A question for the learned assembly: suppose you have two guns of the same type (only two?). Let’s say one has good woodwork and a tatty action, the other has a good action but the woodwork is poor

Is it ok to swap bits around to make one good gun (and one tired one) or are you losing history if you do?

I’m not sure what I think. For very rare guns it’s a clear no from me. Similarly for guns with a long production run and many small and possibly undocumented variations (the original crosman pumpers for instance).

On the other hand no one would challenge using a non working donor to restore a gun to working order (I think). And if you, say, swap the grips around on a pair of identical pistols are you really losing anything? Indeed, would anyone know, although that’s not really the point.

So I’m not sure where the line is. Or even if there is a line. What do we think?