Browning Light Twelve Restoration

[StihlTurning]

I've recently acquired a Browning Light Twelve. It has quite a bit of surface rust as seen in the photos.

Is this something I could remove with proper solvents and abrasives?

Any ideas on what it would cost (roughly) to have it professionally done and blued again?

[john323]

Where are you located?

[StihlTurning]

Bay Area

[john323]

Look up "hot flash bluing "

[Dusty80]

0000 steel wool and a good oil Like Lucus would he a good start.

[OCGunFan]

Don't waste your money having a gunsmith restore it, you'll spend way more money than the gun is worth and you'll be disappointed with the result. These early Belgian Brownings made in Liege were rust blued and had a gorgeous deep satin blue, that's expensive and takes a lot of time to do. Any hot blue will look like trash compared to the original bluing on the gun now.

Use a good light oil, let it soak in, then use a pre 1982 copper penny to scrape the rust off and it won't harm the existing blue or metal. If you hit dry rust, use more oil, but I wouldn't use 0000 steel wool because it leaves particles deep in the pitting and will continue to rust. I've also used the curly stainless cleaning pads at the 99c stores to remove rust, they work well and if you're gentle, you won't hurt the gun.

[Cheep]

If that is rust blued, can't he boil that thing and card it?

[OCGunFan]

If that is rust blued, can't he boil that thing and card it?

Yes, but to do it right he has to remove all of the rust by electrolysis, degrease, prep the metal by filling in the deep pits, smoothing, polishing and then he can apply 6-10 cycles of rust blue for a proper factory finish. That's A LOT of work for a gun that doesn't warrant investing that kind of time or money.

It's a $300-500 shooter, it ain't never gonna be anything more without putting a ton of time and hard work into it.