I enjoy a nice, pretty, set of furniture and try to keep the ones that come to me that way, they way they came. But I long ago quit giving a crap about any "appearance issues" in connection with the beat-up, gouged, and/or dented ones, though I have cleaned the ingrained and encrusted oil, grease and filth of handling off of a good, many... with an occasional loss of a little bit of good finish here and there (usually lacquered Soviet and Soviet satellite crap), but not often enough to get all exercised about. If I put anything resembling a finish back on a military firearm, it's just a matter of sealing the wood with multiple light coats of boiled linseed oil (BLO) and beeswax... except with really damaged wood generally over a century old, and on a not particularly good in any respect, firearm, I sometimes deliberately over-BLO those, hoping to better-protect what's left. I don't know about other countries and BLO, but my main interest is in British arms and if they followed their own maintenance protocols, the Brits applied BLO to a regular schedule. But I'll take what I can get and recently paid over $700 for a rather scarce non-British, non-firearm, the stock of which had been completely separated across the wrist, and seriously fractured at several places on the handguard... based on the condition of everything EXCEPT the wood, which had also been professionally or quasi-professionally repaired with brass pins or screws and an unknown adhesive, to all appearances quite awhile ago. Whether the repairs will hold up to shooting low-pressure loads or not, I have no idea... but I intend to find out. What the hell... IT'S ONLY MONEY! But I don't generally play favorites as to appearance. I buy guns to SHOOT them, and if an ugly one shoots good, it's better to me than one so unblemishedly pretty that I'm reluctant to shoot it. I can't claim to agree with what Chief Dan George told Clint Eastwood in the movie, The Outlaw Josie Wales... about a piece of rock candy being "just for looking through." I eat any candy I get aholt to, and I shoot my guns... all except an occasional old one in unfired condition that I should never have bought in the first place.
"Living life in fear isn't living life at all." ~ Winter Soldier
In this vein, the most-favorite gun I've ever owned was a 1892 London Small Arms Long Lee Metford which had been through numerous upgrades including to Long Lee Enfield, in British hands, and was almost certainly deliberately left on the beach when the Brits abandoned their Gallipoli beachhead on 8 Jan 1916, rigged to fire when water dripping from one can to another gained sufficient weight to pull its trigger. It was assigned to the Royal Naval Brigade, naval infantry who were the first ashore and the last to leave. After they "captured" this rifle, the Turks altered it with an 8mm barrel and the magazine of an 1893 Mauser. I shoot this 8mm Enfimauser, or as the Turks called it, "Bastard Gun", with reduced loads only, and it is quite accurate. Both wood and metal are surprisingly good for an arm with that kind of history, especially since the joker who sold it to me threw it and the detached bolt together loose in a box with no packing material whatsoever, and there is no telling how many times that bolt slammed back and forth against it in shipment from him to me.
"Living life in fear isn't living life at all." ~ Winter Soldier
I hired the A-Team once, but all they did was drink all my beer, eat all of my watermelons, and leave the place a mess... Anyone who actually believes that anything like the A Team could exist, even for about 5 minutes, is delusional... but... watching that show was an amusing way to while away (waste) time. Most everything with digital images and sound, or on film if it's old enough, is nothing but a waste of time and source of unrealistic ideas that can and will lead to unrealistic thinking and eventual disaster, if relied on to any extent whatsoever.
"Living life in fear isn't living life at all." ~ Winter Soldier
Looks like the porch needs a little wood resto and repair. Rifle looks nice.
Freedom only lies in the barrel of a loaded gun.
This is my .38/.357 rifle given to me by my best friend a month before he passed away. It kicks like a mule, accurate as hell and I will pass it on to my Grandson when I'm ashes in the Gulf.
Some things mean a lot. Stuff that is real, stuff you don't hang on a wall. Lance is a true artist. He made my day for sure. Thank you Sir.
The problems we face will not be solved by those that created them.