Pietta Colt 1860 Army with “Old West” finish

I loved the aged stuff, though I'd never do that to a guitar. The way I look at it is this, I'd love to have original Colt's but that's $3000-$4000 for a historic relic in questionable condition. Usually with a pitted bore and often in need of gunsmithing. For $500 I can get something that looks the part but is new in every other way. Plus it's stronger than the originals were and in the case of conversions, I don't have to monkey with heeled bullets.



Similar situation with cars and bikes. Those that look original but have either been restored mechanically or "restomods" that look like crap but run like a bat outta hell are very appealing. Maybe I've been watching too much Roadkill but for the past few years, I've been saying that I want a $1500 truck with a $15,000 motor in it. Plus paint and body work is exorbitantly expensive. That style is something that probably keeps vehicles on the road that would otherwise be left to rot. It would cost me $10,000 to paint my `03 Chevy and its body is perfect. A 70yr old original would easily triple that. Cool thing about bikes is you can build something that looks old from all new parts.

I like it.

When I buy something new I want it to look new. The LGS had a John Wayne version of the SAA in stock a few weeks ago. It looked like it was supposed to, yellowed ivory grips( fake of course), no finish at all with some spotting on the metal and all for only $999. Now that's something new that I can appreciate looking old and if I hadn't recently handed him 8 1/2 bills out the door for a nice 3 screw BlackHawk I would have been sorely tempted but my Scots DNA said "NO". When I told my wife about it she replied, "Well, did you buy it"? Enabler. It was about 2 weeks before I dropped by the shop just to visit and it was gone.

The trouble is, the artificial "distressed" finishes don't look like a naturally aged pistol. They are way too bright, and usually mimic (or try to) a pistol that has been rusted in the past. I think that is the exception for old, naturally aged pistols. If you carried and used, and depended on a pistol, one did not just let it rust in the holster. Yes, they may have rusted away in attics and closets later, but that...is another story.

This is a naturally aged barrel, although the lighting in the pic is not right, it does not have that purple tint. Since this pic, I did take the blue off the cylinder with vinegar, and got it to match the barrel with some diluted cold blue and dirty cleaning patches. (from cleaning the barrel after shooting) even then it took about a month of actual aging to match the barrel. The closest the bright, aged finishes come to looking the part, is that of a rusted relic that has been wire brushed.

A naturally aged pistol might have some pitting, but mostly it will look like a well cared for pistol, that has been in use and carried much, not a wire brushed ex-rust bucket.

CraigC said:

I've been saying that I want a $1500 truck with a $15,000 motor in it. Plus paint and body work is exorbitantly expensive.

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Ha. Chrysler Marine engine in a $2000 car. Paint? We don't need (or want) no stinking paint. Couple coats of primer and you can touch it up forever, unlike an exorbitantly expensive paint job. Do all the body work you want, when you want...primer is easy to touch up. !!

$15,000 motor? Chrysler Marine...priceless...and every bit as good. If not better. Thread content: pretty hard to fake an aged finish, unless you do some actual aging. Instant aging usually don't cut it. Looks like what it is.

I like it but then I also like them looking like a rusted up barn find brought back from the dead. I also like rat rods.

hawg said:

I like it but then I also like them looking like a rusted up barn find brought back from the dead. I also like rat rods.

View attachment 1129195

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That looks better than a bright finish, is that natural, or "aged". I still like a "worn" look, used but not abused, better than a "previously rusted" or barn find look.

Rat-Rods...my car was a Rat Rod, but now the definition has gone into the realm of rusted hunks of welded chains and scrap metal, and other touches that turns the rod from something fun to drive and use, and build for cheap, into just another fad of Mad Max show queens, and "look at me" cars that are trailered to the show. !!! Now poor old Lumpy Lou don't know what she is anymore.

Ugly Sauce said:

That looks better than a bright finish, is that natural, or "aged".

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A little of both. I bought it new when I was 12. If I told you how I treated it back then I would probably be raked over the coals. Anyway it lost all of its bluing pretty quick and along about 1975 I broke the loading lever. After I got married in 77 I got tired of lugging a lot of stuff around every time we moved so it got stored in moms attic for several years. When I got it back out it looked a lot worse than when it went in. I got a Uberti loading lever but that bright shiny new lever looked really out of place so I stripped the bluing off and it still looked out of place so I aged everything together. I actually found an original in an old barn and it looked a lot like that.

here is an original that just came up for sale

That one was made no later than 1863.

Rustmangler said:

View attachment 1129212here is an original that just came up for sale

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Looks just like Hawgs!

1KPerDay said:

Not sure how you feel about “antiqued” or “distressed” finishes on guns, guitars, hot rods, etc. but Pietta makes this one and it looks pretty good IMO. Cost about $75 more than a standard finish. Got it mostly with Cabelas points. Looks fairly close to my original Colt 1860 Army. Shoots pretty well.

I think I’ll strip/refinish the grips eventually.

video for any interested

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Well the finish on that ain't too bad, not too bright.

Were Remington NMA’s in production up to 1875?

The finish on that new “distressed”1860 has a lot of appeal.

Eyrie G. Dogg said:

Were Remington NMA’s in production up to 1875?

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Yes they were.

Howdy

Here is a photo of my original Colt Richards Conversion. Other than being a bit pitted, and not having any blue left on it, the metal is in good shape. Somebody must have kept it oiled all those years, there is no rust. Not sure exactly when this one was made, my notes say 1871.






The same revolver with different lighting outdoors.









P.S.
Sorry, I do not know why some of my photos are not coming through these days.

Ugly Sauce said:

The trouble is, the artificial "distressed" finishes don't look like a naturally aged pistol. They are way too bright, and usually mimic (or try to) a pistol that has been rusted in the past. I think that is the exception for old, naturally aged pistols. If you carried and used, and depended on a pistol, one did not just let it rust in the holster. Yes, they may have rusted away in attics and closets later, but that...is another story.
View attachment 1129191
This is a naturally aged barrel, although the lighting in the pic is not right, it does not have that purple tint. Since this pic, I did take the blue off the cylinder with vinegar, and got it to match the barrel with some diluted cold blue and dirty cleaning patches. (from cleaning the barrel after shooting) even then it took about a month of actual aging to match the barrel. The closest the bright, aged finishes come to looking the part, is that of a rusted relic that has been wire brushed.

A naturally aged pistol might have some pitting, but mostly it will look like a well cared for pistol, that has been in use and carried much, not a wire brushed ex-rust bucket.

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Jeez! I thought that was mine for a half second. Bluing has turned the same brown/gray shade and it only took 60 years to accomplish! I’ve already started aging several others…

Driftwood Johnson said:

Howdy

Here is a photo of my original Colt Richards Conversion. Other than being a bit pitted, and not having any blue left on it, the metal is in good shape. Somebody must have kept it oiled all those years, there is no rust. Not sure exactly when this one was made, my notes say 1871.

View attachment 1129288




The same revolver with different lighting outdoors.

View attachment 1129289


P.S.
Sorry, I do not know why some of my photos are not coming through these days.

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Dang it Driftwood. Making me look at that thing again.

woodnbow said:

Jeez! I thought that was mine for a half second. Bluing has turned the same brown/gray shade and it only took 60 years to accomplish! I’ve already started aging several others

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I've started aging this lovely little thing, but I think I'll probably croak before it shows any "distress". fit, finish, and bluing on this Little Brat is pretty amazing.

Ugly Sauce said:

Ha. Chrysler Marine engine in a $2000 car. Paint? We don't need (or want) no stinking paint. Couple coats of primer and you can touch it up forever, unlike an exorbitantly expensive paint job. Do all the body work you want, when you want...primer is easy to touch up. !!
View attachment 1129193
$15,000 motor? Chrysler Marine...priceless...and every bit as good. If not better. Thread content: pretty hard to fake an aged finish, unless you do some actual aging. Instant aging usually don't cut it. Looks like what it is.

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Is that a 49/50 Plymouth?

Jackrabbit1957 said:

Is that a 49/50 Plymouth?

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46 or 47

Ha ha both wrong. 1948, last of the '40's body style. '46, '47 and '48's are identical, (and basically a continuation of the 1942, until they could switch back over from war production) with two of those years just having a different colored steering column.

Oh oh...thread content: When is Pietta going to follow Uberti on the barrel stampings/markings. (which would be a dark day for Uberti)?

1KPerDay said:

Hopefully soon. The new lighter (I think) laser-engraved barrel markings are a vast improvement though.

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Oh, I didn't know about the laser-engraving instead of stampings. Yes, that's a big plus right there as they are easy to remove. Well, look out Uberti.

I been thinking...!!!!...on the "distressed" or the once-rusted look. I supposed that no matter how well taken care of, the old guns, most of the time, probably did see time in the attic or basement when they were no longer in use, and the guys who used and carried them had long since croaked.

I suppose that the pistols that did not rust up during that period, when no one really cared about them, now command such prices that you don't usually see them in the hands of people who take them out and shoot them, use them. The realm of Mr. Money-Bags. I think that is why artificially aged pistols usually go the route of once rusted guns. ???