doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Losing Bluing at Contact Area With Gun Rack

Greetings from a new guy. Two years ago I had a gun case custom built in my den. The wood is beautiful sunken cypress. The half rounds where the barrels rest do not have any covering (it seems to me that they often have green felt or something similar). The guns, all nice doubles I inherited from my father in law, seem to be losing their bluing where they come into contact with the wood. I'm at a loss to understand why. The guns only get moved a couple of times a year and so shouldn't be rubbing. Does anyone have any reasonable explanation? I'd like to get the guy who made the gun case fix the problem if it is something he should have known about. Anyway, thanks for any opinions offered.

Whatever wood finish your carpenter put on the wood it is attacking the gun blue, ask him what exactly he used.........suggest you felt line the contact area's.......

Welcome aboard........

Best,

Definitely putting the felt on. Is there a special kind, like Pacific cloth that is used for silver?

Old, sunken wood absorbs tannins in water. That's why clean bog water is brown.(ie tannic acid) The wood is probably acidic. Get some felt on it or get the gun out of it. When people want to put small peices of drift wood in fish taks it has to be boiled to remove the tannins or it will lower the ph in your fish tank and kill your fish.

ROMAC: thanks for the explanation. Very informative.

All of the guns are nice but one, a 20 ga. Purdey, is especially nice. Has their economic value now been drastically reduced by the symmetrical, non-blued spots on each side of the barrel? I certainly don't like the way it looks but I'm not too worried about their value as I won't be selling them but my heirs, none of whom hunt, might be concerned. I assume re-bluing would be frowned upon?

The tannins in the water are mostly caused by decaying leaves. If the barrel fit tight, that could be the reason, but I would definitely put felt around the area.

Given the value of the guns we're talking about, I'd go a step further and line the slots with thin plastic first, then felt or other soft material. That should prevent tannins from passing into the felt.

you can have rust blue touched up by a gunsmith that knows his way around old doubles....the good ones will match it up near perfect....

Plastic is a good idea but you can also seal the wood with shellac or polyurethane. Both are inert.

If you use felt, get a proper felt - use the stuff you get from archival supply places and use an appropriate adhesive. Adhesives such as Pliobond will corrode some metals. Even rubber cement is not inert.

Good tips. Thanks for the input. I'm used to shooting a Citori and this group of doubles I've admired at my father-in-law's house for30 years is a bit intimidating. I want to be a good steward.