Winchester 1895

Ax.338 said:
You might want to reconsider, not many of these around.

You`d be surprised how good some of them look without refinishing.

Try cleaning up the metal with dry 000 steel wool, and give the stock a few rubs of BLO and see how it looks.

It will likely be worth more than a reblued gun, and you can always blue it later.

Once it is reblued, there is no turning back.
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I agree. I'd leave it as is; lots of character!
 
It would certainly be debatable if your carbine has a high collector value. An interesting gun no doubt, and many collectors would take it to add to their collection. Your situation is a bit different, yours is a keeper so resell value is not a concern.

As a rule, refinishing an antique will reduce its value. However, there is more to the enjoyment of collecting than counting sheckles.

IF you just must clean her up and want a spiffy blued finish, here is my suggestion on something which I have done many times. Clean her up and simply spray paint the metal with black high temp paint. It will look like it just came out of the factory, BUT, if you don't like the look of a blued gun, the paint will lift off with paint stripper easily. IF you have her reblued, there is no going back.

I have a couple of guns that got the paint treatment for taking on trips way back into the back bush, mainly for corrosion resistance (Brits used to paint their Lee Enfields). A few years later, I gave these bush beaters some restoration effort and am so glad that I could revert back to their original but faded finish.

I used automotive exhaust manifold paint and cured it in an oven. Resistant to oil, but stay away from thinners. There are several commercial products specifically designed for firearms. Armacoat, Duracote, GunKote, in different hues.

Different schools of thought. In the UK it is common and accepted practice to have pet guns refinished. In North America, original finish no-matter-what seems to be the rule.
 
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englishman_ca said:
It would certainly be debatable if your carbine has a high collector value. An interesting gun no doubt, and many collectors would take it to add to their collection. Yours situation is a bit different, yours is a keeper so resell value is not a concern.

As a rule, refinishing an antique will reduce its value. However, there is more to the enjoyment of collecting than counting sheckles.

IF you just must clean her up and want a spiffy blued finish, here is my suggestion on something which I have done many times. Clean her up and simply spray paint the metal with black high temp paint. It will look like it just came out of the factory, BUT, if you don't like the look of a blued gun, the paint will lift off with paint stripper easily. IF you have her reblued, there is no going back.

I have a couple of guns that got the paint treatment for taking on trips way back into the back bush, mainly for corrosion resistance (Brits used to paint their Lee Enfields). A few years later, I gave these bush beaters some restoration effort and am so glad that I could revert back to their original but faded finish.

I used automotive exhaust manifold paint and cured it in an oven. Resistant to oil, but stay away from thinners. There are several commercial products specifically designed for firearms. Armacoat, Duracote, GunKote, in different hues.

Different schools of thought. In the UK it is common and accepted practice to have pet guns refinished. In North America, original finish no-matter-what seems to be the rule.
Click to expand...
Perhaps because they only get one chance...
 
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