I have been doing some restoration work on some old guns of mine that have needed it for years. Their finish is too far gone to worry about their collector's value, but they function well, are accurate and do the job. So I've been restocking them and plan to send them to my gunsmith for metal finishing. Some of the guns have minor metal flaws and minor pitting, as most of them are approaching 100 years in age. I have recently discovered a gem of a technician who does microwelding for the manufacturing industry. He has both TIG and laser welders. For the really fine jobs, his laser welder can add as little as two thousanths of an inch of metal to fill in a pit or correct a flaw. There is no issue of overheating the metal, as the heat is so localized. He actually welds in an inert gas (argon) glovebox with a built in binocular microscope. His rods are so tiny they remind me of music wire. One job he did for me was to build up the metal on a stripped-out 6-48 screw hole so that it could be retapped. He actually welded additional metal on the threads inside the hole! He is using low carbon steel rod for my gun jobs, so I anticipate no issue color changes using rust bluing. Microwelders are a rare breed, but if you can find one who will work on guns, he can do wonderful things.
