Unblueing the Walker

[Zonie]

Some of you have read that the Walker Pistol replicas aren't quite correct in their appearance.

A little reading in FLAYDERMAN'S GUIDE TO ANTIQUE AMERICAN FIREARMS reaffirms this by saying "...One piece walnut grips, Casehardened frame, hammer, and lever; balance blued: excepting plain brass trigger guard, and the cylinder "in the white"."

As we all know, the replicas have blued cylinders.
With products available like Birchwood Casey BLUE AND RUST REMOVER it is easy to correct this error and end up with a truly beautiful gun.

The Walker I own was imported by CVA years ago (it is serial number 10xx) and unlike many firearms imported by them, this gun was made in Italy. It is also one of the few Cap and Ball Revolvers I have that shoots right to the point of aim at 25 yards.

I removed the nipples, oil and grease and proceeded to remove the blueing.
It came out such a nice soft "steel" color I decided I would just leave it like that instead of polishing it.

What do you think?

 

I like that soft gray steel as opposed to the chrome look. Looks nice, Zonie.

 

[mec]

It's a righteous treatment allright. RL Wilson and the guy who wrote the Whitneville-Walker Colt book say that while the general run did have blue cylinders, some of the Flukes and transition revolvers had cylinders that were left in the white. There was no known reason for this but the Flukes- named after a dude named Fluke who discovered the variation. were the 260+ revolvers with blown cylinders that were returned for repair.

Transition models seem to be anything after the first 1100 that retained Walker features and parts.

This is E Company #39. The loads were fired through a Uberti Replica and not this original revolver.[url] http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29114&d=1127318370[/url]

 

[pondoro]

What is correct for the 1861 Colt? Mine is beautifully blued, but the cylinder is engraved with some scene, like a Navy would be.

 

[mec]

Same naval scene as on the 51 Navy- representing the Texas/ Mexican Battle of Campeche. This scene is also on the 60 Army.

 

[Zonie]

The 1860 .44 cal round cylinder Army and the 1861 .36 cal Colt both had a cylinder engraved with the Texas Navy vs the Mexican Navy battle scene like the 1851 Navy pistol.

 

[pondoro]

Were the cylinders on the 1860 Colt Armies blued or white?

 

[mec]

blue

 

[WV_Hillbilly]

While that might be a correct historical configuration, there is just something about it that doesn't set well with me... it might be the contrast against the blued barrel assy. and the colour case hardened frame. But you are the one who needs to be satisfied with how it looks and shoots, I'm just sharing my opinion anyway.

I have seen examples where all the finish is removed from the gun and a browning is applied, which is then "worn off" to where about 20% of the finish is remaining. It makes the gun look like a 158yr old original, but some people don't like this look either.

One method I heard of was to put the major components of the revolver into a (large capacity) tumbler and allow that to remove the finish, while dulling the shine in the process.

Regards, and shoot safely!
WV_Hillbilly

 

[mec]

did some more research. Your are definately right that the Walkers had un-blued cylinders. The dragoon cylinders were in the white until the third contract.