S&W .32 CF SA, Another New Aquisition

[wlw-19958]

Hi There,


Well, Another .32 CF SA has come into my collection. It is in its
wooden case and has some features I find interesting.

I initially bought it because it is the first one I have found that
doesn't have the "V" patent dates on the top strap over the
cylinder.

There seems to be poor documentation on this anomaly. In the
SCS&W 4th. Ed., It states "Early Models: More than 1,000 of
the first guns did not have the patent markings (which are found
on the rear of the top strap above the cylinder ..."

In the ubiquitous Smith & Wesson 1857 - 1945... it is written
that the patent dates were added between serial numbers 1216
and 1405.

This revolver (SN 1355) fits the above information but I have
SN 1102 which does have these patent date. And I have loca-
ted an example with SN 1804 which does not have these pat-
ent dates.

Anyway, here are a few pics of my "new" revolver.


Cheers!
Webb

 

[shown50]

Beautiful gun and case! I was hoping someone on the forum would grab it. Congrats!

 

[wlw-19958]

Hi There,


Thanks for the compliments!

I looked under grips and didn't find any serial number on the
left grip but under the right, there was some writing. I cannot
make it all out but it looks like a name: William St.Clair and
possibly an address and maybe a date.

Take a look and see what you can make of it.

Actually, I think it would be an amusing topic for members to
post pics of interesting things they found written on the inside
of their guns.

Cheers!
Webb

 

[mmaher94087]

Trivia. The box label is from the first printing with the blackout print from the second run. The original printing said "Half cock the arm" because the original 75-100 had the half cock feature. Rather than waste the money already spent to print the labels, the existing labels were overprinted in black to remove the notation to 'Half cock the arm.' After those 100 or so revolvers, the half cock was eliminated in favor of the rebounding hammer (only, not both) and the label corrected. The gap between the words "Directions For Use" and 'Raise the barrel catch' would have had the half cock notation that was eliminated. There was a third printing where the wording was moved left instead of where the "half cock the arm" was printed.

Another piece of trivia, the half cock notch on the sear of the hammer looks to be present on later hammers but there is a bridge on the side of the hammer that keeps the trigger sear from engaging the latent half cock notch of the hammer.

 

[wlw-19958]

Hi There,


Thanks for the information about the label. I have noticed some
differences in the instruction labels inside the lid of the card-
board boxes, but I wasn't aware of the changes in the wooden
box labels.

I am curious about the early ones with the half cock notch. In
Parson's book on S&W, he states there were 500 made with the
half cock notch. Jinks and Nader's book says 100.

There are some other engineering changes these little .32 CF
SA's went through. Well documented is the first 6500 or so
that have the eccentric mainspring tensioner. Also, apparently
the extractor cam went through an improvement around the
50,000 to 52,000 serial number range. The early design used
a spring loaded catch and later ones used the sliding bar catch.

At about this same time, the frames were updated and used a
harden steel firing pin bushing. It is also at about this time the
"V" shaped patent date die was changed. Before this change,
the symbol at the apex of the "V" was (or appears to be) a Mal-
tese Cross. This symbol can bee seen delineating patent dates
on the top rib of the Model 3 American. This changed to a four
pointed cross resembling ones used on old navigational com-
passes.

All these changes seem to have occurred in the 50,000 to
52,000 serial number range. It would be interesting to know
how uniform and synchronous these changes were. But alias,
I haven't any examples in this serial number range (I have a
gap from 32,072 to 54,339).

I would be interested in others that have any of these .32 CF
SA's in the 50 to 52 Thousand range and which of the engine-
ering and/or stamping changes they have.


Cheers!
Webb