Made In USA rollmark

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XavierBreath

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Does anyone know when the Made In USA rollmark appeared on the Model of 1905 4th Change.

I have one, Serial 5446XX that has it, and one, Serial 3690XX that does not.

It seems I have made a numerical soup in this blog article and I would like to clear things up.

I drew my information from page 36 of John Henwood's "America's Right Arm, The Smith & Wesson Military & Police Revolver", at the bottom of the page: "Starting circa 1939, and continuing until circa 1950, the frames of all guns were rollmarked at the right front "MADE IN USA".

That, however, appears to be incorrect, as my nickel Model of 1905 4th is within the serial number range of the Texas State Prison guns. This makes it a verifiable 1927-1930 gun, but......Made In USA stamped on the lower right frame! Serial 5446XX

Any ideas or certainties?
 
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Does anyone know when the Made In USA rollmark appeared on the Model of 1905 4th Change.

I have one, Serial 5446XX that has it, and one, Serial 3690XX that does not.

It seems I have made a numerical soup in this blog article and I would like to clear things up.

I drew my information from page 36 of John Henwood's "America's Right Arm, The Smith & Wesson Military & Police Revolver", at the bottom of the page: "Starting circa 1939, and continuing until circa 1950, the frames of all guns were rollmarked at the right front "MADE IN USA".

That, however, appears to be incorrect, as my nickel Model of 1905 4th is within the serial number range of the Texas State Prison guns. This makes it a verifiable 1927-1930 gun, but......Made In USA stamped on the lower right frame! Serial 5446XX

Any ideas or certainties?
 
I'm the person who posted about the M&P 1905 4th change Serial 4711XX, and I am really surprised that the date S&W started putting the single line MADE IN USA rollmark isn't mentioned more often on this forum. If it really is a definitive 1922 that would help a lot of people peg a date to their guns.

There seems to be much less information about the Prewar guns in general, and unfortunately S&W didn't help researchers like us much with out of sequence production and their "exhaust WIP and inventory" method of engineering change orders. The plethora of combinations of stocks, ejector knobs, rollmarks, etc. keeps it interesting though!

The manufacturing nuances sure are interesting and reiterate to me the fact that Smith & Wesson is first and foremost a small manufacturer in the whole scheme of things; if there was ever a chance to use up existing parts inventory, the general public seemed like the most likely place to do it.

-hype
100_0557.jpg
 
Xavier:

You might also be interested to know the date of the change from the single line "Made In USA" to the four line marking on the frame. The factory engineering order to change the frame roll marking from "Made In USA" to the four line mark was written on April 26, 1948 and would have taken effect shortly thereafter. This information came from Roy Jinks.

Regards,
Charlie Flick
S&WCA #729
NRA Lifer
 
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