Restore or leave as is ?

Thats amazing that its almost 250 years old and still around. Can you imagine the stories it good tell if it could speak....
 
Magellann said:
Thats amazing that its almost 250 years old and still around. Can you imagine the stories it good tell if it could speak....
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That gun looks like most of them would start with "So, there I was, buried in the poop in an outhouse..."

That's rust, not patina. Different things.
 
Guns are like cars... they are only ever original once in their life. That said, it is your gun, do whatever makes you happy.

Short story, when i was 13 I saved for months to purchase a 1960 Fender Stratocaster Maple body and neck, decent condition, but it had buckle rash, and blemishes, slight checking of pickguard, and the tuners were pitted.

I really screwed the pooch. I stripped off all the old nitrocellulose laquer, and restored the guitar. Not being one to know about guitar values, when I went to sell it in the late 80's at the peak of the strat craze did i find out what I had done

I had taken a guitar that would have netted me 17-22k, and turned it into a 1000.00 guitar.

I still have that guitar to this day, to remind me that sometimes it is better NOT to touch an original.
 
If your curious what good condition pistols go for.. check out hermann historica auction catalogs online for some examples in euros
I dont think theres any harm leaving it as is.. its an interesting conversation piece
 
I think the question still comes back to "would a collector actually buy it and for how much? ) Of the few collectors that I have met, most would not look at a gun in their field of interest if it was not in 50% or better condition. The price of a gun depends heavily on its historical significance and scarcity. Small screw barrel pistols are not particularly scarce and not associated with any major conflicts. Locally the gun originally posted would sell for $200 to $400, maybe a bit more. In that context removing the rust to reveal the "patina" would not make a tremendous difference in price.

cheers mooncoon
 
I would agree with mooncoon-it is a nice example of a boot pistol from the period and it's nice to find the makers name but these were fairly common and otherwise not very remarkable. Track can supply castings to fit the top jaw need or make it up from some high carbon steel and file for about 2 hours until you get the right profile. I find buying one a lot less stressful- the screw is usually close to size 12 with 24 thread and re-tapping the hole does not ruin anything IMHO.
 
Track of the Wolf had just the parts I needed and shipped quickly. Little pistol came out nicely with a bit of 000 steel wool and oil scrub.

 
mooncoon said:
The gun below is one which museum people would say should not be touched. Its provenance was that it was bought in a garage sale at some point in the past. The parts in the first photo have been cleaned up a bit. After rebuilding and repairing, we did fire 10 shots out it before cleaning and putting it on display. It shot minute of mastodon accuracy because the bore was like a sewer. If patina was important, I could always bury it in the garden for a while to restore the patina :>)
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Maybe it was one of the Canadian militia M1865s that fell off the pier near Toronto!

Did you replace the wood or restore?
 
CMichaud said:
Maybe it was one of the Canadian militia M1865s that fell off the pier near Toronto!

Did you replace the wood or restore?
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When I got the Spencer, there was no wood and the threads on the magazine tube were broken off. The butt is held on by the magazine tube the butt is not all that strong if you were out of ammo and beating someone over the head with the rifle. Luckily I had another Spencer to copy the stock from. I cut another 3 or 4 threads on the mag tube and made a few missing bit

cheers mooncoon
 
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