Just picked this fellow up today. I need to do a good cleaning this weekend, but looks like it has "eczema" (??) on several spots. Is that heavy corrosion, or some kind of ...? It's a real beater, but I'm pretty sure it's my birth year, the price was good, and . . . what can I say? C1583xx. One really bad side plate screw, wrong stock screw. But all numbers match (grip, cylinder, barrel, stocks). Trigger/hammer a little funky, sometimes locks up, have to have that looked at.

Question - should I send to mother ship to clean up? Can they clean this up? What are my chances of getting something nice and clean when they are finished? I don't see much reason to keep as it is, but a clean/pretty birth year gun could be fun. Since price was low, willing to spend some bucks to clean up.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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Short of a re-blue, I don't think S&W can help you. And I am not sure they will touch it as old as it is. Frankly, it's not worth the price of a decent professional re-finish. You might want to get some copper or brass wool and some light oil and see what you can do to improve the finish yourself. Copper and brass wool will remove some of the speckles without harming the remaining bluing. It will look better, but not like new by any means. PS- it probably shipped early in 1951. Grips are likely not original, should be Magnas.

I'd just keep it as a shooter. Many love the snubbies from this era.

Try using some Flitz metal polish first. Use a soft cloth and go slow. Do not use a dremel. Go over it a couple of times. If you are familiar with the inside, take the side plate off and spray it down and clean with a toothbrush, preferably your wife's. After that clean the barrel and cylinder. Now you are ready for a good wax. I use Renaissance wax but any good car wax will work. You can even use it on the grips.

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Tom
NRA Pistol Inst

I don't think Flitz will help much. It's better on plating. The pitting appears to be very severe in some areas, and the best you can hope for is to get it down to bright metal with some brass wool, then maybe apply some cold blue. You might even have to use some 600 grit abrasive paper in spots. As earlier stated, DO NOT attempt use of a Dremel tool with wire brush or abrasive bob, etc.

Thanks for the comments. I was planning on using my Big 45 Frontier metal scrubber that has worked very nicely for me before. Wasn't thinking of a dremel. Ugh. The bore is actually clean, a few (red) rust spots near the muzzle like a few water drops sat.

The right stock is numbered to the gun. You don't think it is original?

I'll look inside to see what's up, but not sure if I want to do anything there (I'll see what it looks like).

I will work on it this weekend and put up photos of results.

Thanks!

I bought an M&P like yours (S/N C1496XX) in January 2013 for $180.00. It didn't have so much surface rust, but that's because the PO had removed it with something rougher than 600 grit abrasive paper. It was down to bare metal in a few places on the frame. I went a little farther with 600, 1000, 1500 and then 2000 grit paper. Wiped it with alcohol and applied Birchwood Casey cold blue. Followed with Flitz and Renaissance and while it's not beautiful, it is presentable and it's one of my better shooters. Plus, it can be carried without any concern about holster wear.
The cold blue touch up on nicely blued guns never looks good because of the contrast of the cold blue area with the nice blue. The older gun's more satin finish doesn't contrast so much.
I also thought about a refinish, but picked up a pristine Model 10-5 snub (for $460.00) a year later. I'm glad I didn't spend the money on the M&P.
Since you have no bare metal spots, try the frontier metal scrubber. I used one on an ancient .32 HE and it removed all the raised stuff and left a pretty nice original finish. Again, not beautiful, but good looking for a gun over 100 years old.
The M&P has had a little more treatment since the pic below was taken and looks a little better.
Pre 10 forum.jpg
10-5 forum c.jpg

George - thanks for the story, and photos. Gives me encouragement. I'll start with the frontier scrubber, and go from there. Haven't had to work on a gun so much, so this will be a new experience. cheers, Tim

If the grips are numbered to the gun, they would be original. While I have not seen one that late with the 1930s-style round top grips, apparently that's what were used.

There are several brands of cold blue around. I usually use Brownell's Oxypho Blue. Brownell's also sells a rust bluing which is very good but more laborious to apply. In any event, it takes a lot of elbow grease to do the hand polishing of the metal to get a uniform smooth pit-free surface. While you can go as fine as 2000 grit, I think that 600-800 grit is plenty good enough for your purpose.

That corrosion and rust has eaten too rat into the metal to be smoothed out. If it is mechanically sound, I would bead blast and then hot blue. It will give a soft matte finish which is very pleasing. That's if you have someone locally who can do the bead blast cheap, and you do the blue yourself. If commercially done, the cost will far exceed the value of the gun.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

What a beauty. Those are the ones I buy at shows and shops. Up in
Va, we called them truck guns. Throw it on the seat and go. Just so the bore and timing are good, shoot it.

Bead blasting is a good way to go - provided you can find someone to do it, and who knows how. Using the correct blasting media and the lowest usable air pressure are extremely important.

I have bead blasted and blued a considerable number of old guns which were not worth the expense of a high polish, and they all came out looking good. The proper media to use is very fine Zirconium/Aluminum Oxide ceramic beads. A handgun can be blasted to a satin finish in a few minutes with a little practice.

thanks for the comments. After I do some cleaning this weekend, I'll take to a local smith (I need him to look at the cocking mechanism, unless I see something obvious when I open it up). I'll also check if/where I can get some bead blasting done. Have a great weekend (though rainy/cloudy down here)!