to age or not to age

What do you call "aged" ? Simply worn by the use or looking like it spent the past 150 years buried in a battlefield ?

go shoot the crap out of it and maybe skip an exterior cleaning.

I'll say make it look like you want it to...vinegar cut blueing, you can swirl it, blot it, let it dry and do over ifin ya don't like it. You can put it in the white and use Perma Blue Paste (cold blue) to age it. And if ya don't like that use whatever amout you desire to give the light blue color to the Steel as a metalic grey/blue that looks aged.
1960 Colt Centaure

Put all the blued part in vinegar to remove the blue, polish the color case hardened parts (the coat is very thin so it'll vanish quickly) then "paint" it with salted water at the places where you want it to be a bit rusty, let it overnight and lightly oil it without rubbing to hard. It should look like it spent twenty years of hardships on the Oregon trail.

And if ya don't like that use whatever amout you desire to give the light blue color to the Steel as a metalic grey/blue that looks aged

Click to expand...

EXACTLY what I did to my Walker! Not 100% happy with the final product (not mottled enough for me), but it sure looks different.

Here's my SAA, with the salted water process, except that I wiped all the rust to keep instead the darkened and mottled steel :

Strip the bluing and color case off all metal. spray it with salted vinegar and wrap it with plastic wrap, let it set for 24 hrs. The plastic wrap well give a mottled look to it.

Hey Chuck,

A couple of months back (I think it was Scrat) put up a string of pics on, IIRC a Remmie. He had not so much aged this as made it looked very 'used'.

Came out looking real good. Might give you some ideas of your own if you can find the thread?

Of the lot I think I like the looks of Ginourmous' and razorback's. At least from the pictures. They look like honest wear, fading and occasional unavoidable corrosion effects without looking like they were "buried underground for 160 years" or dippedn'stripped in the modern "antique" furniture parlance.

It's tough to achieve a natural patina that looks like honest wear from a respectful owner over many years of time. Many of the processes suggested here strike me as being much like like the brutal furniture aging techniques. Being a woodworker I see such maltreatment and just want to cry in most of the cases after seeing what genuine antique patina looks like.

The best aging techniques for "new" looking guns are going to be subtle and minor... unless you are wanting that "buried for 160 years in a wet field" look. But for myself I'd far rather have the polished barrel end, polished cylinder rim and general area blue fading and other cues that speak of many, many holsterings and much shooting Such speaks more of a long history of respectful use with unavoidable wear and less about a quick "dipn'strip".

A good way to see what I mean is to look at a well used but well loved older S&W hand ejector revolver that saw a lot of holster carry and many rounds down the pipe to see what sort of cues this sort of history would bring.

But as I said if you're genuinely after a full on maltreated and found in a musty hideaway style then that's a whole other process and many of the full gun treatments would then apply including aging and cracking the wood grips. I guess this last option just isn't my own cup of tea.

I agree.And if you went back to the Civil War era,they'd all be still pretty much new.

I think I would go for the honest wear and tear. Many holsterings and much handling will give it an honest, earned character. I have only seen and handled one original Colt 1860 Army that looked close to the posted Colt Centaure. That one was hanging in a walk-in vault and received no special care. I recently handled an original 1851 Colt Navy. It was in it's case along with the associated equipment. The revolver was obviously well used, but not abused. The exterior finish was approximately 65% +.
You can also get some honest wear on your equipment while using it to enjoy your 1860.
I have two Italian replicas that have been through a fire. Both were in holsters and had been used on a regular basis. The building they were in was a total loss along with most of the contents. These were dug out of the ruins. They were still wrapped in what remained of the burnt leather, wet holsters. There was some discoloration on one revolver and almost none on the second. The worst one was maybe 65% or so. The best one just had some heat damage to the wood grip. Both guns have been inspected and received new springs, and are in use today.

Well,I don't polish my brass frames because I like the ''mustard yellow'' and all of my guns get lots of use,so I guess they are ''naturally'' aged...

Madcratebuilders Paterson is one of the best "ageing" jobs I have ever come across. If not for a careful eye it could be passed as a ancient one

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=458444

I took a Uberti 58 Remington and wrapped it in a towel soaked in vinegar for 30 minutes and removed it to the shower stall with steam for 30 minutes and than let it sit in a drying condition. The bluing was removed anywhere the towel touched the surface of the frame which showed simulated wear in the right places and steaming produced a patina of rust brown which to me shows a simulated wear and aging that is tough to beat.

I tend to like a gun with natural wear that comes from use, the wear from riding in a holster, shooting, cleaning ect. When I pick up a gun that has been with me for some time those marks and wear bring back memories. Some folks like something else. It's all in what you like, it's your gun.

Get a close fitting holster for it, and line it with baby powder. Draw. Reholster. Repeat as needed. Thats the accelerated "honest wear," program. The baby powder is a superfine abrasive, and will take a fair amount of the bluing off. As an added bonus, it will work its way into the action, and give all the parts a very fine polish.

~~~Mat

The towel and vinegar with steam after method sounds like it may produce some interesting results if you're after an instant antique. But I think I'd be inclined to remove it from both earlier rather than later. The best artificial patina is one that is subtle and minimalist and then added to with actual final wearing.

The close fitting holster and talcum with perhaps a touch of very limited vinegar blue fading would likely be my choice if I was going to attempt a quick aging treatment.

But the best of all is Olmontanaboy's method that brings back the memories of happy times. If you have the time to do that's by far the best way.

Carried in 'Mexican' style of in-the-wasit-band for a few Summers and Winters, Rain and Shine, in a Hot Clime...0000 Steel Wooling off the orange 'bloomings' now and then...ought to do it...