Your favorite Rvolver finish?

[ZVP]

 As a matter of trying to be historically correct do you think that a blued or nickled finish is more appropriate?
 I prefer the Nickled or Polished Stainless as many revolvers were "shiny" back in the old days.
 I  have a Ruger New Model Stainless Vaquero which looks all the world like a Nickled finish!
 What's your choice for historically correct?
 ZVP

[Pancho Peacemaker]

I don't know which finish is "most" historically correct, but my favorite is:

Charcoal blue w/ case colored accents is my first choice.

For "fancy" high grade guns:

French grey w/ engraving

[StrawHat]

As for historically correct, blue or nickel pretty much covers the territory for new guns.  After a bit of use some became greyish or even brownish.  My personal favorite must be blue as I don't have any of the nickel ones.  I believe nickel was considered as a preservative finish by the Army.  And from what I understand, most of the nickel finished revovlers bought by the Army went to the Indian Scouts and such.

[Advertising]

[Will Ketchum]

My favorite revolvers are those with a nickel and black grips.  That is what my S&W new model 3s have as well as my old model Vaqueros (All right polished stainless )

Will Ketchum

[Texas Lawdog]

SS for my Police guns, Black Chrome for my Cowboy guns, and Satin Nickel for my CCW guns.

[Deadeye Dick]

I prefer blue. Just like the looks better. This is a personal preference and am not knocking nickle or stainless finishes. I do have several stainless finished guns, but prefer the blue.
Deadeye Dick

[Montana Slim]

Should consider the type/model of the revolver if considering what the most common finish would have been.
For example, most C&B pistols were military issue & would have been blued. Same for military-issue Colt Cartridge (1873) revolvers.
Seems a good number of Smith, Colt 1878/1877 and M-H were nickled and intended for the civilian market. Of course folks special-ordered if they could afford it and had a stong preference.

Most (all but one) of my original revolvers have nickle finish....all my modern "repros" are standard blue.

Regards,
Slim

[Delmonico]

Blue for me.  No offense to anyone but I don't like the polished stainless.  To me that's what they look like, polished stainless.  I know many say they look like nickel, but nickle plating is a different color and so is chrome.

[Chase]

I am partial to a rust blue finish.  To me, there is a big difference in a gun's appearance.  I have a friend who does
hot blue and also does rust blue. There is a big difference.  The hot blue is a blue/black finish and the rust blue is more subtle.

The rust blue takes a lot more labor and is obviously more costly.  But if you have an older gun and want to make it look more "historically correct", the rust blue is a better way to go.

[Yakima Red]

I like Nickle, but most of my firearms are blue. Plum brown on a shotgun. I get all wobbly in the knees over nickle. Same thing when I get on a Snap~On tool truck!

[Curley Cole]

I guess it depends on the gun...

I have a pair of GW2's with the custom nickel finish and they look great with real elephant ivories on them.

I have a pair of Gw's with Turnbull cch and they look really great,

and a pair of Taylors engraved with ivories ...

each has a special feel to them...

curley

[Irish Dave]

Except for some original pocket pistols, I have only 2 non-blue/cch revolvers: one is a custom OM Vaquero sheriff's model (ejectorless 3" bbl) which is polished stailness and the other is a Laramie which is actually nickel. Never really thought about it much, but I guess I must prefer the blue.

[River City John]

Sometimes it may depend on your persona's station or circumstances.

If you rely on your gun for your occupation or as an extension of your status or means, perhaps you'll lean towards nickel with ivory or pearl grips. Maybe even some fancy engraving to suit your tastes.

If your aspirations, or your income, don't take you too far up the social rung, perhaps your sense of industry and common sense makes do with unadorned blue and wood grips. You may have decided that what served you well in the war is good enough.




RCJ

[Tjackstephens]

I like them all. But will have to go along with Pancho on the charcoal blue with the case colored accents. Tj

[Pancho Peacemaker]

I like them all. But will have to go along with Pancho on the charcoal blue with the case colored accents. Tj

You got good taste Texas Jack!  Probably looks something like this:

[Tascosa Joe]

Nice looking outfit Pancho.  My favorite is Blue/CC with elephant ivory grips. 

[Steel Horse Bailey]

My favourite would be Blue with CCH accents ... or nickel with fire blue screws  .... or old-time blue with yellow ivory ... or ...

Heck - I like 'em ALL!

I actually have only one nickel gun, and it's a Colt Python in electroless nickel that got polished out (about 75%) due to a problem ... but since it's NOT a gun of our era, it doesn't count for this discussion.  I have an old model Vaquero (that doesn't see NCOWS use due to the mods I did to it - brass bird-head grip  and some other mods) that is polished and looks pretty much like nickel (BUT - I'm with Del - Nickel has a bluish cast, Chrome has a yellow cast, and SS is different, too, with Sterling having a whitish cast, too) but everything else I have is blued.  I WOULD like a real nickel gun to add to the stable, (I'd LOVE to have a nickeled Merwin-Hulbert with several barrels and dual cylinders - 44-40/44Spl/Russ, etc. in nickel with Ivory or at LEAST Mammoth grips but I'm afraid my gun buying days are pretty much done.  Besides ... the jury ain't done on the "new" M-H'es or IF they'll even arrive!)