I picked up this old girl from Crook Broker in April - and want to give it a facelift. I thought about matte-blue, but noticed that S&W also offers a glass-bead nickel finish for revolvers - same price as regular bluing. Has anyone had this done at the mothership - or do you have a photo of how it might or will look? I hesitate to send it now because I think the Perf Center shuts down for a couple of weeks in August. Any info would be appreciated - I've never seen a steel S&W that was refinished in matte nickel.

The photo is poor quality because it's from the GB ad ... Edited to add: humidity in our basement is pretty high & I think/hope that the nickel plating would be more rust resistant. Plus, it would replace - in my small mind - a satin nickel Trooper Mk III that I sold many years ago. The finish was flawless on it.

To answer your question, if you have any recent nickel S & W revolvers and look at the top strap, that is close to how the finish would look, I think.

Looking at your pretty nice blued model 10, I would opt for a good cleaning and wax to preserve the (95%?) finish.

__________________
Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

I am unaware of a Glass Bead Blasted Nickel finish. Are you possibly referring to Electroless Nickel??

No, he is quoting directly from the S&W website under Precision Gunsmithing. That is one of the two different nickel finishes they offer. The other is the traditional bright nickel finish.

@ OP, I don't know of any threads showing the glass bead nickel finish unfortunately. Sorry I can't help you out on that.

Looking at your pretty nice blued model 10, I would opt for a good cleaning and wax to preserve the (95%?) finish.


What he said.
The finish is original only once.

__________________
Eccentric old coot

+2! What they said, but that's my personal opinion. If you want the different look, then go for it. I would, but that nice snubby will clean up very nicely. If it was in much worse shape, then I might feel diffrently. That revolver has character, not damage, again in my opinion! I really do think you have a dandy there!

__________________
So long ... Ken

Good points, all, Gents - Thanks! The frame and barrel are in very good shape. But, there is a pretty good gouge on the frame in front of the trigger guard plus the cylinder looks rougher, to me, than it does in the photo. Last year, someone posted a few photos of an older M19 that was bead-blast reblued by the mothership. I saved the pictures on my desktop and lusted after it, then found this M10. Then, I noticed that Smith offered a bead-blast nickel refinish. Maybe it's just fine as is and I'll be over $200 richer ...

That little snubby is just about broke in.. You spend a bunch of money on re-finishing it and the value goes down and it's too purty to shoot.

__________________
Eccentric old coot

OK, well I just learned something new.........