I was cuddling with my modified prewar M&P and noticed it has a shiny, bright blue finish. Is that an unusual finish for a prewar .38
(4th change)? I had posted previously on 6-11-20 about this gun. Don’t know how to present link to previous post. What percent of these guns got the shiny finish? I have several prewar M&P s and the others I checked have the standard blue finish. Is there an old Journal article that discusses finishes? Thanks and stay safe. Dave

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Illegitimi non carborundum

No, not unusual----but certainly not commonplace. I had, I think, something like 14 pre-war M&P's---all targets, if that makes any difference. Two or three of them were Bright Blue, and those were from the '30's. (Two others were Model of 1902, and I'm pretty certain one of those was also Bright Blue.)

Ralph Tremaine

Left click on your Forum name, scroll down to "Find all posts by...", and be reminded of all your previous pearls of wisdom :

RINGALING.TWEET. some cool bells and whistles on my first modified gun

In my observations, revolvers from the 1930s tended to have a bright(er) blue finish across the board. RMs and Outdoorsmans of course, but also standard fixed sight guns up until military production took over. I don't know if this was through the full decade but there was a comparable period of nice finishes from about 1955 to the early '60s.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Bright blue is normally standard, albeit varies somewhat depending on the time period. However, Bright finishes took a hiatus after both world wars for about ten years each:

After WWI it wasn't until ~1927 when bright blue returned for the entire model line.

Same thing after WWII until 1955 when bright blue returned to all models. Bright blue was an option during this period and guns with the option are marked with a large B on the barrel following the barrel serial #.

Of course as usual, there were exceptions on the premium models.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Even during the post-WWII period, the .357 Magnum had the bright blue finish as standard. But it was a premium product. Unless special ordered, other models had a duller satin finish as standard.

No big B on barrel flat. In fact, no serial number there at all. All other numbers match - butt, cylinder and yoke. I think this gun deserves a letter. Thanks for the help. Dave

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Illegitimi non carborundum

Once bright blue finishing returned to all models as the standard finish, the large B was no longer used. Soon after in 1957 the "soft fitting" production step was eliminated to speed up production. This made the matching serial # stamping on barrel, yoke, and cyl un-needed. During a lengthy transition period Hand Ejectors are found with from one to eventually all of those three # locations un-serialized.

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Jim
S&WCA #819