Caring For Guns With Gold Engraving or Inlays
This may be a rudimentary question, but I haven't been able to find an answer elsewhere. Do firearms with gold engraving or inlays require any special care to preserve the engraving or do you just clean them like any ole blued gun? Are there any standard gun cleaners or solvents to avoid when cleaning firearms with gold engraving or inlays? Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Gold is about as inert as it gets. It is also very soft. The few I worked with I just treated normally. I took a call at the store one morning - What would we give for a Remington model 11 with an extra barrel? I ask the owner $200 plus or minus fifty bucks. Next day they come in with an 11F Premier grade and ask for $200. Fair amount of engraving plus like 5 gold inlays and some platinum wire work.
added Wow nice work.0 -
Any gun related products should be fine. Avoid abrasives. 0 -
Depending on who did the engraving and inlays, there may be situations where the inlays are not very well attached. (the same can be said for borders of wire gold or platinum) The usual procedure is to cut a channel with an undercut and then peen or stake the inlay into that channel. If the undercut is very shallow and the inlay material soft, the inlay can be pushed out of the channel with very little effort.
Bottom line is to avoid any harsh handling of the inlays...or they can just pop out.0 -
Nearly all gun engravers use 24K gold for inlays. 24k gold will not tarnish but it can become dirty and it is so soft that sometimes particles of rust or other thing can get superficially embedded in the surface. These can be removed by simply using a regular red rubber erasure on the gold. There is no gun cleaning agent that will hurt gold platinum or pure silver. As stated before some engravers do not attach their inlays very well but I can say that I only know of about two that have ever came out unintentionally. None of mine ever have.
The only chemical I know of that will loosen an inlay is acid. The acid does not work on the inlay but will eat the steel out from around it. Acid such as this would never be used to clean a gun.
I am a Master engraver in the FEGA and specialize in precious metal artistry. Jerry Huddleston.
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WOW ! Very nice 0 -
I hoped you were fair/honest and gave him more than $200. 0
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