I bought a 3913 Ladysmith last week. My plan is to have it bead/glass blasted to have the Ladysmith etching removed from the slide and to generally clean and refurbish the frame and slide.

It came with Hogue rubber grips and I bought a set of the gray factory grips from Brownells to replace them.

I want the pistol be be slim and trim. I've seen the limited edition Talo "Ghost" pistols and I think this will make an excellent home made Ghost model. The gray grips seem particularly suited to the project.

Is there any reason not to do this? I figure they aren't particularly rare, so it couldn't hurt, but I will defer to you gentlemen if you think differently. Thanks for the input.

CA357,
It's a great look,
I like to mix and match:
Regards,
BM1

From what I have seen the Lady Smith models usually bring more money. Not sure why. Maybe they made fewer of these.

I plan on shooting the heck out of it and it will be my around the house/nightstand pistol. So it may lose some resale value, but that's not what I'm looking for anyway. I can live with that.

Thanks for the input Ky Bob and Bad Man One.

CA357 a gunsmith who is capable of anodizing or plating aluminum frames can bead blast your slide and related steel components and then plate or anodize your frame and it should look like a new 3913NL. Just make sure that all of your markings are stamped and not laser engraved because if any of the markings get removed during the refinish you could run into some problems.

I have a Smith .45 that has laser engraved markings on it and when I wanted to get it bead blasted I had to send it back to the factory so that they could re laser engrave ALL of the markings. They took care of the refinishing and the laser engraving and it was back in about a month.

Good luck with your project. Make sure you post some pictures when it is done!

Forsmithers, I'm confused. What happens if they're engraved rather than etched? Either way, I thought they could just be blasted off, leaving a clean mark-less slide?

You want to retain the serial number and maybe the model number, other than that it shouldn't matter.

Update: I see you live in California, so I would check your local laws. They may have bigger issues with the mod than I am used to.

Yeah, CA gun laws are the pits. Worst is having to do the paperwork and then be force to wait ten days to pick it up.

I imagine the slide markings wouldn't matter since the serial number will be on the frame.

I was concerned that the marks would be too deep to safely remove and leave enough steel in the slide.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the end results. I found a guy a couple of hours from me who will blast it while I wait. I'll post before and after pictures when I can. Right now, I don't even have the pistol yet. The ten days is up on the second of April.

Removing the make, model and serial number from a firearm does not bode well with law enforcement. Especially the folks with the BATFE.

Firearms that have been stamped (engraved) with the appropriate markings are fine to refinish but ones that are etched or laser engraved will more than likely obliterate any and all markings during refinishing and that is a big no-no. Kind of like pulling your VIN and tag off of your vehicle. You'll generate a bunch of questions if the firearm is ever seen be someone in law enforcement.

Here’s a link to another forum page where INBOOST explains the refinishing of his CS45 during a custom project he did himself. He even did the re-laser engraving and took a number of before and after photos. My take on the S&W CS45

Here’s a link to the BATFE website which talks about the necessary markings and heights of the letters required on firearms. http://www.atf.gov/publications/down...ions-sub-c.pdf

I think someone who possesses a firearm with an obliterated serial number would be looking at a minimum of 5-10 years in Federal Prison. Not to mention the possibility of hefty fines. I personally preferred to send my pistol back to Smith for them to refinish and reapply the markings bringing back to original spec.

I hope this info is helpful to you.

Thanks for the info.