Removal of a Millenium finish?????

[1858remington]

I am presently working on converting an Uberti 1858 Remington into a pocket/defence gun. I'm cutting the 8 inch barrel down to 3 inches, and I am contemplating making the grip into a bird head. The guns finish is that damn Millenium parkerized fiinish. My question is: Is there an easy way to remove this finish? And is it possible to reblue the metal once it is removed? any information would very appreciated.

 

[Manyirons]

My gunsmith here simply beadblasted this finish off, in preperation for electroless nickle.

Same project as yours except mine is 4.0" with rounded butt.

 

[Yankee John]

The Millenium finish IS blueing! It looks different because the metal surface wasn't polished before the application of the blue. It's the same finish that they use on the Millenium Cattleman SSA's.

Fastest, cheapest, and safest stuff to use for removing blueing is Naval Jelly, available at every hardware store, Menard's, Lowe's, or Home Depot (don't try looking for it in your belly button )

John

 

[Duncaninfrance]

The Millenium finish IS blueing! It looks different because the metal surface wasn't polished before the application of the blue. It's the same finish that they use on the Millenium Cattleman SSA's.

Fastest, cheapest, and safest stuff to use for removing blueing is Naval Jelly, available at every hardware store, Menard's, Lowe's, or Home Depot (don't try looking for it in your belly button )

John

No, your belly button is for putting salt in when you eat pickled eggs in bed!
Duncan

 

[mainmech48]

IIRC, the finish on "Millenium" model Ubertis is indeed chemical bluing applied over a finely bead blasted, rather than polished, surface. Likely done mostly for its savings in time and skilled labor, IMO.

The cost to have your revolver professionaly polished would be substantial. DIY can be done, but it would be tedious in the extreme and requires both skill and great care to get nice results.

IIWY, I'd just remove whatever's left of the factory finish after all the metal work's completed with naval jelly of Birchwood Casey's blue and rust remover. By "completed", I mean with any sight regulation for your chosen load done and any action tuning and/or functioning issues that turn up in testing addressed and corrected.

Then I'd just have the surface texture evened up by bead blasting where needed to match and either reblue it or send it out for electroless nickel or hard chroming. The latter two are very resistent to both wear and corrosion, and look very "business-like" on a working gun.

Any modifications to the shape of the grip frame that you'd like can be accomplished by a skilled metal artisan. They aren't likely to be inexpensive though, and obviously the more radical the changes the more it's going to cost. I've seen them with just "the corners knocked off" and completely reworked. One very closely resembled the S&W "New Model" No. 3, one the Colt 1878 "Lightning", and one the classic "bird's head" similar to the aftermarket SAA and Vacquero grip frames. Average cost on these was about $500 including custom grips.

 

[Old Dragoon]

I would advise against Naval Jelly. unless you can insure that you can get it all off afterwards, I and some others used that when it first came out or back in the 60's -70's and no finish would stick to the metal derusted, deblued with Naval Jelly. B=C blue and rust remover works well when the directions are followed and it isn't that expenside at Wally World.

 

[RyanM]

From what I've read on here, vinegar will strip the bluing off pretty fast. You'll probably have to shell out some big bucks to have it refinished, though. I think there may be some polymer coats which are supposed to be do-it-yourself, but rust browning for an "old and poorly maintained" look would probably be the easiest and cheapest.

 

[ArmedBear]

Why remove the finish?

Polishing can be a PITA, but I've done it to a Remington kit and it came out really nice. It helps to have a polishing wheel and dust hood, which my dad does. The Remmie has few round surfaces, so start with fine sandpaper and work your way finer. Then polish with a polishing wheel and compound (carefully so as not to remove any edges from the octagonal barrel).

Or just do the gun up the way you want it, finish the cut parts with sandpaper down to maybe 800 or 1000, and re-blue them with some good blueing (not the B/C stuff in a tube, at least on my old Italian Remington kit, that stuff wouldn't stay blue where I touched it).

It's a pocket gun, anyway. No need to overdo the blueing thing.

And browning it could make it look like an original, especially if you sneak a little of the B/C blueing stuff in a tube here and there to look like old blueing.

 

[gmatov]

Naval Jelly is along the lines of a phosphoric acid rust remover, converts the rusted surface to a phosphate surface. Little will penetrate that. Bluing wont. Clean to bare metal, if you have to sand, polish and grind.

Or, if you just want to make it look old, listen to the others, vinegar was, scrub with steel wool, blue or brown. Let your imagination be your judge. Too bad your imagination doesn't extend to a beatiful deep blue.

I would seriously doubt that there was a cowboy, or anybody else, 140 years ago who said "OH, OH, I want one 'a them old looking finishes, like the gun's a hunnerd years old."

Hell, I just spent 2 months pay, I want the sumbitch to look new!!!

Them of you who want this, god bless you, I wouldn't deprive you of it, but I STILL can't understand it. They WILL eventually get that way.

I know, some of us are too damned old to wait that long, we'll be long gone before they get that way, naturally.

I'd like to ask what one of yunz would say if someone scratched the barrel on your Weatherby. And you'll take a damn near pristine Pietta, which does a pert near perfect job of polishing and bluing, and scrub the finish off to look like an old salt.

Hard to understand.

Cheers,

George

 

[Old Dragoon]

I believe it is called ROMANCE of the Old West. George.
That said I do have more Blued ones now than antiqued. I like them both. but I love old guns and yes If I could find one unshot in pristine blue and had the bucks to buy it..You bet in a New York minute! But the ones that look like I make 'em look, well, they have a story to tell, and for the money,I'd probably opt for the working girl every time.
Don't own a Weatherby, just an old 10-22 Ruger from the 70's my only modern gun. Gots a passle o' Remmies though.

 

[Yankee John]

I agree that a perfectly prepared blued finish is best and my personal favorite.

But the Millenium finish that we are talking about here is butt ugly and looks like someone took a can of flat black spray paint and went at it on the gun (where's that puke smilie when you need it). Oh, here it is

The Naval Jelly worked great stripping my Cattleman. Fast, easy, and safe. I guess I'll have to tell the Birchwood Casey Plum Browned, Brownell's Oxpho-Blued, and Flitzed polished antique finish to get off my gun cause it's not supposed to be there!

Your mileage may vary,
John

 

[Steve499]

You ask a good question, George, about why some like the antiqued look and some don't. In my case, I suppose I fell in love with guns when I numbered my years in single digits. Back then, nobody in my sphere of influence owned a gun of any kind which I ever saw with a single speck of original blue finish. When I visited someone who owned a T.V. and got to watch a western, black and white naturally, I mentally colored the guns brown and weathered looking or worn bare metal looking, just like all the REAL guns I'd ever seen. I didn't own a gun with a blued finish until I bought a new Ruger 10-22 about the third year they were out. It sure was pretty and I liked the finish on it just fine, but to this day, an old, brown, worn looking firearm still affects me like it would have way back then.

Steve

 

[ArmedBear]

But the Millenium finish that we are talking about here is butt ugly and looks like someone took a can of flat black spray paint and went at it on the gun (where's that puke smilie when you need it). Oh, here it is

I have a certain liking for "working guns" and the Millenium finish fits that. I've got a SAA clone in said finish, and I don't mind carrying it, quick-drawing it, spinning it, etc. Who cares about holster wear? I would feel bad wearing off beautiful polished blue so I can play around or take it on a dusty trail. I've also got an 1858 in Millenium. Surface rust just wipes off with Bullfrog, and leaves no ugly spot like it would on nice blueing. I don't mind passing it around like a drunk sorority sister, either, since it's not particularly pretty anyway.

Sounds like this Remmie is destined for use as a practical gun. That means holster wear, maybe some rust, etc. It'd be a shame to do that to a really pretty one!

 

[1858remington]

Thanks for all the info It's been a real help. I think I'm gonna leave that finish alone for the most part.