1920s M&P?

[raljr1]

You have a gun whose only real value is its sentimental value. Its finish is poor. If the mechanics are good, I could see nothing wrong with a good refinish. Yes, it will be worth no more than it is today. Some might argue less. But they made hundreds of thousands of these. If you want it to look like the day pap bought it, refinish it...if you want it to look like it does, leave it alone...

A high quality nickel refinish will look great. It will still be pap's gun either way. It will just look nicer refinished.

I have a few refinished guns. I am not ashamed of them.

Robert

 

[SaintMute]

Wow! Yes BRONZE wool! How did I forget that? Thank you ALL for that save! I'll take gmborkovic's advise and start with an oily rag and work my way up.



I'll keep an eye out for some moderately rough wood grips.



Thanks for the ammo suggestions too!

 

[SaintMute]

I don't know about that Jack, that's beautiful to me. I love the old gun metal grey patina and vintage wood grips! I'm the type that loves old American made tools and wood furniture.

ABSOLUTELY ! NEVER use steel wool on a firearm. Bronze or pure copper wool, yes. No matter how fine, steel is still steel and will scratch up the metal, exactly what you don't want to do.


Flitz can be a good choice, but go easy and use a clean rag.

Best of luck. Be happy to have a working family heirloom.

This Model of 1905 target model belonged to my grandfather. It shipped on April 6, 1908, to Portland, Oregon. He got it in the 1930s as payment for work he did on a Model T. He died just before I left for my first year in 'Nam and my dad gave it to me after I came back from my second year. It is not particularly pretty, but it is one that will never leave the family.

 

[MajorD]

I am in the don’t refinish camp for sure. Clean and mitigate rust absolutely

The wear was put on this by your ancestor removing it with refinishing is removing a lot of that history imo.

Clean shoot and enjoy.

 

[SaintMute]

Well Ralph,
You gave me something else to add to my list.

That Miculek spring kit sure is cheap so I'll probably pick one up.

As noted, steel wool will produce nothing but damage. Bronze wool and some oil will do a fine job of cleaning it up.

Refinishing will make it look better (or worse), depending on who you might choose to do the work. It will add NO value.

I was what I call a lunatic fringe collector. I bought only high condition guns in original finish. Having decided it would best to leave behind a pile of money rather than a pile of guns, I arranged to have my collection sold. I have exactly one S&W left. It too is a 1920's M&P---bought new in 1920, and carried daily in the hip pocket of my father-in-law's overalls for the next 60 or so years. It's not pretty, but it works fine. Actually, it works way better than fine after I stuck a Miculek spring kit it, and started using it to practice point and shoot. It'll stay in the family as it is.

Ralph Tremaine

 

[BC38]

I've posted this before, but it seems appropriate to this thread.
I got this little 32 HE a couple of years ago, and you can see how poor the finish was. probably 30% of the nickel was missing.

I disassembled it, cleaned it really well with a strong TSP solution.
Then I used my Dremel, a felt wheel, and some Mothers Mag Polish on it.
Then I applied a coat of wax to keep it from rusting (it still looks the same today).

The bare steel polished up so shiny you have to look at it really hard to tell where the nickel ends and the bare steel begins.
It turned out far better than I ever expected it to.

I think yours would turn out just as well.

 

[4K2022]

Welcome and thanks for sharing. I like everything about this gun and the story. I’m particularly interested in guns made/assembled during the time the US Government relinquished control of the company after WW1.

Your gun’s serial number represents about the half way point of production prior to WW2, of both round and square butt K Frames. It’s an early one,,, if it works don’t fix it.

 

[mikepriwer]

Generally, I agree with the rational behind all that has been said in this thread: a refinished gun has 0% original finish, which is a consideration for pricing, and most of the cost of a refinish will be lost; it generally doesn't add much, if anything, to the value of the gun.

I'd like to add a comment about heirloom revolvers. Generally, a majority of the guns that show up for sale in all the venues are estate guns, in which the heirs have no interest, for a variety of reasons. Usually the heirs don't care about guns, and would much rather have the money. (This is often true for business's; the heirs want to spend their time doing something else.) In the case of a heir who is not a serious gun person, the condition of a piece might sway their interest one way or another.

Having said that, I do have a 4" 32-20 target revolver that showed a lot of wear when I acquired it. The following two pictures show the condition on arrival.

This is a rare gun, but in poor condition. There is a lot of wear all around on the metal surfaces, and the grips have lost almost all their checkering.
Additionally, there is a not-too-bad bulge in the barrel just under the front sight base. The best part of the gun is that it letters as a 4" target!

I sent the gun to Dave Chicoine for a refinish, or restoration, and he did an outstanding job with it. I sent the grips to Keith Brown, and his work revealed all the wonderful circassian walnut straight-line grain. The next two pictures show the gun after all the work.

In this case, I think the value of the gun has been increased, but only a well-attended auction will deal with that issue. I know that I like it a whole lot more!

There are three issues worth noting. There is a nick in the top edge of the front half of the sideplate, and it cross's into the bottom edge of the cylinder window in the frame. I elected to leave that undistrubed, so as not to remove any more metal than necessary. Secondly, Dave and I both felt that the external surface of the bulge in the barrel would be best eliminated by lightly filing around the bulge. This, of course, took off the top surface of the most forward part of the caliber roll marking on the right side of the barrel. It's still readable in that small region, but appears as a lighter strike. Finally, he blued the screw-on extractor rod knob. I removed the bluing, and its now back to its original case coloring.

Regards, Mike Priwer

 

[Jim Watson]

How does it shoot with the bulged barrel?
Years ago there was a gunsmith specializing in relining barrels. He would reline a bulged barrel, I think after rolling the bulge out.

 

[JP@AK]

Years ago there was a gunsmith specializing in relining barrels.

Are you thinking of Ward Koozer? For many years, he had a shop in Oregon. Later, he retired to Apache Junction, Arizona. Even though retired, he still took in a bit of work on special request. Back in about 1974 or 1975, he sleaved and rebored an old Marlin Model 1893 in .32-40 for me. It came back and was a tack driver. I killed a nice Blacktail buck with it the first season I had it back and a few years later, my eldest son shot his first Mule Deer with it. I still have it and one of these days I might take it out an shoot a black bear with it.

I'm sure that Ward is now at the Great Gunshop in the Sky, but he was a heck of a guy.

 

[mikepriwer]

I've had guns with a lot worse bulges. I didn't even notice it visually, and found it only when running my fingers over the patent date roll markings. It's lightly noticeable when running a cleaning patch through the bore; it's not as tight when the patch goes through that region.

I would not expect the bulge to be a problem in shooting the gun. The gun was shipped Oct 29 1908, so it's old enough that it can rest on its rarity laurels, as far as I'm concerned!

Mike Priwer

 

[SaintMute]

Well you certainly can't argue with results! That's beautiful work!

I've posted this before, but it seems appropriate to this thread.
I got this little 323 HE a couple of years ago, and you can see how poor the finish was. probably 30% of the nickel was missing.

I disassembled it, cleaned it really well with a strong TSP solution.
Then I used my Dremel, a felt wheel, and some Mothers Mag Polish on it.
Then I applied a coat of wax to keep it from rusting (it still looks the same today).

The bare steel polished up so shiny you have to look at it really hard to tell where the nickel ends and the bare steel begins.
It turned out far better than I ever expected it to.

I think yours would turn out just as well.