Cost of having damascus barrels refinished?

[Gary]

Can someone explain what it takes to get these beautiful barrels refinished..
I have a nice G grade that would look great redone. Just dont know what that entails and how much it may cost.
Im not talking about doing it myself, I would have Brad do them..
Oh yeah and the turnaround time.. Its tough to be without our Parkers for too long.

[Bruce Day]

Originally Posted by Gary Weaver

Can someone explain what it takes to get these beautiful barrels refinished..
I have a nice G grade that would look great redone. Just dont know what that entails and how much it may cost.
Im not talking about doing it myself, I would have Brad do them..
Oh yeah and the turnaround time.. Its tough to be without our Parkers for too long.

Yes, someone can explain. Call Brad and ask.

[Gary]

whats it cost? $300, $500, $800, $1000? just trying to gauge the expense..
Enough people here have had that done.. is it a secret? :-)

[Bruce Day]

Cost is closer to $300, usually, but call Brad. He is the best determiner of his charges, time to completion, and procedures. Not me or anyone else here.

Call Brad, he doesn't bite.

[Setter Man]

I agree: call Brad. I think you will find his prices very reasonable. As for turn around just ask him. He is very straight forward about how long it takes.

[Gary]

Sounds good, I will do that.. was just looking for a ball park and $3-$500 is in the ball park.. $800-$1000 not so much.. :-) Thanks guys.

[Setter Man]

I think you will be relieved.

[B. Dudley]

Instead of discussing the pricing of craftsman in the open forum, contact them directly and just ask.

[Milton Starr]

each gun is different but Brad said he could refinish mine and tighten the action for 800$ . Im tired of having to rub my raw barrels down in oil every day

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by Gary Weaver

whats it cost? $300, $500, $800, $1000? just trying to gauge the expense..
Enough people here have had that done.. is it a secret? :-)

I just delivered my L.C. Smith damascus gun to a local gunsmith, Keith Kearcher who specializes in re-coloring damascus barrels. His fee is $420 to refinish the barrels. He is also going to re-choke the gun to IC/Mod, from Full and full and hone the rough spots from the bore. I told him I don't need to have the bore perfect, if the roughness is deep, but he said there is plenty "meat" left to allow most of the barrel to be honed pretty clean. I explained that I want to shoot the gun, so I don't want to tubes to be made paper thin.

He also said the forcing cone and chambers would probably need to be lengthened, but I said I'm planning to shoot 2.5" RST shells and the original chambering will probably be okay.

A few years ago someone here complained that Kearcher had bored his barrels too thin. I called Kearcher to confirm that the gun would be safe to shoot. I'm going to trust him. He has a good following, most of his work done by mail. I'm a rare "local guy" customer. I also asked him what color he'd make the barrels. He replied that most L.C. Smith's were brown. I did some research on the topic of the color of Smith gun damascus tubes and found both brown and black,and frankly I like the appearance of brown and silver tubes best.

My Smith was a clunker, with no color and plain, but undamaged wood and pretty rough bore. I'll polish the stock with beeswax when I get it back, but I am not going to refinish it. I am looking forward to my newly finished O grade Smith. I plan to shoot the dickens out of it - clays and skeet. It will not be brought back to like new. I stipulated that the original patina on the action be left as is...I can just make out some case colors. Very little rust.

Total cost will be about $700, which means I'll have about $1100 into the gun, which is pretty close to its value, I think.

I don't know if Kearcher's prices are competitive, but he is in business. You can google his website for details.