Damascus barrel refinishing

Bill, you are the man! Always impressed by your work. Thanks for posting.
 
Nice black and white contrast. Tried a new cold blue UK gunsmith formula, Phillips Professional cold blue.A little pricey with shipping.Used it on some trigger guards,forearms and bits.Regards,Grayson
 
I'm always gobsmacked by the beauty of your refinishing work. Please keep sharing these projects. Opening one of your threads always leads to a visual treat!
 
Beautiful work . Hope to see you in a few days.
 
The barrels look like steel in the white when it’s been prepped. The material is a composite of iron and steel that started as a billet. The billet was forced by twisting, turning, folding, stretching, etc in a particular progression, which would determine the layout. The process iterations are slow rust bluing, etching, carding, over and over again. The rust adheres more aggressively to the softer iron, and the etchant helps remove it from the steel because the rust couldn’t bite as hard. You slowly build up bluing (rust) on the iron while keeping the relatively bare until you have a nice visible contrast between the two materials.
 
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^^^^^^ 👍👍👍

Getting ready for Parker vs LC Smith at Southern SxS ??
 
I love seeing the work you do. Absolutely beautiful. I know on alot of old shooters refinishing can bring down value. I can't see how the work you do to these old doubles could do anything but add value. But I'm curious on what it does for the values?
 
HandyDave said:
I love seeing the work you do. Absolutely beautiful. I know on alot of old shooters refinishing can bring down value. I can't see how the work you do to these old doubles could do anything but add value. But I'm curious on what it does for the values?
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Thank you. Impact on value depends on how the gun has weathered. Some believe you never do anything. OK. Fine opinion. However, why just let the gun continue to rot if it could be helped while still maintaining evidence of the services it has rendered? Applying a fresh stock finish can help protect the wood. A barrel without bluing is actually rusting away, albeit slowly. Most I see have lost all collector condition value, so in my view there is little risk of harm, but a great benefit to the gun, to restore some protections. Also depends on if the gun is rare or not. For old doubles, you usually have to get quite high up in the grade levels for rarity. If it was taken care of, many thing you would not do.
 
NiceOldDouble said:
Thank you. Impact on value depends on how the gun has weathered. Some believe you never do anything. OK. Fine opinion. However, why just let the gun continue to rot if it could be helped while still maintaining evidence of the services it has rendered? Applying a fresh stock finish can help protect the wood. A barrel without bluing is actually rusting away, albeit slowly. Most I see have lost all collector condition value, so in my view there is little risk of harm, but a great benefit to the gun, to restore some protections. Also depends on if the gun is rare or not. For old doubles, you usually have to get quite high up in the grade levels for rarity. If it was taken care of, many thing you would not do.
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I completely agree. I can understand the real high collector pieces if there in great shape then leave them be. But like you said if there in rougher shape or not high on collector list then refinishing is great to breath new life and give new purpose to something rotting away.
 
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