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S&W Hand Ejectors: 1896 to 1961 All 5-Screw & Vintage 4-Screw SWING-OUT Cylinder REVOLVERS, and the 35 Autos and 32 Autos


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  #1  
Old 08-22-2014, 01:37 PM
locolobo56 locolobo56 is offline
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Default Restore?

As I see it my pre-victory is not a really valuable firearm as millions were made and still in use. The finish has a medium case of surface rust due to being left on a closet shelf in a leather holster for the past 20 yrs. The bluing on the frame has complete coverage with almost no wear but the barrel is almost bare of blue. Due to the rust I am thinking of having S&W do a re-finish since, aside from its historical interest (Went to Britain in WWII) is not a "collectible". What do Y'all think? How much will a factory re-blue cost? This pistol will probably be a shooter as the mechanicals are tight, rifling looks great and I recently found 1000+ rounds of 38 S&W on a local sportsmans site (and he's not wanting an am and a leg for 'em) and have ordered dies to reloadfor it. Thanks, Harold
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Old 08-22-2014, 01:40 PM
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S&W probably will not touch it - too old.

There others who will, if you want to spend about $250 (plus shipping) for a first class job. But it is money poorly spent, and won't make the revolver worth anymore than it is now. Clean it up as best you can and shoot it.
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Old 08-22-2014, 02:29 PM
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S&W will not refinish pre-numbered guns. If you can't live with the finish I would recommend that you parkerize it. That is the finish it originally came with. I just parkerized a Navy victory that was in sad shape.
You first have to take the gun completely apart, that includes all pins and springs. Take it to someone who specializes in media blasting guns. It doesn't cost much. Now put the side plate and all of the pins back in. Don't put the inside parts or any springs in. You can buy the kit for parkerizing from Brownells. It is easy to do. Or you can have a gunsmith do it. If you have any questions p.m. me.
I just looked at your question again. You have a pre-victory. You can still parkerize it or you can buy some of the bluing products such as Brownells Oxy-pho. It works really good.
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Last edited by tlay; 08-22-2014 at 02:32 PM.
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Old 08-22-2014, 02:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tlay View Post
S&W will not refinish pre-numbered guns. If you can't live with the finish I would recommend that you parkerize it. That is the finish it originally came with. I just parkerized a Navy victory that was in sad shape.
You first have to take the gun completely apart, that includes all pins and springs. Take it to someone who specializes in media blasting guns. It doesn't cost much. Now put the side plate and all of the pins back in. Don't put the inside parts or any springs in. You can buy the kit for parkerizing from Brownells. It is easy to do. Or you can have a gunsmith do it. If you have any questions p.m. me.
I just looked at your question again. You have a pre-victory. You can still parkerize it or you can buy some of the bluing products such as Brownells Oxy-pho. It works really good.
Pre-Victories were not phosphated (but a few may have been), at least not during manufacture. That did not begin until about mid-1942. Many British pre-Victories used a hot oxide bluing (Black Magic) process, described as, initially, brush-blued, and later sand-blast blued, beginning about December 1941. Prior to that, the finish was the old commercial Carbonia blue. We don't know when the OPs revolver was made, but if it's SN is earlier than about 900000, it would likely have been Carbonia blued, not hot oxide blued.

There's nothing wrong with phosphating, and it's simple to perform, but it's just not period correct for a pre-Victory.
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Old 08-22-2014, 03:24 PM
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I would re-blue. I think just cleaned of the rust looks better than Parkerizing, bead blasting or the like.

If you want to polish it, $65, or let George do it and Matte blue, $165, high polish $190, here:

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Old 08-22-2014, 04:30 PM
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If the barrel condition is the main problem, it might be a good DIY project to polish the barrel with a very fine grit sandpaper and try rust bluing on it. Or even cold blue.
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Old 08-22-2014, 05:57 PM
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Keep in mind that you are asking on a S&W Collectors forum. But it's your gun ,and there is no outcry of OMG , leave it alone. What you have is probably as close to a generic shooter as a pre-war long acton K frames gets. And as noted whatever you do will be for your personal satisfaction .

The absolute cheapest route is to deal with the rust as well as you can , and use professional grade cold blue. I personally feel that Brownell's T-4 give better more even color than the 5% more durable Oxpho Blue.

If you want somthing vaguely period correct for it's origional configuration a bead blast blueing would give a coverup for the rust damage.

If I were to instead more generally evoke the a period correct-ish encarnation of a pre-war long action generally , I would go with Nickle. Just because I like them , but it was a popular finish in the day.
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Old 08-22-2014, 06:21 PM
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After owning many Smith and Wesson's over the years, I finally stumbled upon a pre-model 17, that would be one of the last K22's. Shoots really good, got a good bore, but the blueing is worn and faded. So for the first time ever I called S&W cause my K22 wanted to hang upon me intermittently. They asked for the serial number K something and came back and told me, yes we support the gun but we will not reblue it. I told them that was good cause I would never reblue it.
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Old 08-22-2014, 07:52 PM
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You could make it look like this in your backyard.

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Old 08-22-2014, 11:15 PM
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I'd clean up the frame as best i could to remove any surface rust. It sounds pretty nice the way it is for a 70+ y/o revolver that went to a War.
For the bbl that's missing it's bluing,,I'd reblue just the bbl after careful polishing to bring it up to match what the frame looks like. Using a rust blue w/the right technique can get you a very good match.
Quick rust blue would probably get you a better match than a slow rust blue.
You wouldn't even have to remove the bbl from the frame to do it actually, though most probably would.
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Old 08-22-2014, 11:29 PM
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Restore it, and start it on it's next 70 years!
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Old 08-23-2014, 10:29 AM
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that would be a relatively easy restore job, you say it went to England?? is the British proof marks still visible?? then just chemical strip, polish out where any rust has taken place and then get the gun, black oxided, cheapest, simplest, easiest way to go, and NOT that costly.....its the better polish and prep work that makes the refinish prices costly...shop around

and as noted above, a basic 'parkerize' job would be and do , just as well, and that too is much cheaper.......
zinc phosphate if you want gray, and manganese if you want black
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Old 08-23-2014, 07:17 PM
locolobo56 locolobo56 is offline
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Default Pre-victory restore

To all that replied, Thanks. Condition of gun: On the frame, the bluing is a deep, dark color with about 5 % surface rust. The barrel, no rust, almost silver in color. Have managed to keep rust in check since aquisition. Not wanting to bring it to 100% but want to keep it protected. Realize that it is not an expensive "collector" firearm but also realize it has historical significance and would like to keep it as so. Also I will be shooting it as I feel That if a gun does not shoot it is useless, Collector or not. Think I can keep it "Rust free" for most of my lifetime. After that it will be up to my son or grandson! Thanks again for the input....Locolobo56
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