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Back in the futuristic 50s thru 60s, unpainted wood was considered old-fashion. Not sure, though, why gray was chosen for B&Js. I've stripped my B&J Grover, and it appears to be a light-color wood like Ash.
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Where I live, our railway uses old London Underground trains which must be 60-70 years old (used above ground now). These have some quite intricate moulded wood around the windows and other areas which are all made from mahogany and oak and are painted - usually in a horrible light grey just the camera.
Steve.
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Fantastic job on the stripping and finishing!!! Now I know what my own B&J will look like when I get a new bellows for it. You must have been really lucky and/or highly skilled to get the bellows off without destroying it. The one on mine was actually fairly rotten so I had no choice but to order a new one. I'm surprised someone said that said that these don't refinish well. Old growth hard maple as in the B&J view cameras is seldom a problem to refinish, unless you get blotching from a using a some of the cheaper hardware store stains. Nice wood like this should never be hidden under that horrible paint. How did you end up stripping it? I took mine to a furniture refinisher who managed to get all that horrible paint off 3 hours after I dropped it off in his shop. All it needed after that was a light sanding and then I finished it with a tung oil finish I made from McCloskey's Man O'War satin spar varnish.
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I really like the look of the refinished B&J cameras. When I was looking for an 11x14, the B&J was my first choice because of its 9" square lens board, but I knew I'd end up refinishing it. Fortunately, one turned up a few months ago that was already done! And it looks just right on the Ries maple tripod...
I'm considering having the aluminum black anodized, but I'm not sure how well it would hold up in the field...
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