You Pretty old 40 cal 'Pom' ..

 I sort of accidently bought this 1840's British made Percussion pistol .. it is a 'turn-off' - Cannon Barrel, Boxlock "Muff Pistol" with some real fancy  silver wire inlay  on the stock. - But I'm now so pleased that I got it, as it is such a nice thing. - The standard of metalwork is finely precise and detailed.  The steel (Iron?) metal is so hard you can feel it shining my Swiss Files as they cut AND - it is so well made. 

- How come such hard steel corroded SO badly .. was it case-hardened?

As delivered this gun had deep corrosion and all-over surface rusting. Where might it have been stored? .. dumped for years in some damp cellar in a salt mine?

A Delicate 185 year love token💝pistol for a Victorian Lady - Mistress or 'consort'.

- I've already made a start cleaning-up the Trigger Guard.

Now this piece has issues - some absolutely horrible rust corrosion of the barrel inside & out .. I think this once beautiful barrel looks to be SCRAP.

Muzzle as bought online auction ..

Someone please tell me I've ruined it's "Collector Value".

 - I was viewing images of it on the auction site considering just what the hell - if anything - could be best done to save this old thing .. maybe build-up the metal with weld or machine it all off and replace with steel sleeves - But the most simple solution is to just turn-up a completely NEW BARREL on the lathe and finish it appropriately. That would be easiest.

I waited until the last minutes of the online auction before putting up a throw-away extra $5 bid and it won. That surprised me ..

The pretty silver inlay decoration is missing in several places of the left side & top - meaning I have a repair job to do. I have to buy jeweller's Silver wire and learn how to use it to inlay into a once lovely pistol stock. This was old time skilled artistry.

AliExpress China offer various silver wires at reasonable cost while YouTube or Google have instructions on how to use it .. so what's the delay then?

The original domed screws are undamaged excepting the one fixing the stock to the bottom tang - so it will be seized-rusty .. I have been using my Chinese 'Swiss' files to excise the bubbling scabs of iron-corruption from this once fine barrel - and it now looks better than the corroded mess received ..

'Trust The RUST' .. Pitting is still HORRIBLE but better than it was ..

I guess I'm now hoping that there might be some barrel life remaining?

- In case you were wondering - I just checked .. NONE of these antique gun barrels can be interchanged as they each have different threads .. not much standardization in mid 19th century.

I'll do a "follow-up" showing my efforts with SILVER INLAY repair work and maybe a replacement barrel before I get too old ..

Marty K.