REMORSE
"A painful emotional state brought about by ones own actions"
Usually from selling a gun that should have been kept....
Fair point that some (rich) car collectors have classics in storage. As someone who ran a classic car myself for decades back in the day, I wanted it to be as original as possible except when it came to modern performance and safety. So I uprated the engine, suspension, brakes etc, but you wouldn't have known that to look at it!
Vintage Airguns Gallery
..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.
REMORSE
"A painful emotional state brought about by ones own actions"
Usually from selling a gun that should have been kept....
A simple question, perhaps not so easy to answer if you are a collector strongly opposed to restoration:
If you were given a Westley Richards Highest Possible pistol, from which someone had sawn off the barrel overhang, and you were in a position to invisibly replace the missing section of barrel with a brand new, but accurately aged piece, would you carry out the repair?
Or would you say that the sawing off of the barrel was "part of the history of the gun" and so it should be left alone?
This is a dilemma that I actually faced several years ago, and I would be interested in people's thoughts.
That is a tricky one John. I suppose a lot depends on the condition of the gun. Sometimes as I quite like to see old repairs and bodges on guns, but I am not a collector, just a big kid and I enjoy plinking. If the gun were really cheap and not in great condition, I would happily plink with it with the cut down barrel. If I was more into collecting and could do the repair so you couldnt tell, then I gues that is what I would do.
Think about some of the repairs / updates and refurbs that Webley have done over the years. Maybe the extended barrels replaced with shorter ones, gun reblued (The Juniors because of the frames going the colour that we now like). If they were done at the factory within a certain period I'd guess they were still "period".
I've been told that will some of the longer Webley pistol barrels, that there was not a set length for them , so one might be 1/4 inch or so longer than another of a very similar age.
If the inside of the barrel of your pistol was badly corroded and it wouldnt shoot well at all, I think that would be a good reaason to fit the other barrel if you wanted to use the gun.
At the end of it, it is your choice. If you accept you may knock something off the value of the gun but you will have the enjoyment of being able to use it, I guess you have to decide what is worth it to you.
Cooler than Mace Windu with a FRO, walking into Members Only and saying "Bitches, be cool"
l am with you there Danny on refinished guns they don't float my boat. but l would buy a refinished gun if it was a very very rare example in the hope that l might find one in original well used condition and sell the refinished one on. what does get my goat is when people call refinished guns mint.
This problem was a bit more complicated than making a complete replacement barrel (in which case you would not be doing anything permanent to the structure of the gun), as what I had in mind was more intrusive: to permanently attach the missing couple of inches of barrel to the original, with the join hidden under the front sight barrel housing.
Would the purist regard this as making things better for the gun, or making things worse by introducing even more structural alteration?
Rodgered = Beyond Redemption!😁
Plinkerer and Tinkerer