Well I have a dumb question. What is the purpose of aging/antiqueing a reproduction gun? Is it just a preference for the distressed look?
I am in total agreement. It seems to me that most of these folks might be re-enactors or into CAS. I would think that re-enactors would pretty much prefer pristine firearms as they would have appeared in the day. As an example, show me an original Colt 1851 Navy manufactured just prior to the ACW as it appeared in 1861, and it would probably show little wear or abuse.
When I was a teen in the 60's, my father acquired many older firearms from the early-mid 20th Century. The first thing he would do is remove the wood and refinish it to look "new" as that was the norm back then. He had a 1894 Winchester in .25-35 (1919 date of manufacture) that had an original oil-finished stock that he inherited from his father, who won it in a punch-card game back in the 30's. I remember him complaining that there was so much oil in the wood that he could not apply the then state-of-the-art wood finish. He spent many nights with the wood under a heat lamp. He also reblued it using a Herter's solution. My oh my, he thought it was pretty, and it basically looked like a new rifle. In retrospect, I think he was wrong in doing so, but those were his guns.
He did the same thing with a Winchester Model 12 16 gauge: ordered a birdseye maple stock and fore end from Reinhart Fajen for it and we spent an entire afternoon re-blueing it with Herter's Belgian blue. That was an education for me in 1970.
That is 180* out from today's thinking.
I hope all of the antiquers completely defarb the firearm of any Italian proof marks, datecodes, manufacturer marks, et al so it actually looks like an old Winchester, Colt, Remington, or other, for their purposes. That way, it will allow the next oblivious owner to offer it on an auction site like GB as an original to any uninformed potential buyers. :-(
I have 3 Pietta 1851 Navy .36 type pistols LNIB that have not been defarbed in any way, but I can create 6 pistols by easily swapping barrel, cylinder, and frame, 3 of which Pietta never put on the market. I can create a Pietta Leech and Rigdon on a Pietta steel frame using the part octagon/part round barrel and the smooth cylinder from the G&G. I could offer it on GB as a
rare Pietta L&R for $300+ and most lookers would be none the wiser as it does not appear on Pietta's website nor anywhere else. I could also do the same with my Pietta 1851 Navy squareback TG with the same barrel and cylinder and call it a
rare Pietta 1851 Navy 2nd Model Dragoon .36 caliber, which never existed historically.
Leech and Rigdon:
1851 Navy Second Model Dragoon .36 caliber:
That's my take and I know the antiquers have a different view.
Good night all!
Jim