Made a Mistake - Want to Reblue

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InfamousLegend

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Went shooting today and it started to intermittenly rain so I packed up. Got home and wiped down my guns. Out of all my guns the only one I missed water on was my 1953 S&W Pre-27. In the course of 6 hours parts of where I missed water started to rust and I quickly wiped the gun down with gun oil and a papertowl. I didn't catch it in time and the very top of the backstrap and the bottom of the trigger guard pitted a little. It also produced a water mark like affect that won't go away on the left-hand side of the gun above the trigger but below the cylinder. Part of the problem was probably me not locking up my gun case all the way while I was shooting and the foam absorbed rain water while cracked open. The gun is not by any means destroyed but needless to say I'm pissed at my mistake and the damage to the finish is irritating me to no end.

At this point I never plan on selling the gun so its going to be a piece I want to keep and enjoy. So I've decided to refinish the gun once my State return comes in. I've heard S&W does a decent job but places like Turnbull do much better work but at an increased price. What doesn't make sense to me is their website says the same price as S&W yet everyone claims they are usually 2-3x the price, so what's with the discrepancy? This will only be a rebluing and nothing else, so if Turnbull were to refinish my gun how much do you think it would cost? If anyone here has had Turnbull do work for them please comment on pricing and turnaround time.
 
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Pitted in 6 hours?

You could probably take off the water mark with a little very light polishing with some Flitz, Semi-Chrome, or Mothers.
 
I probably could have used a better word than pitted, but the finish did get rougher and blemished. The finish is probably around 70-75% there upon inspection of the whole gun with a Droid light. At this point I think a refinish is worth it.
aeea4183-7db9-ae7a.jpg
 
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I would rather send it off to a business than have a college student do it, and if your saying I should go to college to learn it myself that simply isn't an option in my life right now, and as I stated before I would rather send it off for a professional refinishing. Otherwise I would like to learn how but I simply wouldn't trust myself at first and it takes time and money to learn.

Can anyone comment on Turnbull pricing, turnaround time, and quality.
 
Legend,

How would you rate the guns finish before the incident? Was the area in the picture flawless before it got wet? I saw you wrote 70-75%, was that before or after I ask because I'm shocked by the amount of damage 6 and hours caused..I've never used their refinishing services but I've seen first hand examples and they looked great. If Turnbull is 2-3 times more expensive, I'd go with S&W.
 
^ Yeah, I was wondering if there was any salt inolved... accidentally sprinkled into the gun case or something?

Frankly, I'd leave the gun as is unless there's real collector value to it (but you said you'd never sell it), and call it mechanical tuition. Or "battle scars." Or something.

The more I think about it, there must have been something corrosive like salt involved. For myself, I'm a bit of a nut about salt particles wandering around unsupervised. They're sneaky little things. And salt is everywhere. I could even imagine something like Mickey Dee's ketchup or Special Sauce getting in there somehow and not being thoroughly dissolved or wiped away.

And offhand, I don't know where Redding CA is in relation to the ocean, but you've got to remember that ocean wave spray evaporates in the air, leaving micro-particles of salt to drift inland, where they deposit themselves. Then, the next time they get damp, they'll cause corrosion. There's also spray from road de-icers and the like.

Lots of reasons salt could have gotten on the gun or in the foam of the case.

Terry, 230RN
 
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Before incident maybe 80% at best. The area before had some wear but it did not have any of the red spots like you see in the picture. Essentially the only difference is it feels slightly rough and you can now see rust spots, otherwise not much has changed as far as the trigger guard is concerned. The top of the back strap does not have any rust or rough spots but the bluing got lighter.

Edit: So at best 80% before the incident, and then 70-75% afterwards. I'm not great at judging finish but those would be my estimates.

Edit-2: I've been looking over the frame looking for anything that might not have been there before and there's two areas, one above and below the cylinder release that has scratches that weren't there before. I can also see a lot of micro scratches that weren't there before all over the frame. They aren't very serious and can only be seen from certain angles that makes the finish dull when you can see them. The problems I listed before were the main problems ,now I'm looking over her with more detail for anything else I might find that is smaller in detail.


Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk
 
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I can also see a lot of micro scratches that weren't there before all over the frame.
Click to expand...

OK, I give up. How does water cause "micro-scratching"?

My blued guns get wet all the time (rains a lot down here in the swamps of southern Louisiana) for longer than 6 hours at a time. Hasn't bothered any of them yet.

You know you can look on the internet for refinishing prices. Took me about 10 seconds to google Turnbull Refinishing and find the Firearms Finishing Services tab with pricing ...

http://www.turnbullmfg.com/store.asp?pid=20180&catid=19872

I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't do the same for S&W or email them for pricing.
 
Well there was rust on the gun and it happened when I wiped down the gun. I would say the rust (rust is metal afterall and abrasive) scratched the surface while wiping it down. As far as pricing I already covered that in my first post. Turnbull says it's $200 along with S&W. Now eventhough both sites say $200, online forums say its 2-3x the cost to have Turnbull do it. I wanted to know from someone who has done it what their costs came to.
 
Was able to call Turnbull, they said it would cost upwards of $1'500.00 to reblue the gun and I would have to have it disassembled and cleaned before I send it in. Is $1,500.00 usually what it costs?
 
Since you rated it at 80% before the crud set in, and 70-75% after crud, I'd Flitz it, wax it, and leave it be.

Sounds like it wasn't a safe queen to begin with. :scrutiny:
 
I thought about it and I expected it to maybe cost $600 at most, decided to hold off and reblue it at a later date.
 
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Was a cold bluing pen used to re darken the gun at anytime? I bought one of those pens that touches up nicks and other such blemishes. As an experiment I ran the pen across the bottom of one of my golf clubs. Where there was raw steel. It blued it quite well. Where there was nickle and chrome plate, nothing. Great I thought. This works slick
Coldblue.jpg
UNTIL I was playing golf and a very slight drizzle came up. Everywhere where there was a bead of water, Red rust was forming in front of my eyes.. :O A similar wedge, with similar worn spots, but not treated with the pen showed NO sign of rusting. Conclusion, yes the bluing pen promoted black oxidation and left it in a condition very susceptible to regular rust. Conclusion, raw steel is better than those cold bluing pens.
 
How about trying Smith&Wesson factory rebluing.I have had a few done over the years and the quality of the work is beter than any small bluing company can do.I also doubt that they will charge $1500.00 to do the job.Each one I had done by the factory looked new and all corners and lettering was perfect.
 
I'm a little confused. Firstly, regardless of what is said, Turnbull will do a better job than S&W ever dreamed of. They simply don't have the skilled men they used to for high quality blued finishes. Secondly, how was Turnbull even able to give you an estimate?

Rather than concerning ourselves with what the condition was before and after the rain, post some good profile pictures so we can ascertain its condition at present. The percentage of remaining bluing is irrelevant, what matters is the condition of the underlying steel.
 
Turnbull does good work but I have my grandfathers model 10 which S&W restored and they did an awesome job pictures doesn't do it justice. I have compared this job with a Turnbull reblue and I would say it was of equal quality.

model10before.jpg

The Bluing is so deep it looks wavy.
This was done last year.
model10after.jpg

Having said that I still believe Fogles whom I referenced in an earlier post does just as good of job. If you are looking for additional work to be done then you may come out ahead by sending it to Turnbull if you have the bucks.
 
Yes, S&W will do a nice job for $250 bucks.

That's why I recommended them in post #18.

There is also some small collector advantage if S&W refinishes a S&W and marks it such, rather then somebody else you never heard of.

Yes, I have heard of Doug Turnbull, and Fords.
Turnbull is a little rich for a common S&W refinish, and Fords is not a factory S&W refinish to a collector.

rc
 
A rebluing job is not expensive because of the actual bluing process, but rather how the metal is polished before the parts go into the bluing tank.

The very best finish will require removing the pits by hand while being careful to insure that straight lines stay straight, and the radius of curves remain the same. Then it will be further polished using wheels until the finest grit leaves the metal looking like it was chrome plated. When they made it S&W went even further by using sets of buffing wheels that were shaped to match the particular area of the part being worked on.

The pre-model 27's were polished and blued the very best that S&W could do, because it was the flagship of they're line so duplicating it by anyone is not going to be inexpensive.

Turnball does not simply reblue guns, he restores them to the point where they are equal or better then what they were when they were made. This often involves extensive handwork, and today - as I have said - thats not going to be cheap.

What all this boils down to is the question, "How much are you willing to pay? But keep in mind that a poor polishing job will ruin the gun.
 
It adds character. I'd wipe it down and leave her alone. I like the looks of a gun that shows years of honest use better than a pristine gun that looks as if it were never used.
 
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