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Bluing will wear from handling and also from cleaning (or maybe I should say over-cleaning). Rust blue is particularly susceptible to being rubbed off with even an oiled cloth and some of the new "blitz" cloths can really do a job on it after a while.
After all, bluing is nothing more than controlled rust. Anything that will remove or penetrate into rust will do the same to bluing. If left totally alone, bluing should not change, but also note that light refraction can totally change the appearance of bluing, depending in part on the intitial preparation of the steel (degree of polish).
More than one collector has used a Maglite to look into his safe and nearly had heart failure on seeing some of his most prized guns turned into a mass of rust. But it was just the way those lights penetrate rust bluing, and after the EMT team left and he looked at the guns in normal light, he was OK.
Jim
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