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colt 1903 pocket pistol
masterzen
Member Posts: 7 ✭✭
I have a colt 1903 pocket pistol and I am ready to blue it for a customer, does anybody know if they were rust blued or hot blued? I want to make it correct but I cannot find the info I need.
Comments
I hate to say it but if it is in otherwise good shape, leave it alone! Re-bluing it will ruin collector value.
I would leave it alone myself and I relayed the same to my customer but he wants it like factory. I do very good work and you would have a very hard time telling the difference that is why he came to me. Thanks for the reply.
I'll take door #3: charcoal blue. Early guns will have fire blue trigger & slide lock, AND EXTRACTOR.
Turnbull is the only shop I know of that does charcoal blue.
Neal
Randy, welcome to the forums. You can be a dream come true for some of us who are looking for a great refinisher. What cal is the Colt? I have one in 32ACP. I have no idea what the original finish was tho. Best, Tom
Hello Tom the colt I have is a .32 rimless I will post pictures after I am finished with it I also have a Winchester model 12 in 16 ga. I am working on. I rust blued it and refinished the stock and I will be recheckering after the finish work is done and will post pictures as well. The owner looked it over today and just smiled I do think he liked what he saw so far
+1 I would love to see pictures of your work. Done a fair amount of hot salts blueing. Would like to learn how to do charcoal and color case hardening.
I jumped the gun a little I am getting to learn the charcoal blue process myself and color case as well. but I do a lot of blue work and parkerize as well. I will be posting pictures of my work.
If it's ready to be blued, then he's past the point of no return.
I'll take door #3: charcoal blue. Early guns will have fire blue trigger & slide lock, AND EXTRACTOR.
Turnbull is the only shop I know of that does charcoal blue.
Neal
Even Turnbull cannot duplicate Colt's charcoal bluing and polishing -- particularly if it is an early gun that had the high-polish finish.
When the gun was manufactured will make a difference on how the finish will look, as Colt changed the process over the years.
No insult intended, "masterzen," but if you're coming to a forum like here to ask about the finish, you are not likely to get it anywhere near "correct" -- Colt had an extensive apprenticeship training process for its finishers; it took many years for the finishers to learn their trade.
If it has already been prepared for refinishing, then it's too late to save any collector's value, so have-at-it with whatever finishing you want to do.