Beautiful grips and beautiful gun! So what's the story on that fine looking shooter?
Rosewood Presentation N frame Targets, what might these have been on?
- Thread starter dacoontz
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dacoontz
Member
I purchased this gun off of an internet classifieds in my area. I saw the add and drove to the guys house after a quick call with some very general questions about the gun. From the time I saw the add online to the time I arrived at his house was a total of 35 minutes if that tells you anything.
It was all I could do to keep my cool about the gun when the seller handed it to me. After looking it over I felt about 90% confident the finish was legit. I offered him a smidgen less than what he was asking and he was tickled with the offer and said "deal." I figured there was some risk involved but it was worth taking the chance. At the time I knew very little compared to what I know now (which is still not much in comparison to some)
. What I did know at the time was because of the great members of this forum. I think shortly after this I started voluntarily donating to the forum figuring it had already paid me back ten fold with this one purchase.When I got it home and showed it here on the forum I was given multiple votes of confidence about it's finish. It was the score of a lifetime and within my first year of collecting S&W's, pretty darn fortunate was I.
All I heard about it from the seller was that it had been his grandpa's gun and he had inherited this one out of the many that his grandfather had. The seller had taken it to a couple pawn shops that offered him a bit less than what I paid him but he decided to try and sell it online, which he did to me of course. It now rests respectfully in my safe and will hopefully now last for a much longer life and for many more pics to come.
The gun shipped to Rex Firearms of New York in July 1954. I wonder where it went from there and how it ended up here in Utah. Too bad there aren't accessible records of Rex's business logs as they ordered and sold many an interesting S&W.
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Hello Daniel
Nice stock's as you know Gancalo-Alves is considered to be an Exotic Brazillian Rosewood. It has many shades in it's color as far North as almost Blonde in color, to a much darker shade in color like your's has. When refinishing these real dark contrast stock's the dust from sanding them looks to be Purple in color. That said, I recently picked up this set of smooth Presentation grade Rosewood's for $25.00. These are stock's from the 1970's time span with silver washer's on the rear holding the medallions in place. These Later made style of stock's have very flat panels and were very square in Nature which to me are far too thick and uncomfortable for my hands, so I stripped them in Acetone and wanted something different so I I decided to make them into a Coke Profile like the much earlier design was and Placed a semi gloss finish on them. They are shown below before and after I re-worked them. They now have a Pleasing comfortable Palm swell shaped into them...
This is how they looked when I got them for $25.00
Here is how they Look Now with the Coke Palm swell profile shaped into them and a semi gloss finish...
Nice stock's as you know Gancalo-Alves is considered to be an Exotic Brazillian Rosewood. It has many shades in it's color as far North as almost Blonde in color, to a much darker shade in color like your's has. When refinishing these real dark contrast stock's the dust from sanding them looks to be Purple in color. That said, I recently picked up this set of smooth Presentation grade Rosewood's for $25.00. These are stock's from the 1970's time span with silver washer's on the rear holding the medallions in place. These Later made style of stock's have very flat panels and were very square in Nature which to me are far too thick and uncomfortable for my hands, so I stripped them in Acetone and wanted something different so I I decided to make them into a Coke Profile like the much earlier design was and Placed a semi gloss finish on them. They are shown below before and after I re-worked them. They now have a Pleasing comfortable Palm swell shaped into them...
This is how they looked when I got them for $25.00
Here is how they Look Now with the Coke Palm swell profile shaped into them and a semi gloss finish...
Daniel,
You did very well on the purchase of those grips.
I have these sets you see here and the guns letter with them the way you see them. They are all rosewood per the letters, however the pair with the ivory inserts letter with smooth target grips in rosewood with no mention of the ivory inserts.
Roy Jinks said he's never necessarily figured out how those with the ivory inserts originated, but he wishes he had a few sets of them!!
I also think smooth rosewood targets look great on two tone guns.
You did very well on the purchase of those grips.
I have these sets you see here and the guns letter with them the way you see them. They are all rosewood per the letters, however the pair with the ivory inserts letter with smooth target grips in rosewood with no mention of the ivory inserts.
Roy Jinks said he's never necessarily figured out how those with the ivory inserts originated, but he wishes he had a few sets of them!!
I also think smooth rosewood targets look great on two tone guns.
Sebago Son
Member
Tom, That's sure a sweet pair of Magnum Pintos.... and the scratched up one ain't no slouch either!
You guys are just terrible!!!!!!
I did get these two sets recently for my kids guns
I did get these two sets recently for my kids guns
Masterpiece
Member
FYI!!
230grfmj,
I'm not sure in what time-frame your Revolvers were engraved, but if it was in the Fifties, like I believe they were, I believe you'll find that there's a good possibility S&W's Master Engraver Alvin White is the one that inlaid these Ivory Diamond Inserts into the Grips!! I've seen more than a few of his Engraved Revolvers that he's inlaid, within reason, that Exact Ivory Diamond Insert into the Grips when he did the engraving work or possibly did the grip work for one of the other Factory Engravers like Harry Jarvis or Russ Smith who also did work in that time period!! I'm not saying it's definite, but very likely!! Your one Revolver looks to have been done in the style of Harry Jarvis is why I mentioned him!!
230grfmj,
I'm not sure in what time-frame your Revolvers were engraved, but if it was in the Fifties, like I believe they were, I believe you'll find that there's a good possibility S&W's Master Engraver Alvin White is the one that inlaid these Ivory Diamond Inserts into the Grips!! I've seen more than a few of his Engraved Revolvers that he's inlaid, within reason, that Exact Ivory Diamond Insert into the Grips when he did the engraving work or possibly did the grip work for one of the other Factory Engravers like Harry Jarvis or Russ Smith who also did work in that time period!! I'm not saying it's definite, but very likely!! Your one Revolver looks to have been done in the style of Harry Jarvis is why I mentioned him!!
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Masterpiece,
Thanks for the feedback. Yes they were all shipped in the mid 50's timeframe.
I know the class A engraved one was engraved by Russell Smith and I even have an affidavit that he signed to that affect.
I've never been sure about the class B one that has the ivory inlay in the grips. I've had other knowledgeable people tell me that they think it that it may have been engraved by Virginia LeBlanc.
Alvin White certainly did first class work, and maybe he did this one. I've love to know and welcome other opinions.
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Masterpiece
Member
230grfmj,
I had a pretty good idea that either Russ Smith or Harry Jarvis did the A-Engraved Revolver!! Sometimes the difference is hard to discern between these two fine engravers as their styles are very similar!! Having the affidavit from Russ is definitely a big plus to it's provenance!! The B-Engraved Revolver is hard to tell as Virginia LeBlanc's work isn't seen very often & very hard to verify!!
The point I was trying to get across concerning the Ivory Insert is there's a good possibility that Alvin White is to be credited for doing the inlay work on the Grips even in the event that he didn't do the engraving work on the Revolver itself!! He is known for doing extensive carving & inlays on some of his grips & may also have done grip work for some of the other engravers of the period to be used on their Revolvers!! At this point in time my guess is we'll never know for sure!!
I had a pretty good idea that either Russ Smith or Harry Jarvis did the A-Engraved Revolver!! Sometimes the difference is hard to discern between these two fine engravers as their styles are very similar!! Having the affidavit from Russ is definitely a big plus to it's provenance!! The B-Engraved Revolver is hard to tell as Virginia LeBlanc's work isn't seen very often & very hard to verify!!
The point I was trying to get across concerning the Ivory Insert is there's a good possibility that Alvin White is to be credited for doing the inlay work on the Grips even in the event that he didn't do the engraving work on the Revolver itself!! He is known for doing extensive carving & inlays on some of his grips & may also have done grip work for some of the other engravers of the period to be used on their Revolvers!! At this point in time my guess is we'll never know for sure!!
