Saw a lever gun at a shop on the wall earlier this week that kinda caught my eye, but didn't have time to look it over. Went back today with some cash, but when I got it in hand, I discovered why it was on the wall facing the way it was: Looks like the previous owner engraved a likeness of his two dogs on the left side. Badly. You can tell they're dogs, but that's about it. Anyway, I was thinking if it's still there next week, I'll offer them half of what they're asking for it and see if I can sand it down, buff it out, and cold blue it. It's a beater to begin with, but the caliber is right and it would be worth it to me at the right price, even if it turns out ugly as sin.

Is it a fools errand? Probably. This is where I'm hoping someone will tell me it's easy and they've done it a number of times, though.

You can't polish out a deep key scratch in your car's paint. The whole panel, and maybe even the whole car if the rest of the paint has faded at all, would have to be repainted, otherwise you'd have a giant, obvious low spot. The same principle applies to engraving in metal, only more. You have to remove an amount of metal equal to the depth of the engraving. The whole gun might have other major problems and not be worth fixing if it has been treated like that.

^^^ Yup, you're not polishing but will be removing metal, if you are to achieve your goal of getting rid of the engraving.

Here is a laser "engraved" gun. Don't think I can buff that out.

I know of a Colt Frontier in .22 Magnum from 1967 that a previous owner took an electro pencil and engraved (poorly) his initials into it. And while the back strap is the non serialed and replaceable part, of course that isn’t where it was marked up, he did it on the side of the frame below the cylinder. And of course deep enough to preclude machining it off.

Such a shame.

A Sig 1911 with a light matte grey finish on the stainless steel, too. That also could not be polished. All that would have done was leave shiny low spots (and with the slide in battery, two separate ones) and with some of the scratch still left in them. And that was a lot shallower than this engraving probably is. I left the gun as it was. It later ended up being replaced anyway (long story).

Lots of old 1911s will have at least a small scratch on the frame. The slide stop does not push straight in, it has to be swung and pivoted up from underneath to seat it, without missing the barrel link hole.

quote:

Is it a fools errand?

Foolish, no. Futile, yes.

Once had a 94 Winchester made in 1912 with a pitted receiver due to rust. With time on my hands, I took a flat stone, some oil, and stoned off enough flat surface to get rid of the pits. Cold blued with some Brownell's Oxpho Blue and it came out quite well.

That must have been the thing to do, once upon a time. I got my dad’s Winchester 1200 when he passed away. He had used one of those electro-engravers to put his drivers license number on the trigger guard. Fortunately, trigger guards are available, cheap, and easy to change.

Bead blasting, cerakote, MagPul stock and forend, optic rail...and you now have the tacticool levergun.

I would look at enthusiast forums for that marque, in those classifieds, before I would purchase a damaged firearm.

If you can identify what attributes excite you about that levergun, you can likely find another example.

Might be futile. I ought to take another look at it and take a close look at how deep the engraving is. If I can stone it down enough to get past all the marks without removing a ton of steel, it might be worth it if I can get it for silly cheap. 4MUL8R, it’s just a Rossi 92 in .357, so it’s nothing special, but I want a .357 lever gun and if I can pick one up for pretty cheap, that would be alright with me. There’s enough demand that prices on .357 lever guns are too damned high for my tastes. If I could pick up a .357 Marlin 1894C in stainless for about $500, I’d be all over it, but I know that’s unrealistic. I paid $400 for my 4.75” stainless New Vaquero in 2016 and they’ve more than doubled in price since then. Its ridiculous.

I mean.... I've filed and polished the Ruger billboard off a barrel before, but that's easier because it rounded. Making big flats look good might not be a first timers project. On the other hand, if it's cheap enough who cares how it comes out.

Depending on how deep it is, it might be possible to laser engrave a pattern, both pleasing to you and covering the old one. Should be easy to find a skilled shop that would do the job at reasonable price, me thinks

You know… I’ve been going at this all wrong.

I’m starting a business, and picking up a 60 watt MOPA fiber laser has been a medium range goal right from the start. My intention hasn’t been to work on guns because it requires having an FFL and I didn’t want to mess with all that, so it didn’t occur to me before. I’ve spent many, many hours in LightBurn the last couple years. A cheap candidate that’s screaming for a deep billboard engrave anyway is actually probably the move.

Well, if it’s still there tomorrow, I’ll see what I can haggle them down to. If it’s in the cards that I bring home some other fella’s idea of his dream rifle with his two ugly dogs on the side of it, I’ll just shoot it like that until I’m equipped to to fix it myself. If someone else decided they couldn’t live without it, well… I guess they can deal with those dogs instead.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:


A Sig 1911 with a light matte grey finish on the stainless steel, too. That also could not be polished. All that would have done was leave shiny low spots (and with the slide in battery, two separate ones) and with some of the scratch still left in them. And that was a lot shallower than this engraving probably is. I left the gun as it was. It later ended up being replaced anyway (long story).

Lots of old 1911s will have at least a small scratch on the frame. The slide stop does not push straight in, it has to be swung and pivoted up from underneath to seat it, without missing the barrel link hole.

when assembling a 1911, place the slide stop against and just below the plunger, no need to swing it up or down, the rod that holds the bushing is long enough, then with the slide retracted, simply apply some upward and inward pressure (to move the plunger and seat the slide stop) and no scratch,

it is not a take down lever like Sig or similar auto pistol, (that is retaine)

ditto the removal, once free from the plunger, just pull it straight out or wiggle it free if it is tight on the bushing

quote:

Originally posted by Muddflap:
That must have been the thing to do, once upon a time. I got my dad’s Winchester 1200 when he passed away. He had used one of those electro-engravers to put his drivers license number on the trigger guard. Fortunately, trigger guards are available, cheap, and easy to change.

Previous shop I worked at had a Remington 552 Speedmaster 150th anniversary rifle that came in a estate clean out purchase. Previous owners name and SSN were electropenciled into the receiver poorly and deeply and of course on the side of the anniversary logo.

It was the thing to do for a long time. I inherited a Stoeger Luger .22 from my grandfather and discovered to my horror that at some point, he'd engraved his SSN on the back strap in huge, blocky numbers.

Well, I'm gonna make some coffee and head over there. If they're willing to let it out the door at my top dollar, I'll post pics of the engraving.

If it's a beater anyway? Live with the ugly dogs?

Hope we can get a look at it.

I sprung for a Marlin in 357 from Bud's quite a few years ago before they got crazy.

Well, they wouldn’t budge on the price of $600. Apparently this shop won’t haggle. I’d buy it at about $450 to $475, but not $660 with tax, that’s ridiculous.

If anyone’s looking for a late 70’s to very early 80’s R92, there’s one at AJI Sporting Goods in Apache Junction, but be warned that the previous owner stipple engraved it with a punch. I would’ve taken pictures, but I know it’s a faux pas to take pictures of a gun at a gun shop that you’re not buying. It looks like a pair of Springer Spaniels, so at least it’s good enough to kinda tell the breed, but Jesus is it ugly.

Well, that’s problem solved for me.