Engraved S&W 38. Help figure this out?

[no time]

The fellows at Northwest Firearms forum suggested coming here to ask.

My nephews Dad passed and he had a couple guns. Family asked me to help them ID stuff. Now most everything is your standard store brand utility rifles and such. But, this revolver throws me way out of my expertise.
I'm not a old handgun expert.
I'm not a S&W expert.
And I know zip about engraving.
So, I'm asking...help!
I'm thinking early K frame, hand eject, .38 Military and Police. Frame and cylinder are nickel, with the 6" barrel being blue.
Did they ever make a 2 tone like this?
Not a cherry one owner with low miles.
Serial is 265XXX
I'd like to know if this looks like a factory product, or a custom, or whatever?
What do they have here?
Anybody have info or a pointer to where I should look? They brought it to me as the family "gun guy", but I'm out of my league with it.
Thank you for any and all info, pointers and comments!

 

[Legendarylawman]

I'm no expert either, but I DO like it a lot..

 

[Kansasgunner]

Neat old gun! Doubtful that is factory engraved. Based on your serial number and the grip style it likely shipped in the mid teens. The serial number will also be on the bottom of the barrel under the ejector rod, the rear of the cylinder and on the back side of the yoke, when viewed thru a cylinder charge hole if all those parts are original. Serial number may also be penciled on the inside of the right grip panel.

 

[S&W ucla]

Open cylinder and see if numbers on bottom side of barrel match SN. Is there a B in front of SN on barrel? Looks like blue in the cylinder flutes, maybe in the white? (no finish) french grey instead of nickel? Nice work, Neat gun!!

 

[DARE]

Your are correct it is a .38 M&P. 241704 was manufactured in 1915. Yours probably not too long after that. My guess is before the U. S. entered WWI. The factory has built some two tone guns, but I have not seen any from the era this one comes from. A factory letter would tell you when and where the gun was shipped and how it was equipped when it left the factory. Like whether it was engraved or not. A lot of engraving was done on guns after they left S&W.

 

[Jim Watson]

I'm thinking a replacement barrel. Or is it numbered to match the butt?

 

[sceva]

To my eye the engraving has a German look to it

 

[SS336]

I'm not an expert on, well, anything, but with that serial number and stocks wouldn't it have a mushroom ejector knob?
I also think the barrel and ejector have been replaced.

 

[sceva]

I'm not an expert on, well, anything, but with that serial number and stocks wouldn't it have a mushroom ejector knob?
I also think the barrel and ejector have been replaced.

It does appear to have a large elector rod knob.

 

[DARE]

Here is my 1913 all original gun for comparison. The ejector knob does look different to me.

 

[Buford57]

It does appear to have a large elector rod knob.

A LERK yes, a mushroom no. DARE's picture shows how the OP's revolver would have looked in that department. Must be an interesting story behind that one.

 

[no time]

Wow, the guys sure weren't kidding when they said this was the spot to ask questions! I'm learning!
Cylinder flutes are blued. Ejector rod is knurled. I'm not real clear on all the different rods, but it's not a mushroom head,
It appears that the barrel was swapped at some point. The numbers on the cylinder, yoke, and frame are all matching 265XXX, but...the barrel is sporting a number of 617XXX.
So...it's a mutt. Kind of a cool mutt, though.

 

[ImDrRich]

I like that!

 

[sw dan]

also, fixed sights on gun

 

[DARE]

The newer barrel does not have the cutout for the 'mushroom' knob. So the knob had to be replaced. The change to the newer style knob was in 1927.

 

[Legendarylawman]

Get a letter. Who knows what you got yourself into. As an aside. Lot of revolvers have different barrels replaced. I have a 2" barrel that was replaced. Not sure how you shoot out a 2" 38 special barrel but there it is. Blows my mind. It would be really interesting on who/why you barrel was replaced. LOL. Again, I like it.

 

[RKmesa]

My observations:

1. Replacement barrel and extractor rod (smaller 1930's knob)
2. Frame and cylinder are probably in the white (engraved and no real finish left) except for the cylinder flutes which were left blue
3. Engraving is okay - not master quality and not factory.

All that said, it is a fun gun and probably has some family history. It would be nice to sleuth out the history.

Thanks for sharing,

 

[2152hq]

Maybe the orig bbl got damaged, bulged or cracked. It may have been orig engraved and In the White like the rest of the gun.

A suitable replacement found and went onto the frame and you have what you see now.

The slight rust and some pitting on the engraved parts do suggest them having been stripped of finish and left in the white after engraving. Maybe some poor storage or a hard carry life added to it.

The engraving is as RKm says, OK. Not great. Scrolls are out of shape in a lot of places and shading is hit and miss. Mostly done to take up space inside the scroll adornments and not really following any set pattern.
The background was at times punched and in someplaces Wriggle cut w/a small flat graver to matte it.
Again no real pattern or reason for combining the two methods, Just what ever fit the space or moment during work perhaps. Though the wriggle cut was used a lot to better define the inside of the border cuts in many areas.
Those border cuts all over the work were done very quickly and in many instances show over runs, double lines, crooked borders, ,,things like that.

Engraving is not a fast paced endeavor. But your work speed will naturally increase as your skill and increases.
But some just naturally work faster than others. It's that way in any of these trades.
It's the quality of the finished work that you want to maintain and actually continue to increase along the way.