To Restore or Ignore

When working with antique and historically significant firearms should you restore or leave the original finish intact despite the condition of the original finish being poor or compromised??

Scenario : you come into possession of a firearm or antique war memorabilia or an old sewing machine whatever the case may be you find yourself caught up in the hype of your new purchase or heirloom and before too long you find yourself on Pinterest or google and see similar items and start to compare the pair and may think “oooof she’s a bit beat up compared to some I see” and often people will ignore this and chalk it up as character or wear and tear and move on.

thus begs the question what to do about it ?

If this was handed down or you came across said item and it was gifted to you, your next move may be to look on eBay or the web to try purchase a like for like to get a rough estimate of the value of the item just for curiosity sake and if it’s as rare as I like my oddities and antiques to be then hopefully you won’t find another like it anywhere on the web.

This is where things get interesting !!!

So how much is it worth and if I wanted to restore it will it retain its value ??? or could a restoration diminish the value ???

There are two main schools of thought and the above can be true in certain circumstances and it’s a bit more difficult to really cover in one thread but I’ll do my best to summarise from my experiences and my opinion on how these items can be valued.

The first side is basically : an item of historical significance is only of any value if it is intact as its original finishes and has not been tampered with or altered in any way except to be preserved by a museum trained professional and to do so differently would render any piece a paper weight and not worth the packing foam it was posted in !!

These folks tend to be purists and collectors of very specific memorabilia and I see the sense in their argument I feel like this can be somewhat of a ploy to drive up the value of their own collections by forcing scarcity into their own realm of collectables and that’s fine because they are usually the ones who shell out the big bucks to take these ones off your hands given the criteria is met .

The second side: tends to lead more for a story and are often more functionality driven and they love a good tale about where the item came from and the stories it may tell. This is very common amongst enthusiasts as opposed to collectors and I align a lot more with these types of people . And basically they are summarised as people who like to bring awareness and display pride in preserving history by keeping them going and continuing to use an otherwise outdated technology to keep them from fading from existence.

I see this a lot with stationary engines, old motorbikes, steam engines, car clubs and things of that nature where there is a community of enthusiastic individuals that will get together to preserve history by keeping it running instead of putting it behind glass.

I am of the belief that any item is worth what your willing to pay for it and if your using antique firearms as a way to store your wealth than by all means go to the museums and auctions and buy the most ludicrously expensive piece of kit you can afford and park it in a vault until your ready to liquidate your assets to buy your next Bentley and you may do well.

But when grandad hands down his original store bought mod94 chambered in 218bee that his dad handed down to him, and you find yourself in possession of an absolutely amazing piece of history that is traced back to your great grandads first rabbit rifle you need to ask yourself does it belong in a safety deposit box locked away to never see the light of day? Or do you dust off the cobwebs and sling some lead like they did when grand pop used to shoot rabbits for supper?

At the end of the day there are different horses for different courses and as far as I’m concerned the essence of a firearm or any pice of equipment doesn’t live on the surface but is the item itself and that’s where the value lies. If I broke my leg I wouldn’t let that break define who I am forever I’d have the bone set and rehabilitate then keep on trucking so when you come across an old beat up heirloom consider how it will add value to you and if that value is selling it for some quick cash than so be it …

But think of the memories you could make with it being utilised as it was originally intended !!