Speaking of! here's a repost of what I posted on the outdoor forums that Sumo mentioned. I'm also working on stripping my dereg completely, gonne be working the sandpaper today and see if I can't get it clean, and it's going to get a refinish job today. I will definitely be posting a family pic later, with all of my scrapyard toys represented.

So, the last few weeks, I've been fiddling around with my 1911, swapping in stainless steel components and generally tinkering for no reason other than to make what is mine truly MINE. I got a little carried away at one point, and ended up stripping all of the blueing off of the slide, not realizing it was corrosion resistant and when stripped to the carbon steel... not so much! After a week or so, Colorado Springs being unseasonably humid the last month, the slide started to darken a bit. I would polish it off, and the next day it'd be back. Then came a revelation! JarheadJournalist's pictures of the forced patina on his M7 Bayo blade drew my attention, and I had to exercise my search fu and find out more. When I realized that I could do this to my 1911, and make it corrosion resistant again, while also adding a custom touch, I had to go for it. Since I already had a bottle of phosphoric acid that I had used to strip the blueing in the 1st place, I bathed the slide in it for about 20 minutes to give it a base patina, then I went back in with some regular old ketchup and a q-tip, and striped the slide. I walked away for an hour, came back and rinsed, then tossed her into the oven to bake out any remaining water at 200`. When all was said and done, I just about cried tears of joy. I still can't get over how well it turned out, and if I didn't know that this pistol was a shooter and not a super custom hotrod gun, I would be afraid to shoot it.

SO, without further ado...

*drumroll* (ok, maybe just a little bit more ado...)



a different angle, little better lighting



countertop shots, alot of reflection unfortunately





I'd really like to thank JJ and everyone else that introduced me to this, you guys helped turn what could have been a costly mistake into a dream come true, and you didn't even know it! Lemme know what you guys think!