I get a lot of e-mails asking me about cleaning firearms. In fact, I think that is a sub-culture among people who collect things of any kind. Part of the enjoyment of being obsessive and compulsive is spending an inordinate amount of time cleaning and displaying whatever it is you are collecting. Whether it is a firearm, comic book, rare plate, automobile – you add your own choice here – people who collect tend be slavishly dedicated to keeping their love clean.
Personally in the case of firearms, I don’t collect anything that I couldn’t shoot. It is the same thing when I collected and sold comic books. The first and foremost idea in my mind is not to put the article up on a stand and worship it but what joy can I get out of using it? Ah, that means in my case I don’t collect priceless objects d’art that can’t be manhandled or fired, right? In my case, right.
If you have the money, time and inclination to go ahead and preserve something in museum-like quality, please do. I for one, don’t have the space, time or money for it. So to get back to firearm cleanliness.
I always start my cleaning of any firearm from the inside out. The reason is pretty straightforward. The firing mechanisms need to be free from powder, collective shmotz and dirt and the parts of the mechanisms that need to be lubricated have to be cleaned. I work my way going out and take it from there.
On regular firearms I try to keep the weapon as clean as I possibly can. On the Curio & Relic, not so much because I am concerned about ruining what is left of any original finish, markings, design, etc. Soap and water and proper drying does wonders a lot better than cleaning compounds with acetone and stuff like that.
If you look at hardcore collectors, the exterior of the firearm is very much important in the determining the value of the item. This is true in anything that you collect. How many times have you seen people with baseball cards, comic books, (you fill in the blank) scream when their favorite item gets a fold, tear or scrape?
If that is the case, you shouldn’t bother shooting the weapon and leave it in the box, untouched with the certificate of authenticity. My one question is – is there a market fifty years from now for a rare, limited edition piece that perhaps fewer and fewer people are interested in? For a true, scarce item like a limited edition 1800s Colt, sure. You have a museum piece and if it were up to me, I would sell it or donate it now and get the taxcredit and whatever I can to make a profitable deal. You may want to leave it to heirs but how many of them will pass it on and what happens three generations down the line? The way people are in need of cash the first thing I hear from a lot of people is “Ohhh, I bet that is worth a lot of money.”
For people who collect, there are some things more important than money and sometimes that isn’t passed along or acquired in later generations.
Got way off the topic of cleaning here, didn’t I?
Thanks for continuing to support my log book on Curio & Relics. If you are getting (or already have) a Federal Firearms Curio & Relics FFL 03 license this bound book is for you. Hundreds of people have said it is a great bargain and besides being made in America, will have the added benefit of having part of all proceeds from the sales going to find a cure for Rett Syndrome. Rett affects a girl born every 15 minutes. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.
Be well gang!
Kim Isaac Greenblatt
Care and Feeding of your Curio & Relic Firearms
Tags: Curio & Relics