All,

I realize I am going to need to put some pics up here, and will do so shortly, but thought I might start this thread regardless.

Recently picked up a barely used Ithaca 37 - nice little gun as it is a 20 ga Deluxe Vent with a 26 in bbl and IC choke.

The problem - althogh almost unused, it was not stored properly and developed some corrosion on teh barrel. Most came off and left a slight "tarnish" however there is one spot were there is some slight pitting. The kind that you can just barely feel with you finger nail.

I am debating getting the barrel refinshed but didn;t know if this area of pitting could be finished-out.

In general, any thoughts on this?

I will get some pics up later today...promise.

TIA,

Bob

If its not terribly deep it can be filed and polished away.

Bart, I get many rusty shotguns in my shop for refurbishing. Many are owned by working class guys, and girls, who care more about function than looks. One of the most popular finishes requested involves bead or sand blasting the barrel before rebluing. I use glass beads if the pitting is very shallow, sand if the pitting is deeper. Working the sand blast column over the pitting so as to soften the appearance, removing sharp edges of the pitting by changing the angle of the blaster tip to the metal surface.

Thanks for he comments guys, and sorry for slow response.

Mike - i hear you about the bead blasting, but for this project, if i do re-blue it, I want it to be polished. That is, as long as the pitting can be reasonably removed. If not completely, at least to an extent that it would not be glaringly obvious. The location of the pitting in this case is on the bottom side of the barrel, so not a spot that would be the most obvious. That said, when I know it is there, it tends to be the focus of my attention...

I am attempting to show some pics here for a look-see...

Mike, do you do any special prep to insure that there is no active corrosion at work in the bottom of the pits? Especially the deeper ones.

The reason I ask is that I like to clean them all down to bare metal either by blasting or sometimes with a tiny burr in a dremel or even dental picks before I fill them and then put on the finish. I don't have the facilities to do bluing or park so I have to use spray on finishes.

This may be a bit of overkill but I have seen too many nicely finished items sprout little crusty spots.

I am assuming that if you are bluing that the heat and oil may take care of the problem.