Blue or color case hardening for a custom Vaquero?

[oregon45]

I'm sending a large frame Bisley Vaquero .357 to John Gallagher for rechambering to 45 Colt with an octagonal barrel this spring. Re-marking the frame wills require refinishing and I'm wavering between an all blue gun or having the frame refinished by Turnbull in his color case hardened finish. Thoughts? Anyone have pictures of an all blue Bisley Vaquero?

[Jamey Worrell]

Check out the Blueprint thread...mine is the first gun listed, was done by Gallagher, and was CCH'd by Turnbull. Been very pleased with both Gallagher's work and also the Turnbull finish.

[AmmoHouse]

Mine is being worked on by Bowen right now.
Its getting a octagon barrel and Turnbull coloring, hopefully it'll be done this year.

[sagebrushburns]

Turnbull case colors are to die for - do it!

[boxhead]

When I had Clements do Vaquero many years ago I had him blue it and it looked great. Though I own a couple of Turnbull colored customs my preference is blued.

[AxeHandle]

I prefer blue too.. Those CCH guns do look good but just not my cup of tea. Not that I'd turn a deal down on a gun with CCH but I'd never pay to have it done to one of mine.

[dougader]

Have you seen Boge Quinn's shorty 500L Vaquero that Dustin and John made? That deep blue makes my heart flutter. I like the CCH, but blue is my preference, too.

[CraigC]

Case color that sucker!

[steve]

You can't go wrong either way. All blue is really pretty, Boge's 500 Vaquero and Whitworth's 500 Max are both drop dead gorgeous. I'm just a sucker for Turnbull's CCH, I love it. To me it's the perfect touch for a custom revolver.

[CraigC]

Damn you and your walnut, Steve.

[steve]

Feb 9, 2014 12:34:43 GMT -5 CraigC said:

Damn you and your walnut, Steve.

Hey Craig, those grips of yours aren't exactly the ugliest things in the world!!

[CraigC]

Yeah but they ain't exactly what I was looking for either.

[Snyd]

Feb 8, 2014 19:06:40 GMT -5 oregon45 said:

I'm sending a large frame Bisley Vaquero .357 to John Gallagher for rechambering to 45 Colt with an octagonal barrel this spring. Re-marking the frame wills require refinishing and I'm wavering between an all blue gun or having the frame refinished by Turnbull in his color case hardened finish. Thoughts? Anyone have pictures of an all blue Bisley Vaquero?

Sounds like a nice one! I've currently got a project in process with John, my first custom. I had a conversation wit him about CCH myself. Personally I don't care for the bright/highgloss type coloring. John use to do the old fashoined charcoal process but he said it's very time consuming and a lot of work and that now he uses Turnbull. I understand you can get Turnbull but without the clear coat. Maybe someone else here can chime in on that. He also said this...

"If you plan on using the revolver in the field a lot and packing it in a holster a bunch I would probably not go with the color case. It will wear with time and the cost to refinish would be much more than a straight blue revolver. Hope the info helps."

I decided to go blue with cc hammer.

Either way... get it the way YOU want it.

[steve]

CCH has held up reasonably well for me. This one was re-blued this past summer when I had a new front sight installed and gripframe re-shaped, but the CCH was done by Turnbull in 1998 or 99. It's been carried, shot and cleaned a bunch. To me, it's gotten prettier with age.

[CraigC]

On the Bisley I pictured above, the color case hardened frame has held up better than the bluing has. There are several places where the bluing is worn from handling and holstering but the case colors still look new. Probably due in no small part to the clearcoat.