sight question

[stonefly]

iv'e tried to keep quiet & not stand to close to the fire while the big dogs eat

but i gots to know. probably best to address this to mike prewer because he has posted pics of several. the front sight on the 1st. k-32 as well as others, round like an m&p but with a small bead. what is it properly called?
also i have a project gun in mind. would this sight be of similar diameter to the pierce target sight?

 

[mtb1bkr]

Stonefly,
While I'm no expert I think I can answer this one before mikepriwar gets to it. There are two gold bead front site that I'm aware of. The smooth one is called a Call Bead it is flush to the face of the site blade. The one that sticks out a bit from the site blade is called a McGivern Bead. There was a post in this section last week that showed both, I will try to find it and post in this thread.

Bill

 

[mtb1bkr]

Here's the thread, the pictures are near the bottom of the first page.

Bill

 

[stonefly]

bill i searched the site and was aware of those two. i am unable to cut & paste a picture of mike prewers k-32. the post "preveiw of 1st. k-32" by mike shows the sight clearly. thanks randy

 

[mtb1bkr]

I think you are talking about these pictures, I hope Mike doesn't mind me copying them to here:

The best I can tell from reading the Standard Catalog of S&W 3 is the site would be called a Paine type front site which consisted of and long bead on top of a thin flat topped blade. I'm sure Mike will come along and confirm or correct(likely) me on this.

Bill

 

[stonefly]

yep thats it and i misspoke in my first thead about a pierce sight (i meant paine)the paine sight on my bekeart has concave radius fore & aft of the bead where this one has convex radius. maybe two types of paine sight? gee i guess it wasn't a stupid question huh?

 

[BUFF]

I owned that .32 before Mike. The front sight blade is marked "LYMAN" with a patent notation. S&W would install non-S&W parts, especially front sights, on custom-ordered guns like this, back in the day.

 

[stonefly]

ah, thank you,

 

[stonefly]

thanks steve

 

[mikepriwer]

Ah - my secrets are now out !

The blade on the K-32, as noted by others , is the Lyman gold bead . The gun is about
1910, way before the Call and McGivern bead blades. Lyman also made this blade with other
beads - ivory was one of them. The blade has a patent date of something like the late
1880's, so it had been around for a long time. Lyman made a lot of different sights, and
is still in business.

The other blade, as also noted, was the Paine Bead front sight blade. It was concave
on both the leading and trailing edges, and the bead did not normally have any insert
on its end. It was just a bead sitting on top of the blade, and was matched to the
U-shaped rear notch.

Later, Mike Priwer

 

[mikepriwer]

Here is picture of the Paine bead sight:

Later, Mike Priwer

 

[mtb1bkr]

Mike,
Thanks for clearing that up. Did you ever finish restoring the gun with the Lyman sight on it?

Bill

 

[mikepriwer]

Bill

I assume you are referring to the K-32, pictured earlier in this thread.

That gun is so scarce, bordering on rare, that I didn't want to refinsh it. Dave
Chicoine did the repairs, but nothing to the finish. It needed a new main spring,
a new firing pin, and an adjustment to the head spacing. Also, he fit the grips,as
there were none when I got it.

The biggest problem with the gun is the finish. Dave thought that it had sat on a
smoky mantlel for some number of years. The acidic creosote in the smoke attacks the
blue, so he immediately soaked it in some solvent, that neutralized the creosote. There
is still a lot of blue left - more than what shows in the pictures - but some has been
lost. And there are a couple of dents, one of which is showing in the sideplate.

I think its in the best condition it can be, without refinishing, which both Dave and I
thought would be the wrong thing to do. Mechanically its 100%, and tight.

Regards, Mike Priwer

 

[mikepriwer]

Speaking about the Lyman sight, here is a Lyman rear sight blade, known as the
Lyman Ivory Bar blade. Its mated , on this gun, with a Lyman Ivory Bead blade.

Later, Mike Priwer