this 14-2 looked to have had acid or some other chemical let on it in places that left deep etched areas. This was completely hand polished to reproduce the original polishing directions and marks and then polished using special wheels to produce the final polish seen on 1960's S&W.

Nice job. Very nice job.

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Why, I aughta.....

Excellent job- looks factory perfect!

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

It looks to be a perfectly executed refinish and I'd be interested to know the process and how much time it took to do that. Now, please excuse my OCD but image #5 of the Yoke/Cylinder area appears to have a few stray fingerprints. Yeah, I know, it's just plain silly and perhaps rude to comment on that but it does illustrate the excellence of your workmanship, because a really good finish always seems to be a magnet for fingerprints and dust.

Beautiful! But I have a question. The finish on the gun in the box looks much darker than the other pics. Is it a lighting thing?

Great job. More details on your process and bluing process would be interesting. BTW, the proper model designation is 14-2 Masterpiece, with no "target".

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Gary
SWCA 2515

Great sideplate fit to frame! That is something to be really appreciated. So many refinished guns (including some examples on Ford's website) show ill fitting here because of not polishing with the sideplate in place.

Other good details are what looks like sandblasted sides of the front and rear sights (right?) and the polished in place front sight pin. Lots more I'm sure I'll find as I look at your photos.

Beautiful work, congratulations!

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"lets be careful out there"

Very Nice job. Really like those targets on it too.
Approximately how many hours of polishing were involved ?

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Paul
S&WCA #2726

Very nice
Can you suggest a general rouge or polish to use to simply re-polish and good existing surface and give some general basic rules to follow please.

Nice gun!
Karl

Yes, the top was matted with glass beads to freshen up
Factory matte. I have about 6 hours in this job as the etched areas slowed me down. On a basic gun with out heavy pitting or problem areas I can do the polish in 4 hours.

I'm will give you guys some tips but will not give detail process and I've spent a lot of time experimenting and tryin outside the box processes.

I hand polish with side plate in place, I have 3 flat top screws that I use as working screws so I can polish right over them. I will bring it up to 320-400 by hand. A good tip is to only go as low in grit as the base finish is or what I need to get the pits out. I only use wax based polishes when I move to wheels. Before I start I look and take photos to see polish direction and finish. So I can put all of these lines and marks back into the final polish. All roll marks are left high, you can still feel them raised.

A note, the rear sight on this gun has not ben reblued. All parts and grips are original to gun

The darker type images are from lighting

I use naval jelly to take the old blue of, as it takes l
Longer but if you watch it you won't be left with frost etching like heavier acids can do. A good polish for a simple strip and reblue. Try a waxed base in the 500 range, normally a white color on a loose wheel 1750rpm 6" or. 8".

I have a 15-2 that will be blued on wed. I'll snap some photos of it in the white and after blue for you guys. I look at these as restorations and not refinishes. Here down the road I will be offering these types of services once I get up a running.

Thanks

SB

Your restoration looks professional. You could definitely make money with the quality of work you are doing. Well done.

And after that explanation I will leave my polishing to folks like you! It's never simple
Thanks for sharing and that will have me appreciating even more the love of labor you put into this type of work!
Karl

I think it looks great, I like the idea of hand polishing the old fashioned way. What type of blueing did you use? Larry

Here is the 15-2 that is fresh out of the tanks. It needed a new extractor rod(not period), but looks better vs the one it had on it. grips are period but not matching and I did as best I could to get them looking nicer. Not as good as photos as the ones above, but I only have access to my phone camera right

Nice job Skyler!

For everyone else who wants to know what it looked like prior to refinishing, here are some "before" pictures. usnrigger had posted a "Want to buy" for an early Model 15 that could use some TLC and it looks like I had just what he wanted. I had originally bought it for a project of my own but it turned out to be not quite what I needed after all.

(Click on the pics for a larger version.)














Again, great job. Kinda makes me feel bad that I let it go now!

A good test would be to put that one in the gun section and seek opinions as to whether it was original finish. If all the experts come back stating original, then you know you have achieved perfection. I would definately say it was original finish if ask.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

Pictures make it pretty hard to really do that type of test, I have posted pictures of the 14-2 in the by year section and no one keyed in on it. It's on of those things that sitting on a table looking at it I'd say most people could tell, pick it up and spend sometime with it and you might see a few things. I look at it as I try to interpret the factory finish, I'm not trying to forge a factory finish. When I do start doing these once I get a shop going I will be stamping my brand under the grip as to not mid represent them once they get out in the world.

This 15-2 fell into the 4 hour to hand polish and buff. The big give always here is the ejector rod and the rear sight blade is worn under the new blue. The hammer and trigger don't match as they have more wear then the refinish. I have in the past re-cased these parts and then it becomes even harder to tell, as well as if I was to throw really nice grips on it. I have some target triggers from this era but no hammers of correct period currently, I thought about throwing a speed hammer"fish hook" with the T trigger but then if be mixing parts.

The 14-2 came with a superb set of factory target grips and after the refinish really brings everything back together to give it that "boy I can't tell" look. If I put a nice set of grips on this 15 you'd see what I mean.

Also no one has asked about that 1948 k22 in the photos with the 14-2

As soon as you are ready for the business please post contact information.

I will, my plan is to upgrade to a bronze here and do some advertising here as well as in the journal if they have any room.

Probably looking august or first of next year.