A 4473 is that multi sheet, questionaire one must fill out, sign and date before buying a firearm from a dealer, getting your firearm back from a gunsmith or pawnshop. The records are kept by that dealer or shop until they go out of business and then given to the BATF who by law are not supposed to do anything but store them but who reportedly violate Federal Law and put the info in their files tp find out who has bought what in case of planned eliminatio0n of guns in the US.
Currently, a 4473 is not required to receive your gun back from a smith. A 4473 is only required when transferring ownership from a dealer to an individual. That may change. What the new BATF procedures is for between say a gunsmith and a bluer or refinisher. My guess is that most refinishers of firearms have an FFL and so do smiths. If they don't, they should. If they have their FFLs all that should be required is to log the gun out to the refinisher (or other outside service provider) and back in when it returns. Then log it out to the owner when shipped.
FYI all the smiths I have sent guns to have sent them back to my house direct. This includes Colt for their recent recall last year.
Writers work for magazines and mags should have an FFL. The way around this is for the gun to be sent to the mag for evaluation as a corporation. Then the mag assigns the writer to the story. No transfer of ownership involved.