I am very new to revolvers... a friend of mine is selling his John French 5" rev, 6 rds... no price set yet but its a beauty...
HELP on how much i will bargain for and ADVICE regarding the gun. Highly appreciate it.

Is it possible that "John French" may be who's name is engraved on the revolver for presentation purposes? Or could it possibly be a French ordnance revolver?

There were some fellers with the last name of French that made flintlock pistols...at least there is no listing of "French" revolvers in my Flayderman's or other antique books...

Describe the piece a bit further, such as the caliber or a photo will help out immensely.
Also the locality may have some bearing on the piece.

__________________
Lost it all in a boat accident

thanks andy...
its a .357 magnum with a small "hole/slot" after the front sight and with a JF logo on the right side...
you are right and as a newbie in revolvers i would really appreciate any input. i took pics on my cell phone but dont know to download.
thanks again...

That very brief description of the sight hints at a King mirror sight. We really need more information and pictures, a King Equipped 357 Magnum could fall into the run of Registered Magnums which can be VERY high dollar revolvers.

For now just ignore the John French logo, he may have been the original owner or the gun may have been a Gunsmiths special with John French being the name of the gunsmith.

What you should be looking for.

First the makers logo and manufacturing location. The 357 Magnum is a post 1935 caliber and this gun should have some manufacturers information stamped on it somewhere. On a Smith & Wesson the logo will be on the frame behind the cylinder on either side above the grips. S&W will also have Made in USA and the manufacturing location stamped on the right side under the cylinder.

Second, the serial number including any letters proceeding the serial number. This may be repeated in multiple locations, such as under or on top of the barrel, on the cylinder, on the crane, and under the grips on the grip frame. BTW, you may also find assembly numbers which are not serial numbers, they are tracking numbers to keep the fitted parts together during the manufacturing process and are generaly hand stamped with poor alignment where serial numbers will normally be well aligned, spaced, and stamped in one strike.

Finally, good sharp pictures take with a decent digital camera. This site does feature the ability to upload photographs to the site so an image hosting service isn't required, go advanced and select "attach Images" and upload them from your computer. However, when uploading images to the site resize them to 800x600 pixels or smaller, hint size to 800 x 600 and save in JPG so they will be large enough to see well.

One shot in a million here, but just maybe------ Stranger things have happened. As none of us ever heard of a john french revolver, might be someones name on it. I done my career in california and we had a john french on our security dept for lockheed. He was from your area. (originaly in the 60s he was a guard with me, than climbed higher as a security rep and worked all over the country.)

there was a john french that wrote gun articles and i think did work on handguns back 20 or so years.

thanks all for those informative inputs....
the hole/slot i mentioned...is a compensator.
the trigger..... has a trigger stop
hammer.....bull hammer
ill try to figure how to download pix.
but i do appreciate your comments and suggestions.
it would be my first revolver once i get more info and research.
i am 9mm and 45 ,AR's, socomII etc guy...
i may start revolvers.....

John French was a SoCal gunsmith that specialized in S&Ws. When S&W wanted to start up the Performance Center they hired John to head up the revolver part and another guy for the autos. If the gun does not have a PC logo, it was probably one he made up as a prototype. That is just my guess.

What ever happened to gun writer John French?

If you pull out your 1992 S&W catalog there is a pic of John working at a milling machine on p.34.