There’s an interesting discussion here:
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-rifles/premiums-for-low-serial-numbers/
About the affect on low serial numbers on value. Worth reading and take away what you will. My impression was that its the overall package that is important and simply low serial doesn’t necessarily offset other factors. Worth a read.
Steve
WACA Member. CFM Member. NRA Lifer.
Back to the original topic of this thread, bluing vs. ” browning”, I read somewhere long ago there was a process to age a gun to represent a period correct used gun, as opposed to rebluing a gun back to it’s 100 % original blue or modern blue for a refinished gun. Most likely this was done to either take a bad looking gun to a respectable gun showing it’s condition as it would be if cared for and used a lot in it’s time period.
Was it actually a unique browning process from a stripped down gun or a rust browning process down to a completely reblued gun to make it look older ?
Bill
Blueliner said
Was it actually a unique browning process from a stripped down gun or a rust browning process down to a completely reblued gun to make it look older ?
In a word…NO! A “completely reblued gun” can be artificially aged “to make it look older,” but it’s a labor intensive process of rubbing down with very fine abrasive in just the right way in just the right places, demanding considerable skill, though the end result fools no careful observer. Still, it’s preferable I think to a phony brand spanking new finish, even when the refinishing work is up to the standards of Doug Turnbull.
The conditions that produce a true “brown gun” are unusual, and not like the conditions of ordinary rust formation, like handling a gun with sweaty fingers. I don’t know what those conditions are, but suspect it involves storage in high humidity.
I read the thread https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-rifles/premiums-for-low-serial-numbers/ and it answered lots of questions. Thanks for directing me there.
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