ago I spray painted my well used 1851 with clear polyurethane and that held up pretty well and made it easy to clean. It did wear off quickly on the very front of the cylinder and very end of the barrel, but otherwise it was great for keeping rust down from fouling.
Prior to that, even with good cleaning, my 1851 being blue, (with brass frame) was hard to keep from light rusting on the cylinder and barrel. I'd carefully clean and oil it and put it away and the next time I took it out, there was a light film of rust on the cylinder and barrel.....especially the cylinder.
Several times I buffed the rust off and reblued it. But it would continue to do the same thing until even the new cold re-bluing finish was replaced with a brown patina rust. For a while I got disgusted and just used it like that and allowed it to "brown" naturally. But it didn't "brown" uniformly all over the revolver. So I cleaned it real good and got all the rust off it (again) and then re-blued it (again) but this time I also spray painted it with clear semi gloss polyurethane.
That worked pretty well and for the most part stopped any further dusty light rusting of the cylinder and barrel. The only places it blew the poly off was the very front of the cylinder and tip end of the barrel.
But I did notice the poly would scratch and some rust would form in the scratch. So if I could get a clear very hard coating like cerakote or something similar that would do the same thing the poly did, but without scratching, that would be the best. So that may be one option. I could also just poly spray it like I did before and that didn't work out too bad as long as I was careful not to let it get scratched.
The other option would be to just keep it in the white and buff polish it again if it starts to darken. I did that with a S&W 1917 revolver I have, but black powder is so much more corrosive than smokeless that I think that may not be the best option. Black powder fouling on bare metal would be hard to keep from rusting even if meticulously cleaned.
I can also just blue it or brown it.
Haven't made my decision yet.
Fed Ex tracking says the revolver should be here today July 8th.
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