doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Winchester Model 12 reblue

You can wear almost all the blue off of a properly cared for Model 12 in 50, 60, 70 years or so.
JR

My 80 year old Remington model 17 retains perhaps 90% of it's original blue, and was my only repeater for most of a decade. Like the 60 year old Browning A5 my Father bought new, just the sharp edges show loss, and the finish will be servicable for a long time to come. Both have been used very hard, but, not much recently. I was 17 when I got the model 17, and it had been used hard before that. The difference between it, and my first year model 12 was that the 17 was stored indoors and was owned by a few people who understood the concept of keeping a gun clean, and the usefulness of a wipe down with an oily rag.
Bless those folks.
The model 12 was stored in a chicken barn from at least prior to WWII. We know Uncle Rolly owned the farm prior to then, and the gun (and, chickens) came with the place. He farmed until perhaps 1975, and the place was sporadically lived on, or vacant, until 1995, when he died. I got the gun because nobody else wanted it. The toe was broken off the stock, and the long term, damp storage gave the gun an even coating of red rust. Which, "grew back" perhaps a day or two after it was wiped off. Just as sure as the sun rises, nickel steel does rust, given the right circumstances.
I assure you, nobody would have looked at it and pronounced it full of "character". With use, the frosty appearance of the inside of the barrel gave way to an passable bore. But, sometimes, a gun will need service to it's blue.
Not every gun. But, some of them.
I see the same thing with the car guys, out there waxing their "original paint" car that has had the sun burn just about everything except the primer off the thing. Eventually, all finishes need maintenance. For every closet queen gun there are hundreds that have most of their blue and are just fine, and dozens like mine that do work, but, will look a lot better doing it with freshening up.

Best,
Ted

My Dad bought a Model 37 Ithaca 16 ga. somewhere around '54-'55 that I grew up shooting in the '60's. It got proper care, but over the next 20 years it just lost most of its blue from constant use until it was just a silvery brownish blue, very thin. I regretfully had it re-blued it in the "80's. Wish I hadn't.

And Ted, cars are cars and paint is paint. Guns are different.

But I think what Ted is trying to say is, you should go ahead with the re-blue. I really think that is what he is trying to say.

Really.
JR

Of all the things in life to regret, you regret having an Ithaca 37 from the 1950s reblued?

Why? Did it hurt the $250 or so value? How much so? Did it not work correctly when it was all over? Could you no longer hit anything with it?

I honestly don't get that.

Finish, is applied to metal, to preserve the metal. When that finish, be it paint, blueing, plating, or raw linseed oil, has given up the ghost, the metal is on it's own. Any finish is applied pretty much for that reason, only.

Paint, plating, and lowly blue are only finish. They have no other reason to be there. Steel is steel, and it all looks pretty much the same after a few years of hard outdoor use, in the absence of some sort of finsh.

Hot blue is pretty durable. What Ted is saying is a gun with no finish left on it, isn't really all it is cracked up to be.

Patina looks good-on your guns, John. If that is what you like. I guess.

Best,
Ted

I had a date with Patina once, no regrets there. She was all she was cracked up to be.
JR

Did you ever have a gun turn out too good? I am now really tempted to make the rest of this circa 1914 gun look as good as the stock does. With the new (replacement) stock on the gun, in the factory original length (13 1/2-inches) and with the factory butplate, she's 6lbs even. The shorter and milder, semi-pistol grip stock doesn't even seem to be a problem, and if anything it compliments the 25-inch barrel. This gun is light, quick- pointing, and with 20 points of choke, should be deadly on upland gamebirds. If I thought I could get a solid rib and a re-blue on it in time for early October, I'd be sorely tempted. It would be $500 well-spent.

If you're simply looking for a hot blue to spruce it up, I had Mel Doyle's gunshop in Plummer, ID do a reblue for me on a beater Rem Model 11 16 ga, I polished up and sent his way. It turned out very nice.

He does the standard blue for somewhere around $100.00 and the high polish for around $150.00, if he does all the work. If I remember correctly, he charged me $60.00 for the job he did on the Model 11-it was disassembled and polished to 400 grit. He told me he put a bit more shine on it than the 400 grit I turned it over to him, with.

Cameron: Thanks for that, but I'm probably looking to do this old Winchester a little better than that. On another forum (that is severely virus laden!) I read that while Simmons (and others) can do the job, there may be unintended consequences. Need to research that a bit more.

I'm always amazed at the number of "Rust-Bucket" guns described as having "Original Finish." I am not really aware of any gun-makers who shipped their guns out covered in Rust.