As mentioned in another thread, I acquired a "slightly shop-worn" Model 10. It had the narrow 0.10" front sight, which my older eyes have a little trouble with.
Being partly of Scots descent (ie "I'm not cheap, I'm thrifty!") I didn't want to take it to my gunsmith to have the blade milled off and a 1/8" slot milled for a wider sight, so I decided to throw caution to the winds and see what I could come up with myself.
I decided to try fastenng a piece of shim stock to each side of the blade with Loctite 380 (Black Max) rubberized cyanoacrylate, which I had used on another project. Unfortunately, the tiny tube had hardened and there was none to be found locally. However, a local supplier had a similar product from BSI, IC-2000, whose epoxies I have used.
I cut two pieces of shim and roughly contoured them to the same modified shape as the blade, leaving them oversized for later trimming, applied the glue, clamped for a minute then left it overnight to cure
Not wanting to risk stressing the adhesive when I began filing them to shape, I made a rough-and-ready parallel clamp from some 1/8" aluminum and set to work:
The result wasn't perfect but not bad, and I figured the bluing and painting would "hide a multitude of sins", which it nearly did.
I used Oxypho Blue as I didn't want to risk using Mark Lee Express Blue, which requires boiling water. The blade was then dulled with matte black paint. I may put a white or yellow/green square on the top, but black seems to show up the best against a white target. It's actually 0.121" rather than 0.125" but better than the original:
It's a bit of a "franken gun", a previous owner having scratched his name into the frame under the cylinder, and the barrel was a replacement NOS 5" marked ".38 S&W" but it slugs at .357 so all was well. When the rain stops I hope to get to the range and see how much difference it has made. My marksmanship may not have improved but hopefully I can better see what I'm not hitting.
Shade-tree gunsmithing a Model 10 front sight
Linear Mode
