For you Black Powder shooters

[King Medallion]

This may seem like an odd question, but a long time ago I read or heard talk of using oiled semi dirty/clean black powder patches to wipe down the outer finish of rifles and/or pistol for dulling the blued finish, thereby making the finish look more antiqued. I love the antiqued look of the old 76's and 86's, but unfortunately, don't have the time to wait around 100 years for my Uberti's to get that look naturally. Just wondered if there was any truth to this method.

[Jake C]

I've read that Scotch brite pads can be used to 'age' a firearm, but I'm not 100% positive on that. I agree, I love the 'used' patina look.

[Blair]

A very similar question was asked about "Cowboy hats" on another thread.
The best answer was to "Wear" the hat!
My suggestion is to USE and CARE for the firearm in a normal everyday kind of operation.
They will end up showing a normal aging with this kind of care and usage.
My best.
 Blair

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[King Medallion]

Well, I would agree with that, but where I live, my rifles don't get to be used on a day to day basis to get that aged look. I was just asking if that method mentioned actually worked.

[yahoody]

Only way I know to age a weapon is remove part of the finish.   Done it on a few hand guns I didn't like the original finish on.  But they were matte blue.    Removed the plastic based or varnish finishes on a few lever guns to get down to the wood....which has generally been a mistake on Italian/Uberti guns as they use the finish as fill on rifle stocks.  They use a finish that fills/covers blemishes I wouldn't want showing on a gun of mine.  Any way that has almost always been a unplanned side effect and a costly mistake.

Easy to remove a good bluing job.  Making it looked aged and not just stripped is tough.

But a B-C lead removal cloth will do it a tiny bit at a time with a little elbow grease applied.