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Refinishing Guns

636 fitter636 fitter Member Posts: 16 ✭✭
edited November 2007 in Ask the Experts
Having some of my guns reblued, nickle plated and stocks painted, I was told that it takes away value of them.

Is it better to leave them in the orginal condition ? these guns that I speak of are from the 80's and newer. My older guns are still in orginal condition all the way back to the civil war.

Thanks

Comments

  • duckhunterduckhunter Member Posts: 7,687 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Depends on the guns and how bad ther are. Usually reblue does lower the value
  • dcs shootersdcs shooters Member Posts: 10,870 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It depends if they are just shooters or collectibles. If a lot of them were built,and are later models I'd say go for it. They belong to you. I've refinished a few of mine.
  • FatstratFatstrat Member Posts: 9,147
    edited November -1
    As the others have said, it depends on a couple of factors.
    Current or possible future collector interest. And current condition.
    Generally I shy away from refinishing collectable guns. Unless the current condition is so bad as to rendering the gun undesireable and nearly worthless in the 1st place.
    Patina'd metal finish and worn stock finish w/nicks and dents is to be expected on most old guns.
    I use a "formula" as follows. Do some reasearch and find out what the gun is worth in present condition. Then use your best judgement to determine if refinishing will inhance or detract from value.
    If you never intend to sell the gun, I suppose it really doesn't matter.
    If you do sell it, a "good" refinish likely won't hurt as much as people like to say.
    Purist collectors probably won't touch it. But there's alot of people who will buy stictly on terms of current condition and won't mind if it's refinished. You likely won't get top dollar. But it will surely bring more than one in poor/fair condition.
  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,572 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A poorly done job such as bottled cold blue over top screw holes draged out/corners rounded etc will not help the value. A really nice job usually cost more than you will ever get back but at least you can enjoy the gun while you are out shooting.
  • agostinoagostino Member Posts: 414 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Some books talk about "old reblue" as being okay. Original is still best. But an older friend and I were laughing when we realized that some of the refinishing we did back in the 1950's is now deemed pretty much okay as "old reblues."
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