First off I don’t “antique” guns. I use them. Or in the rare event I make one for a friend, they leave the shop as new. LIKE THEY WOULD HAVE BACK IN THE DAY. You would be AMAZED at how long you can use a rifle and not have it look “antiqued”. Since “antiqued” is probably how the rifle looked after the original owners great, great grand children got done playing cowboys and indians with it.
Now if you want the iron/steel to REALLY look 200 years old with 80 years use and maybe 120 years of neglect then suit up properly. Get some technical grade nitric acid and paint that on the steel then immediately rinse. This will etch it almost instantly. BTW use an organic vapor mask with NEW FILTERS with charcoal. DO NOT breath the “smoke” that comes off the steel. Or you could just USE THE THING so it looked like someone USED IT rather than let it lay out under a lawn sprinkler for a month or more.
I built a rifle for a friend in 1968-69. Poor Boy. No buttplate, walnut stock stained very dark. My name cut in the barrel. Douglas barrel, R. Hamm P. Gonter lock. Allowed to rust externally by someone and then at the time or sometime later sold to some uninformed guy as an original found in a cabin in Eastern Kentucky.
OK I deleted the rest of this post before I REALLY PO someone.
Yeah its a pet peeve.
As an open forum to share techniques , tips , tools , knowledge , etc. It DOES get redundant to hear the "ever present" chiming in , of
"fake antiquing haters" !!! We GET it ! Some of you DO NOT LIKE ARTIFICIALLY AGED GUNS!!!! Now that , THAT is out of the way , let those that ARE interested , swap information and ideas!! It is a VERY simple concept , just because you don`t like something , does NOT mean that others don`t as well! Do you tell your neighbor that the color he painted his house sucks? or the color of their car, hair length , shoe style , etc. , the list goes on! Get over yourselves ! NO ONE besides you CARES about your opinion! There seems to be a common theme among a few that it is pure sacrilege to "age" anything! Then , the same folks are the first to tell people to find a "skilled restorer" to restore an antique rifle! YEAH! a "skilled restorer " has NEVER applied "FAKE AGING" to a part!!! GET OVER YOURSELVES and let people do what they want! By the way, the contemporary made long rifles that fetch the highest prices are mostly built by makers that age their work!
