Author Topic: Holster Wear? (Read 1141 times)

Spirithawk · « **on:** March 26, 2013, 12:29:15 PM »

I carry my handguns a lot and notice holster wear now and then. Particularly it seems with the Parkerized slides on my semi-autos. Soooo I keep some Birchwood Casey's Perma Blue Liquid Gun Blue handy. Just a little on a Q-tip and touch up is fast and easy and has them looking like new again. Anyone else do so? It works great on magazines too. I bought some used .45 magazines and reblued them. Couldn't tell them from brand new now.

Hey I was bored!

Liquid cold blue is handy to have around and easy to use. I've even blued some knife blades with it.

hillbill · « **Reply #1 on:** March 26, 2013, 02:21:23 PM »

you do have tooooo much time on your hands! i applaud you for taking excellent care of your weapons. myself, i kind of like a little holster wear on a fine quality blued firearm.doesnt bother me at all.

after yu get done fixing your guns you will be out in the shop revarnishing your axe handles! lol

Empty Quiver · « **Reply #2 on:** March 26, 2013, 02:30:24 PM »

I went to the considerable effort of convincing myself they are beauty marks. Wear is pretty, abuse or neglect is ugly, or so I have convinced myself.

One of the primary reasons I don't buy a new gun is the fear I will violate its purity. I won a Super Grade Winchester M-70 it took three years of worship before I drug it up a mountain. I rubbed a bit of pretty off of it, not enough that I feel bad, but too much to say it's a safe queen. Honest handling wear, I like it. My new holster promptly ate an inch of blue off the muzzle of my NMBH, I bought used because I wanted to carry this thing with no apprehension.

I will say Nitron is danged tough though. The SIG has been in and out of the holster for 5 years now and it has lost a bit of the matte finish but is as black as it ever was.

kynardsj · « **Reply #3 on:** March 26, 2013, 03:22:37 PM »

Over the years I've bought and sold two Dan Wesson pistol packs, a 22 and a 357 because the bluing was so nice I was afraid to take them out much as I didn't want to mess them up. A good many years ago a man owed my Dad some money. Paid him with an unfired Steyr Mannlicher 30-06. One of the most beautiful rifles I've ever seen. My Dad asked what was the best scope and all I could think of was a Zeiss. He had one put on it and told me " Here Boy, go kill a deer with this thing." I thanked him but told him I couldn't as it would break my heart to scratch it up in the woods. I took it to a gun show in Birmingham and more than doubled the money he had in it. I pretty much stick to stainless these days just for the reasons mentioned above.

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #4 on:** March 26, 2013, 05:06:09 PM »

Quote from: kynardsj on March 26, 2013, 03:22:37 PM

Over the years I've bought and sold two Dan Wesson pistol packs, a 22 and a 357 because the bluing was so nice I was afraid to take them out much as I didn't want to mess them up. A good many years ago a man owed my Dad some money. Paid him with an unfired Steyr Mannlicher 30-06. One of the most beautiful rifles I've ever seen. My Dad asked what was the best scope and all I could think of was a Zeiss. He had one put on it and told me " Here Boy, go kill a deer with this thing." I thanked him but told him I couldn't as it would break my heart to scratch it up in the woods. I took it to a gun show in Birmingham and more than doubled the money he had in it. I pretty much stick to stainless these days just for the reasons mentioned above.

I had a DW pistol pack and had it in holsters a bunch nad did not see holster wear, but only the looks of a well used gun. The slight silver and deep blue looks really good to me. Oh and I never did wear throug the blue on my Model 15-2HV with the Galco holsters.

Spirithawk · « **Reply #5 on:** March 26, 2013, 05:06:55 PM »

These are all firearms I use. Two are my daily carries, primary and backup. My point was it is so inexpensive, easy, and fast to do why not do it? I look at it much as like cleaning and oiling my firearms. Just an extra step I take to keep them nice. I take as much pride in my inexpensive firearms as I do my expensive ones. I guess the best way to put it is they all get used, all serve a purpose, and I take the best care I can of my tools. One reason being that one day they will all be passed down to my son.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 26, 2013, 05:26:00 PM »

i use the touch-up blue pen for that.

Empty Quiver · « **Reply #7 on:** March 27, 2013, 06:01:27 AM »

I can appreciate your taking a little extra pride in your weapons. Like I said I convinced myself to try and get over the honest wear thing, can't really say I[size=78%] [/size]don't like a pretty finish though.

Dee · « **Reply #8 on:** March 27, 2013, 06:31:21 AM »

When I was a rookie cop I did. Day in, day out, all kinds of weather, and conditions. Not no mo. I still carry 24/7, and the tools look used.

cwlongshot · « **Reply #9 on:** March 27, 2013, 07:13:39 AM »

If you like Birchwood try 44-40 brand. Makes Birchwood look like water color.

I know Brownellls carries it maybe mid south and midway too.

Personally I look at holster wear as a I do a scar... I figure if i got it I EARNED both.

if I was worried about finish I would have it in a case in my safe. I have some like that, but fewer and fewer the older I get.

CW

hillbill · « **Reply #10 on:** March 27, 2013, 03:14:45 PM »

Quote from: cwlongshot on March 27, 2013, 07:13:39 AM

If you like Birchwood try 44-40 brand. Makes Birchwood look like water color.

I know Brownellls carries it maybe mid south and midway too.

Personally I look at holster wear as a I do a scar... I figure if i got it I EARNED both. if I was worried about finish I would have it in a case in my safe. I have some like that, but fewer and fewer the older I get.

CW

yeah the older i git, the less i like safe queens.

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2013, 02:36:30 AM »

I go two ways on this. I have field guns that i dont worry about it on and all of my 1911s fall into that catogory. Even most of my custom sixguns fall under that classification. I do have a few customs with real nice bluing and case hardening that i dont holster unless im actually hunting with them and try to keep them looking good. For the most part there tools and i dont worry about it. Bluing is not that expensive to have redone but case hardening is pretty expensive.

Dee · « **Reply #12 on:** March 28, 2013, 02:59:24 AM »

A short story about holster wear.
An old cop buddy of mine carried a Colt Trooper on duty, and off duty. He was a big guy, and gettin in and out of the car, and in many street fights making arrests the grips got banged up over the years. The gun was taken in and out of the holster countless times over the years, and it showed the years of use that this officer, and other officers, and citizens, DEPENDED on this old Colt. A few times "I" depended on that old Colt. I fought "beside" this guy, and sometimes "with" this guy. It was life.
Then one day Bill was gone, with a massive, one time heart attack in his early fifties. I looked at that old Colt, and thought what all of think at one time or the other: If this old Colt could just talk, the stories it could tell.
Then in memoriam of his father, Bill's son took that old Colt, and had it RE-BLUED, and the grips RESTORED. I looked at that now NEW appearing old Colt, and thought: He just erased a period in a life when he did that to that old Colt. I don't think Bill's son realized that when he did that, and then put it in a glass box. I hope he never does.

Ladobe · « **Reply #13 on:** March 28, 2013, 05:42:15 AM »

Besides the countless others, I've been lucky enough to own quite a few custom exhibition grade firearms, some that came at very steep prices. Can't begin to count the times folks have expressed disbelief I actually took them in the field and hunted with them like any other firearm. They are just tools folks, matters not what they cost. I take care of my tools when I use them no matter their cost, and most survived without any issues at all. Even the firearms I've owned in my life that did get honest bumps and bruises from a fall or whatever... any that got holster wear from decades of carrying them earned the minor damage. I'm about as far as you can get from being brand new myself too, have plenty of scars, wear and tear. But I don't try to hide what we earned together with some witches brew. That wear and tear serves as an instant reminder of many very fine times in the field, in some cases of the actual hunt I fell down a mountain, crossed a raging river and slipped, fought my way through a tangle that tore my hide and it's, etc. I use my tools, I hang art on walls.

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #14 on:** March 28, 2013, 08:13:47 AM »

Dee,
Good story.
My question about this is,
If the leather or nylon of the holster and your body oils, from your hands or body and you are touching them up is it for your personal vanity or is it a form of fraud? Making the gun look like new when it is not?
I mena would you buy a car that has been repainted that is only a few years old and driven everyday?

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #15 on:** March 28, 2013, 09:11:15 AM »

ya'll make me feel bad , my pocket gun a 340 PD looks rough , real rough . When it was new maybe 6 mos. old I touched it up with a pen and it was back to rough in a few days. Dirt , grit etc all leave their marks along with holster wear. It can happen in a day so even though it gets cleaned often it still gets worn. The finish was worn off the nickle airweight mod 38 it replaced . I wouldn't refinish it as it has charcter now. Besides on both guns some of the edges are worn off and it would look funny to have a nice finish on a gun that was lopsided

Spirithawk · « **Reply #16 on:** March 28, 2013, 09:34:02 AM »

Guys I think there is much to be said about both sides of the coin. I do have guns that show years of wear. Battles scars I call the scratches and dings. But there are guns, such as my daily carry semi-auto's that I like to keep looking nice. I grew up pretty poor. Still ain't exactly rich by any means. Some things have been mighty hard to come by so I feel compulsed to take the very best care of them that I can. When you don't have a lot of nice things you tend to take care of the ones ya do have. Trust me, I know and feel the same as y'all that wear can show charector and certainly can trigger memories. I feel that way about my guitars. I still have my very first guitar and have owned it for over 40 years. Every scratch and ding has a story to tell but I still cringe if I add another and faithfully keep it polished.

I feel that way about my guns. As for safe queens I don't own any. Every gun I own gets used and used a lot. Dee, I hear what you are saying Diganali. But just as the wear on some of my guns will have meaning to my son, so will the care shown in preserving them. It has always made me smile when someone comments how nice a condition one of my guns is in for having age and a lot of use. If my son is within hearing he never hesitates to speak up and inform them, Dad takes very good care of his guns!"

Can't help it but that just always makes me smile.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #17 on:** March 28, 2013, 09:37:48 AM »

nothing wrong with taking care of your gun . But working construction mine gets covered in dust, dirt , sewat rain , pocket lint, and other junk almost everyday and it shows.

williamlayton · « **Reply #18 on:** March 28, 2013, 12:31:05 PM »

I vowed i would never own a gun I would not shoot.
I lied !
About two years ago I ran across an old Colt Python---appears never to have been fired. I won't shoot it and will pass it on to my son.
That is the only one---the others are fair game.
Blessings

Ladobe · « **Reply #19 on:** March 28, 2013, 02:43:23 PM »

Another POV maybe is resaleability.

May not bother some folks either way, their personal choice.

In my case anyway, I don't want a gun that has been given a witches brew treatment, I'd rather it shows the use it's had honestly. Been there... bought an older model revolver once from a gent sight unseen, just from pictures, and his ad advertising it as in mint condition almost unfired. Completely re blued is not mint condition, it was in well used condition hidden dishonestly by the seller (and yes, a blind man would have known it was re blued from the wear alone). If you're going to touch them up or re blue them, at least be honest about it when you sell them IOW.

Dee · « **Reply #20 on:** March 28, 2013, 02:51:54 PM »

Quote from: Spirithawk on March 28, 2013, 09:34:02 AM

Guys I think there is much to be said about both sides of the coin. I do have guns that show years of wear. Battles scars I call the scratches and dings. But there are guns, such as my daily carry semi-auto's that I like to keep looking nice. I grew up pretty poor. Still ain't exactly rich by any means. Some things have been mighty hard to come by so I feel compulsed to take the very best care of them that I can. When you don't have a lot of nice things you tend to take care of the ones ya do have. Trust me, I know and feel the same as y'all that wear can show charector and certainly can trigger memories. I feel that way about my guitars. I still have my very first guitar and have owned it for over 40 years. Every scratch and ding has a story to tell but I still cringe if I add another and faithfully keep it polished. I feel that way about my guns. As for safe queens I don't own any. Every gun I own gets used and used a lot. Dee, I hear what you are saying Diganali. But just as the wear on some of my guns will have meaning to my son, so will the care shown in preserving them. It has always made me smile when someone comments how nice a condition one of my guns is in for having age and a lot of use. If my son is within hearing he never hesitates to speak up and inform them, Dad takes very good care of his guns!" Can't help it but that just always makes me smile.

I'm ain't scoldin ya Diganali. Those are your guns, and you should do what you want with them. I'm just a lazy old indian with too many days to care anymore.

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #21 on:** March 28, 2013, 03:42:00 PM »

Quote from: williamlayton on March 28, 2013, 12:31:05 PM

I vowed i would never own a gun I would not shoot.
I lied !
About two years ago I ran across an old Colt Python---appears never to have been fired. I won't shoot it and will pass it on to my son.
That is the only one---the others are fair game.
Blessings

DAD!

Mikey · « **Reply #22 on:** March 29, 2013, 02:27:49 AM »

Holster wear to me is like tan lines on a beootiful woman, beauty marks; something to be looked at, remembered and appreciated. Geez guys, c'mon.

Williamlayton - you bought a Python?? I thought ya wuz a S&W man? Where's SharonAnne when ya need her???

cwlongshot · « **Reply #23 on:** March 29, 2013, 05:50:31 AM »

I was just looking at my PMR-30's slide. All corners are shiny!! I have been carrying it in a Strong 1911 holster I cut the retention off. It first VERY nicely. The bluing must be pretty thin as I have only had this gun since December and only used this holster for about two months...

I here what your saying, NOTHING wrong with keeping something nice!! I do it all the time on my 7 year old GMC. It looks like a year or two old. But that's how I like to keep my vehicles. I was a bit be t at the wife last weekend when I took her liberty to get washed... Seems she has taken to using the scraper to push snow off roof and hood... AND IT SHOWS IT!!! LOL. Did I mention her perpencity to clean all the curbs in town with her pass side tires? That's a other story!!

CW

ole 5 hole group · « **Reply #24 on:** March 29, 2013, 05:59:11 AM »

Well guys, there’s another side to the coin here. You can take a great shooting revolver/pistol, which is used daily or else used hard when in use and have it coated with a “wonder” treatment. I’m talking about ion-bond and Melonite treatments.

These treatments will provide outstanding protection to your firearm relative to corrosion, no throat erosion and signs of rough handling. I don’t think it will ever show holster wear and I think you can even have it fly out of your holster and slide 4’ across gravel without making any marks.

The only draw-back is cost – but if you’re young enough and plan on keeping the firearm and handing it down someday – well, it’ll look just the same at that time, as it did when returned from the “treatment” process - so the cost factor is nil over time considering the benefits.