Life after "antiquing" my Uberti

[Sneaky Potato]

Well I finally caved in and bought a Uberti Cattleman Hombre...it's not the nicest one in the Uberti line, but it's easy on the wallet. I mostly bought it because I want to refinish the gun. I've seen lots of threads where people have "antiqued" their revolvers by stripping the blue from the gun with vinegar. I like the look, but I haven't been able to find anything about life after antiquing. Basically my fear boils down to this: that I'm going to strip my gun and then it's going to become rust city unless I keep the thing drenched in oil 24/7. Obviously I need to keep the gun oiled, but I don't want to get oily hands while reloading!

Does anybody have any experience with this? Are stripped guns a pain? And if so, what can I do to make it easier to deal with? (It should be noted that I don't plan on using Plumb Brown...I don't like the look) Thanks everyone!!!

 

[madcratebuilder]

I've stripped my share of Italian revolvers. The bare steel does not rust unless you try real hard. I have a barrel or two here that are bare steel waiting to be reblued and they have zero rust. Been on the bench for a year. Bare steel oiled and wiped well not rust in normal storage conditions.

Here's a Uberti that I aged.

 

[Tallinar]

So my dad has had a pair of Army San Marco .357 SAA replicas for several years. I always thought they were stainless, and didn't go out of my way to give them abnormally high TLC (just normal cleaning/light oiling) when they were in my charge.

Much to my surprise, I noticed some surface rust in the cylinder chambers last time I took them out to shoot. I went ahead and fired them, took them home and the rust cleaned out easily. Looking back, I am pretty sure they hadn't been cleaned or oiled for a couple sessions. I learned that night while talking to Dad that these guns were actually bare-steel. I'd been thinking they were stainless all this time. He laughed.

Moral of the story is - a) clean your guns, and b) bare steel can hold up surprisingly well with normal levels of gun maintenance.

 

[Sneaky Potato]

Tallinar, that's exactly the answer I was looking for. Thanks a ton

My worst fear is that the bare metal would require more than just a quick "wipe on and wipe dry" coating of oil. If I had bought an original engraved Colt or something I might want to put some care into it. Since the Hombre is a $300 gun, I think I'll take the laziest route possible

Madcratebuilder, great pics!! In this antiquing process I love seeing other people's pics in order to get an idea of what I want!

 

[Fishslayer]

Here's a Uberti that I aged.

That looks great! Kinda has a Damascus look to it.

 

[texagun]

I personally prefer Boge Quinn's method of antiquing an Uberti.

http://www.gunblast.com/Boge_Uberti.htm

This method leaves some of the original finish on the gun, so it would be less prone to rust or corrosion.

 

[Sneaky Potato]

Ahhh texagun, you're well informed. That is the exact article that I've been drooling over. I plan on doing the exact same treatment to my gun, but my brother is going to completely strip his. Here's a guy that did a similar thing to his gun, except used simichrome and buffed it (and its the look I'm hoping for)

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4668017

Beautiful, right?

Madcratebuilder...how does one achieve pitting like you have on that fine iron?