1894 original or re-blued?

[magyars]

Picked up a Winchester 94 in 30-30....dates to 1956.
Picture is too large for me to attach and I do not know how to reduce the pixels.........
There is minor wear on the edges and the lever has some slight speckling...othet than that....very nice bluing.
How can I determine if it is in it's original finish or re-blued?
Thanks in advance.

[iceman]

If you can't tell if it was reblued it probably is original. Look at lettering to see if the letters are crisp and clear. Are edges that are supposed to be square,actually square? Look for differences in color of the blueing etc. Just my opinion others may have more hints.

[Dave]

Two things to check are there should be some "splash" of metal around the stamped letters. Not much but you should be able to see it. Also many times if you shine a bright flashlight on original blue it will look brown under the light. The mag tube and barrel should have a slightly different hue under the light.

[longarm4146]

u can look closely at screw holes. the edges should be sharp, not dished out like will ofter happen if significant buffing is required.

[1894c]

great question--i was always interested in knowing myself, because i really didn't know--thank you for sharing... :)

[Griff]

Unless the re-blue was done a VERY long time ago, the hue of the blue inside and outside the gun will be different. Places where there's no metal to metal contact will still be quite dark, while the outside of the gun will have a lighter hue. Even for safe queens. Different era guns got slightly different hues of blue... it's not so much the exact color you're looking for... but the difference between those areas that saw the light of day, and those that didn't.

Two things to check are there should be some "splash" of metal around the stamped letters. Not much but you should be able to see it. Also many times if you shine a bright flashlight on original blue it will look brown under the light. The mag tube and barrel should have a slightly different hue under the light.

When the lettering is stamped, it moves metal, that metal has to go someplace... some is moved downward into the metal, while some is moved sideways, creating little "ridges" at the edges of each letter or number. On an original, these aren't sanded down smooth, just buffed and polished in prep for the metal receiving the bluing. As Dave sez, very noticeable under a close examination.

All good clues.

And you should be able to use any photo editor software to resize your pic, just reduce it to 1000x1000 pixels. If you're using Photobucket, most uploads get saved as a size acceptable to this site. If not, you can select "edit", then pick "resize" and reduce one size. Save it as a copy and use that to post.