The following is a quote from a 2007 correspondence with Roy Jinks: "The bright blue process depends on a very bright finish. It is not the bluing that makes the process bright. The S&W bluing process up to 1978 was a hot dry blue process called carbona. It was a charcoal style of process and S&W started using in in the 1850s. It provided a beautiful color but to keep everything a matching color all parts needed to be done together. S&W did this until 1958. After that they started bluing barrels in one batch, cylinders in another and the frames separate. This lead to slightly different colors in the blue finishes. The new process is a chemical bath process."
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