Hey guys, hoping the gurus here can help with a question....

I recently bought from another forum member a beautiful 3" 65-3 that the seller explained as a standard gun that had been polished to a bright and shiny finish. Upon receiving it, both the FFL and myself, think that its not polished, but rather a factory nickeled gun. The logo and lettering all over the gun look perfect, without interrupting the super smooth, and very shiny finish. Is there someone that can help us decide? Anyone that could look up the serial number to tell if this was factory done? To me, it looks like too good of a polish job, and the finish feels way to slick and smooth to be stainless, but I haven't seen a nickeled 65 before personally. I can't post pictures at this time, but will try to soon.

65's are stainless. I don't even know if SS can be plated. If it were nickeled, it would be marked a model 13.

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NRA Benefactor Member

I'd bet that it's stainless.It can be polished(actually more of a buffing) so that it is smooth and shiny,not unlike a nickel plating,with lettering unaffected.
I think that the gun is exactly as the seller represented it as being.

Thats what I thought as well, but this looks way too shiny to be stainless and to the touch has a silky smooth finish like nickel does.

The gun is marked as a model 65-3 which as stated above is stainless. If it might by some remote possibility have a factory nickel finish, the frame under the grip panels will be stamped with an N as well as the cylinder.

Yep,just like my stainless 617 that I polished.

My bet is in a high Polish stainless.

I have a 66-4 Magnaport 3" that has been high polished by Magnaport. Looks nickel but lettered by Roy.

I don't think all of them were high polished. I've got your gun's brother in my s/n collection, another CAU01XX that shipped three days prior to yours, 102715, Mag-Na-Ported, but it had the matte bead blast finish.

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~ S&W aficionado in training ~

IF YOUR REVOLVER IS MARKED AS A MODEL 66, IT IS STAINLESS STEEL, THAT HAS BEEN CAREFULLY BUFFED TO A BRILLIANT FINISH BY A PREVIOUS OWNER………

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

Kernel.

I have seen almost all of this run of 280 with the bead blast finish.

Mine was the ugly duckling.

Thanks guys, mine looks nearly identical to the one pictured above. Apparently who ever did that polishing is a true artist! It does NOT have an N indicating mark anywhere, so apparently the seller was correct. Either way, it looks excellent and I'm quite excited to take it to the range!

Nickel would not look as good as polished stainless. I know personally about polishing stainless and if you have a good buffing wheel and polish, they do come up incredibly beautiful. I finished my .460 XVR and it was a ton of work but the end justified the means. I cannot stop looking at it.
Stainless steel, in order to achieve the deep shine like the .357 pictured above, has to be incredibly smooth (like silk) to the touch. The polishing compound literally leaves the polishing wheel black when you first start. And you think you'll never get it done because you have to keep going over areas again and again. I never realized how many curves and angles there were in such small areas as there are on a revolver. Especially in between the cylinder and the grip. But, as you start to see the work pay off, you not only don't want to stop but you start thinking of other things that you want to polish. After a while it's "let's see how shiny I can make this damn thing"!
By the way, @jjbrewst1, someone really did a beautiful job on your .357. There doesn't seem to be .00000001 square inch of unpolished metal...looks like they even did the inside of the chambers.

When S&W did their MagnaClassic run, they had their best polishers work on them. Here's a factory stainless one:

You really get to know the gun on a intimate level, don't you? I know I really appreciated the guns that I have buffed a lot more...knowing every curve and angle.

Great polish/buff jobs on the revolvers posted here. I stopped short of a real mirror finish on mine because I knew they are going to get (lightly) scratched up from use.