Installing the Largest 1860 Army Grip Frame on the Vaquero

RobsG · Sep 11, 2018

It was this:

Sharps40 · Sep 11, 2018

Excellent. Keep us updated on your progress

Sharps40 · Sep 12, 2018

Initial polish is 180g fresh. Removing the bulk of the pitting from the frame and barrel, without loosing the lettering. What pitting is left will disappear into the satin finish. Final polish will likely be 180 worn to soften it up some and will be done with the trigger guard and back strap installed. Then its time to get it just pretty darn rusty and boil the bulk of the rust right back off. Cylinder and smalls will be done similarly after the bulk of the action is completed.

Sharps40 · Sep 13, 2018

Boiling brown to black.

Sharps40 · Sep 14, 2018

Hurricane, good time to rust stuff. Interestingly, i was able for the first time (first try too) to recreate an aged case hardening pattern on the frame. I think it looks grand. Can't wait to see it in sunshine. Should be quite durable as its rust blue. I basically didn't clean the frame much at all after polishing with worn 180, slopped on the sauce heavy, rusted it once then ignored the frame as i rusted the barrel 5 more times. Barrel grey-black and even, frame nicely patterned.

Sharps40 · Sep 15, 2018

Still some work to get bluing done, cylinder, screws, etc. But, had to put it together just to see how it looks. Even better in some good daylight I think. The factory case colors on the loading gate are a nice match for the rust blued case colors on the frame.