To age, or not to age

Should I wear the finish on my Uberti?

  • Age

    Votes: 5 10.4%
  • Keep as is

    Votes: 43 89.6%

  • Total voters
    48
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Jessesky

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Opinions welcome before I ruin my gun. I’ve never been a huge fan of how my Uberti 1873 looks. Dare I say the finish is too pristine for an action designed in 1873.

I was thinking about aging it, wearing the bluing in some spots, and stripping off the wood varnish to finish with oil and wax.

What do you think? Will I kill the resale value?
C08A9F27-4DE8-48EB-B2D6-B585B3742459.jpeg
(Yes the muzzle is threaded)
 
I agree that the finish and appearance do look out of sinc with the design era. I'm in the "it's your gun" camp , but - I would start with a very careful wood refinish as you described , leaving the metal surfaces as is for stage 1. That might satisfy you , and altering the wood finish is not as scary as going at the bluing.
As to resale - who cares , we're not talking about big sums of money one way or the other.

Why is the muzzle threaded?
 
I’d get out the spreading knife and get some seedy mustard on it overnight.

But maybe try some steel wool first.
 
Its your gun do what makes you happy. More regrets are from things you did not do vs the one you do do. And they are making
more Ubertis so you can always get another..

Also you may consider getting one second hand that has some existing surface and finish wear that way you are not ruining a mint finish.

Did it to one of my Ubertis, wanted it to have a stored to long in the holster wear look. When I am opening a box of ammo for her, I have had people at the range come over make sure I understood that those older guns can not handle modern ammo.
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DSCF0146.JPG
 
Why is the muzzle threaded?

It’s one of the few reproductions I have, so I’ve always wanted a suppressed 357. I figured this would be the best opportunity. Though I agree the thread protector doesn’t look great

Sound like I’ll keep it as is and at most oil finish the stock
 
This is actually pretty fearsome defense weapon sometimes called California assault-style rifle. The threading is actually value enhancing feature.
 
When Winchester made their 1873s back in the day, they were pretty like that. The ones made pretty in, say, 1887 are 132 years old and might be like Indy1919a4's revolver if used and carried around a lot. It could be in better shape if it had been lightly used and kept in a closet most times.

It's YOUR rifle. It's a very nice looking rifle. But it's your right to age it, or to leave it.

I just bought a Uberti Winchester 1873 short rifle with half octagonal barrel. I will be keeping it new as possible .... accepting dings as they happen, as I did the 1873 saddle-ring carbine I bought in 1992.

That was my choice. Your choice can be different, it's not my affair.
 
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How long have you owned the gun? What would an 1873 Winchester, owned for the same time, have looked like back in the 19th century? Personally, I see no sense in keeping it NIB, to preserve its resale value, but neither do I see any sense in artificially accelerating normal wear and tear. Shoot it and maintain it the way you should any good rifle.
 
i have several uberti colts. one had a lot of machine marks so i removed all machine marks and scratches. then i bead blasted the metal and rust blued those parts. it turned out perfect. on some of the grips i took the varnish off with a varnish remover and oil hand rubbed them to a soft oil glow. a couple o left as is and highly polished them with HUTS polish , way better than when they come from the factory. if i ever bought a wincherster repo the first thing i would do is remove the varnish carefully and hand rub a oil finish into the wood after staining it with leather dye to really brings out the grain. the metal i would leave alone. if their were brass parts i woould as i did with my revolvers i would make them machine mark and scratch free and polish to a perfect shine. then as they aged they still would be as smooth as silk. i cant leave a nice gun alone, i make them the best they can be inside and out.same with the muzzleloaders i build. i didnt learn this over night but i did learn it.
 
just take the high gloss off the wood IMHO, it sort of makes it look like plastic to me a little. matt finish or semi-gloss always looks better. it would be pretty easy to put another thin layer of a gloss finish back on the wood later, so - you're not really damaging anything. for me, I would not muck around with the bluing or anything else, but the glare off of that wood is a bit much. fine steel wool or very fine sandpaper would knock that shine down in a matter of minutes - then maybe put a quick coat of wax on it. you know - you might be able to just put a coat of low gloss wax on it - and that might take some of the sheen off the wood, then you've really done nothing permanent.
 
I’m not a fan of “fake” aging. Use it and let it earn its wear while you create memories with it. I’m all for stripping the stock. I stripped off the gloss finish on my Uberti SA mostly because I didn’t like the feel of it. Felt like plastic, not wood.

Now that threaded muzzle...
 
Rarely do I see anything artificially aged that looks good (mostly cars and bikes).

Just like others said, use it to wear it.

You can always remove a finish later, but you can never add it back after you ruined it with a botched home-made patina
 
I wouldn't do anything to the metal but I'm not a fan of that varnish like wood finish. Strip it an give it a good oil finish and you will like the whole thing much more.
 
Oil finish stock---good!
Threaded muzzle---not good.
Metal develops a better looking patina on it's own.
 
Opinions welcome before I ruin my gun. I’ve never been a huge fan of how my Uberti 1873 looks. Dare I say the finish is too pristine for an action designed in 1873.

I was thinking about aging it, wearing the bluing in some spots, and stripping off the wood varnish to finish with oil and wax.

What do you think? Will I kill the resale value?
View attachment 859211
(Yes the muzzle is threaded)

To the right person it might not hurt the resale value much. If it's what you want (and it sounds like it is) I say go with it . Plus, if you make it look like you want you may not feel like selling it anyway. That's just my take.
 
Addendum :

A varnished surface does not age well. It either has to be maintained in good condition , or it will become chipped , flaked , patchy-weathered , and crappy.
I own a 50 year old 34 ft sailboat ; take my word on this.
 
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