Jcon72
Member
<Caution, long read>
About 5 years ago or so a friend was helping someone else sell some guns for health reasons. I can't remember now what all he had, but the person had a quite amazing list of firearms for sale; multiples each of S&W and Colt revolvers, JM Marlins, XP-100's, and many other quality pieces that are now forgotten. By the time I found out about them the list was unfortunately quite picked over, and equally unfortunate was the fact I just didn't have much spending money at the time anyway.
When I stopped by my friend's house soon after hearing about these guns, lying on his table was this horrific-looking S&W revolver. On closer inspection I discovered it was a model 48-0 which--unknown to me at the time--just so happened to be a single-year production gun from 1959.
As you can see from the pictures it was hideous. It had been wrapped in a cloth and stored in a very humid climate which resulted in severe rust pitting. At some point someone had attempted to lessen this evilness by "parkerizing" it (or whatever their egregiously offensive efforts were called). All of the rear sight elevation parts were MIA, the firing pin bushing retaining pin was beat up and the edge of the recoil shield had a significant dent where someone negligently struck it with a hammer (or rock, maybe?) while beating the snot out of said firing pin bushing retaining pin. On top of all of this mess, someone had then tried covering everything up with flat-black spray paint or DuraCoat or something. The only redeeming qualities of this sorry specimen were the fact that the bore and action were in great condition and the original diamond Magnas were serial-matched to the gun and were actually quite nice with just one small noticeable chip out of the backstrap area. A couple of small miracles, all things considered.
After choking back the disgust of realizing someone was actually responsible for having done all of these things to a fine piece I asked my friend how much his friend needed for it. He said $100 would buy it. To me, at the very least it seemed that it might be a great training gun for new shooters in the back yard. After all, who cares if they dropped it in the mud/gravel/sand a few times while accidently stomping on it? It's not like it would hurt it. Of course I couldn't pass up a $100 vintage S&W K-frame rimfire!
After bringing it home, pulling the side plate off and cleaning it, a quick call to S&W Customer Service resulted in them sending me ALL of the missing rear sight elevation parts, gratis. Lucky me! Maybe I had been fortunate to reach someone who was just happy to see another old Smith resurrected from the past, who knows.
With the baggie of missing parts received, it then sat in my room for a couple of years while I occasionally asked different gunsmiths what my options were. Some told me to Ceracote or Duracoat it (heresy!). In my mind it deserved nothing less than to be stoned/polished out and re-blued to bring it back to the condition in which it began its existence 60 years before. Unfortunately nobody seemed very optimistic about this happening and of course the expense of achieving this was very much a factor.
Finally, about 3 years ago someone recommended a gunsmith named Findlay Smith who lived/worked in the Birmingham, AL area and who had many years of extensive experience refinishing Smiths. Upon calling him, he assured me that he was well-qualified for this task, but that "it might take a month or so". The price was reasonable and a month's wait was the least of my concern so I sent it off to him.
Several months went by before I finally called Findlay to check on the status. His reply was, "Oh, I've been trying to reach you for months but you forgot to include your number on your paperwork. I called "Information" but they didn't have your number..." Ok, whatever.... So we discussed the project, he got his answers and I was assured he would soon have it done. Long story short, a phone call every few months would result in more assurances that he supposedly about had it done.
Finally, after almost 2 years (yes, sometimes I'm too nice) I was getting fed up and tried calling him for a status report after leaving work one afternoon. It went straight to voicemail. Another call later yielded the same result. I began to get an uneasy feeling so I called the person who had recommended this gunsmith to me and asked if he'd heard from Findlay lately. "Ohhhh, um, yeah, you might not be getting that gun back. A couple months ago he shot/murdered 3 people at a church potluck." SAY WHAT!!??? Apparently it had hit national news but I hadn't heard about it. (St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church shooter pleads guilty to murder of 3 at potluck supper - al.com)
After multiple calls to various police/sheriff departments I finally tracked down the location of the evidence locker where all the guns from his shop had been taken after the ATF raid on his business. Nobody had a record of my 48 or knew where it was. Finally, a couple of weeks later I received a call from his employee who found where the box containing it had gotten kicked under some furniture and it was eventually shipped it back to me. A couple of parts were missing but it was home. It was "mostly" polished out but the job certainly was not finished by most people's standards.
Again, what to do? The cylinder didn't take the bluing the same as the rest of the gun so it was noticeably mis-matched. He had damaged the side plate with too much polishing at the top corner, resulting in a hideous sunken appearance in relation to the edge of the frame. While the gun did look far better than it had before it was still ugly. Too ugly. Once again it sat for a few months while I decided the next step. All things considered and not usually being a fan of nickel guns, hard-chrome seemed the only remaining logical solution.
Two months ago I decided to take the plunge and contacted Ron Mahovsky with Mahovsky's Metalife and then shipped it off to him with some extra sideplates with the hope that at least one of them would fit reasonably well and not look so terrible as the original. After doing some more polishing, Ron then gave the gun his hard-chrome treatment. At the same time he serrated the front sight and applied a bit of orange paint. (The jury is still out on the orange paint, but of course it's removable.)
While I was at work today, my gun once again arrived home (UPS conveniently left it lying on the ground immediately next to the road!) with a whole new look, ending a VERY long saga, one which hopefully never repeats itself. Due to the severity of its previous condition it's not absolutely perfect, but then no solution would have been. It is possibly the only "stainless" no-dash model 48 you'll ever see, and while such a finish is a sad substitute for what should be a high-lustre blue, at least the old girl has a bit of dignity back.
And yes, with the rear sight parts replaced and reassembled, of course it warranted a trip to the back yard for a bit of shooting for the very first time. Looks like a shooter!
About 5 years ago or so a friend was helping someone else sell some guns for health reasons. I can't remember now what all he had, but the person had a quite amazing list of firearms for sale; multiples each of S&W and Colt revolvers, JM Marlins, XP-100's, and many other quality pieces that are now forgotten. By the time I found out about them the list was unfortunately quite picked over, and equally unfortunate was the fact I just didn't have much spending money at the time anyway.
When I stopped by my friend's house soon after hearing about these guns, lying on his table was this horrific-looking S&W revolver. On closer inspection I discovered it was a model 48-0 which--unknown to me at the time--just so happened to be a single-year production gun from 1959.
As you can see from the pictures it was hideous. It had been wrapped in a cloth and stored in a very humid climate which resulted in severe rust pitting. At some point someone had attempted to lessen this evilness by "parkerizing" it (or whatever their egregiously offensive efforts were called). All of the rear sight elevation parts were MIA, the firing pin bushing retaining pin was beat up and the edge of the recoil shield had a significant dent where someone negligently struck it with a hammer (or rock, maybe?) while beating the snot out of said firing pin bushing retaining pin. On top of all of this mess, someone had then tried covering everything up with flat-black spray paint or DuraCoat or something. The only redeeming qualities of this sorry specimen were the fact that the bore and action were in great condition and the original diamond Magnas were serial-matched to the gun and were actually quite nice with just one small noticeable chip out of the backstrap area. A couple of small miracles, all things considered.
After choking back the disgust of realizing someone was actually responsible for having done all of these things to a fine piece I asked my friend how much his friend needed for it. He said $100 would buy it. To me, at the very least it seemed that it might be a great training gun for new shooters in the back yard. After all, who cares if they dropped it in the mud/gravel/sand a few times while accidently stomping on it? It's not like it would hurt it. Of course I couldn't pass up a $100 vintage S&W K-frame rimfire!
After bringing it home, pulling the side plate off and cleaning it, a quick call to S&W Customer Service resulted in them sending me ALL of the missing rear sight elevation parts, gratis. Lucky me! Maybe I had been fortunate to reach someone who was just happy to see another old Smith resurrected from the past, who knows.
With the baggie of missing parts received, it then sat in my room for a couple of years while I occasionally asked different gunsmiths what my options were. Some told me to Ceracote or Duracoat it (heresy!). In my mind it deserved nothing less than to be stoned/polished out and re-blued to bring it back to the condition in which it began its existence 60 years before. Unfortunately nobody seemed very optimistic about this happening and of course the expense of achieving this was very much a factor.
Finally, about 3 years ago someone recommended a gunsmith named Findlay Smith who lived/worked in the Birmingham, AL area and who had many years of extensive experience refinishing Smiths. Upon calling him, he assured me that he was well-qualified for this task, but that "it might take a month or so". The price was reasonable and a month's wait was the least of my concern so I sent it off to him.
Several months went by before I finally called Findlay to check on the status. His reply was, "Oh, I've been trying to reach you for months but you forgot to include your number on your paperwork. I called "Information" but they didn't have your number..." Ok, whatever.... So we discussed the project, he got his answers and I was assured he would soon have it done. Long story short, a phone call every few months would result in more assurances that he supposedly about had it done.
Finally, after almost 2 years (yes, sometimes I'm too nice) I was getting fed up and tried calling him for a status report after leaving work one afternoon. It went straight to voicemail. Another call later yielded the same result. I began to get an uneasy feeling so I called the person who had recommended this gunsmith to me and asked if he'd heard from Findlay lately. "Ohhhh, um, yeah, you might not be getting that gun back. A couple months ago he shot/murdered 3 people at a church potluck." SAY WHAT!!??? Apparently it had hit national news but I hadn't heard about it. (St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church shooter pleads guilty to murder of 3 at potluck supper - al.com)
After multiple calls to various police/sheriff departments I finally tracked down the location of the evidence locker where all the guns from his shop had been taken after the ATF raid on his business. Nobody had a record of my 48 or knew where it was. Finally, a couple of weeks later I received a call from his employee who found where the box containing it had gotten kicked under some furniture and it was eventually shipped it back to me. A couple of parts were missing but it was home. It was "mostly" polished out but the job certainly was not finished by most people's standards.
Again, what to do? The cylinder didn't take the bluing the same as the rest of the gun so it was noticeably mis-matched. He had damaged the side plate with too much polishing at the top corner, resulting in a hideous sunken appearance in relation to the edge of the frame. While the gun did look far better than it had before it was still ugly. Too ugly. Once again it sat for a few months while I decided the next step. All things considered and not usually being a fan of nickel guns, hard-chrome seemed the only remaining logical solution.
Two months ago I decided to take the plunge and contacted Ron Mahovsky with Mahovsky's Metalife and then shipped it off to him with some extra sideplates with the hope that at least one of them would fit reasonably well and not look so terrible as the original. After doing some more polishing, Ron then gave the gun his hard-chrome treatment. At the same time he serrated the front sight and applied a bit of orange paint. (The jury is still out on the orange paint, but of course it's removable.)
While I was at work today, my gun once again arrived home (UPS conveniently left it lying on the ground immediately next to the road!) with a whole new look, ending a VERY long saga, one which hopefully never repeats itself. Due to the severity of its previous condition it's not absolutely perfect, but then no solution would have been. It is possibly the only "stainless" no-dash model 48 you'll ever see, and while such a finish is a sad substitute for what should be a high-lustre blue, at least the old girl has a bit of dignity back.
And yes, with the rear sight parts replaced and reassembled, of course it warranted a trip to the back yard for a bit of shooting for the very first time. Looks like a shooter!
Attachments
Last edited:
