Brand New Antique

L

Low Key

New member
Well, I've finally finished the antiqueing of my new 1858 Remington. I managed to get some birchwood casey plum brown and over the Christmas weekend I browned the 58. The plum brown that I got said on the instructions to de-grease the metal and then heat the metal up to 275 degrees, so I took the gun down to the last screw and washed all the metal I was going to brown in a sink full of hot water with a lot of dawn dish liquid, dryed off everything and stuck it all in the oven on a cookie sheet I bought just for this.

After it was all heated up, I put on the first coat of browning and let it work until everything was cooled off to the point of being able to handle without getting burned and then back in the hot soapy water for a wash down then back in the oven for another round. After the second coat of brown I took some 0000 steel wool and took some of the brown off and then washed everything again and did the whole process three more times and then the steel wool again. Everything is re-assembled now and I also took the steel wool to the grips to take some of the shine off and make them more dull looking.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out and I have a comparison picture of an original 58 remington that I got off the net that looks very similar to how mine turned out.

Heres my brand new out of the box 1858 Remington
new58.jpg

Here's the first stage of the refinish, took all the blueing off
knifeand58.jpg
 
Here's the 58 after two coats of plum brown
brown58c.jpg

Here is the finished product after I took the brown off to a serious deep gray with some darker brown spots
58refin01.jpg

Another full view
58refinished.jpg

and here is an original 1858 remington picture that I got off the internet for comparison
originalrem2.jpg
 
Yep! Now that's what I'm talken about ;) Real nice job Low Key. I like the gray/brown finish and it is just like many of the originals after years of use.
Makes the history a little more alive for these Remingtons. If the originals could talk I would never get tired of listening.
 
Thanks guys! I'm very happy with how it turned out, just like I wanted it to look. I'm looking forward to shooting it this afternoon or tomorrow, it'll shoot straighter now that it looks like an original! :p
 
They say a picture's worth a thousand words...I got one for this...SWEET!
25 yards, duelist, 30 grains blackpowder, .454 ball
58andtarget03.jpg

One of my better days!
 
Thanks Kevin! :D I was having a good shooting day today. Some days you're more on target than others, and today was one of my good days.
 
low key,
your right about good and bad days but you have to have a little skill or you'd never have a good day.lol.i do love that 58 though!!
 
That's true, you do have to have some skill. I've seen some people with absolutely no talent for shooting...couldn't hit the side of a barn from the inside with a shotgun! :eek: :p The last time I was at the local firing range there was one of those people trying to shoot an AR-10...holding at waist level flipping the trigger just as fast as he could work it trying to hit an empty milk jug at less than 25 yards and not coming anywhere close to it! He put a lot of ammo downrange in just a few seconds and it sounded impressive, but I hope he never needs to actually hit a target. :rolleyes: I'd rather hit the target with 6 than miss it with 40!
 
Thanks! As for makin me mad, that's hard to do...my screen name kind of describes my personality too...low key...speak softly and carry a big stick kind of person. :D Got my big stick, now if I was 6 inches taller I could actually conceal it in a shoulder holster! :p
 
Low Key,
I'd rather hit 6 than miss 40 too. That's why I don't go to the LA gun range just over the mountain from me. too many people out there just blasing awayand NOT hitting very much at all.

That's pretty much what I told the timer last CAS match. He asked if I wanted to be timed. I said I'd rather be counted!

I'd much rather hit them all and not mess with the time, I was going to be slow and I wasn't competeing anyway. 29 out of 30(I pulled the third shot high) was good enough for me. Of course the targets are pretty good size, but....
Then the playing cards, 4 out of 5 inside the border of the Jack of Clubs on the doublesize card and 3 out of 5 on the regular size card. The misses even were between the border and the edge (1 on big card) or cutting the edge (2 on the small card). I want to do that again! :)

I noticed last Sat morning , that I shoot better standing two handed than sitting with my elbows as a rest. Now to learn to do it one handed. Guess I need to start working out with a milk jug full of water held at arms length.
Cards-2.jpg
 
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Darn it I don't know why that picture is soooooo big. at least the holes can be counted. This was 15 yds. standing two handed.
 
low key,
im right the opposite i guess.i had a guy come to court one day because he was an idiot and hit me with his car door because he was mad at me for giving him a ticket so i assisted him to booking.lol.well i went off on him needless to say so in court he told the judge i was an angry little man.lol.so now all my co workers call me that.
 
by the way,i dont have a short man complex.hell if i did i'd be in trouble.some of the guys found me at a store getting some coffee and jimmied my car door and put a child restraint in the seat for me.lol.when we went in for roll call i thru it in the floor like i was mad and told them next time make sure the safety belt works cause i fell out into the floorboard.lol.they rolled laughing.its all fun.
 
Wow Low Key, that looks great! You're almost tempting me to de-parkerize my 1948 Sistema Colt and plumb-brown it!

I figure what little collector value it has is shot by the importer's new parkerizing job, and I like the look of the old un-refinished Sistemas a lot more.

Question: how's the corrosion resistance of the new finish?

-MV
 
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