As Mike points out, many guns are restored or refinished these days. In a lot of cases, only knowing that particular make/model/vintage extremely well, well enough to know polishing, colors, engraving, checkering, wood finishes, etc., will you be able to detect good refinishes/resto's. There are people out there studying how to do each process of finishing to exactly duplicate the original. So, detecting refinished guns can be a challenge for the buyer with casual interest in a particular model/make/vintage.
