First, welcome to the forum. In the "Images" book there is a comment that S&W makes all their own polishing wheels and that the originals were made of walrus hide and wood. You can bet that the walrus hide thing is long gone with the tree huggers around today. Also says that prior to 1979 the parts were held in a dry gas oven at 750 degrees with charred bone and carbona wax. The parts were cooled in oil but it does not say what the oil was or how fast the "quenching" was.

Bob