Well, I recently bought a well used Sport-King. It was poorly stored and developed some rust pitting at the rear top of the slide. So after some discussion with friends, I was wondering how much "restoration" should a collector do in this sort of situation?
I felt that honest wear such as the patina on the grip should remain, but damage such as rusting from careless handling could be improved upon since the collector value has already been impacted. It seems to me that cleaning, only the rusty area of the slide with steel wool and re-blueing the area might be a reasonable thing to do.
So, any thoughts?
Tom, I think that cleaning up the rusted areas and retouching it with cold blue is OK for a gun in this condition. I would consider it preservation, since the rust process should be stopped to prevent further degradation. After the area is cleaned and reblued, it will still show the rust pits, so there is no hiding the rust damage, but it will look better. However, if the gun had some documented historical significance, it would be best to leave the gun as is, except for perhaps some oiling or waxing to stop the spread of rust.
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