Smith and Wesson Refinishing Services

[Blackrifle_1]

Greetings all,

I have a few 3rd Gen. Smith's that I am slowly restoring back to as close to new as possible, these are all trade ins which obviously have handling and wear marks on them, I am considering sending them back to S&W to be refinished, I haven't called them yet but wanted to see if anyone has had any 3rd Gen factory refinishing services done for either or both bead blasted Blued or Stainless as I have both that need refinished. along with a couple anodized frames. If so, how did they turn out and do they put all the stamped markings back on them, I'm not talking about the "Roll Marks" but the stamped marking that say like "Caution: Read owners manual" or the numbers the put on them like A0000, any info would be a great help.

Thanks!

 

[Yendor357]

I sent a 4566 TSW back to be re blasted. They stored the gun for 6 months, and sent it back in exactly the same condition as they received it.

Right now, I cannot think of a situation that would make me send a gun to S&W. Find a good gunsmith.

 

[BMCM]

Stamped or Rolled marks are no issue.

Any other markings, such as the "billboard" on the TSW guns are laser etched.

Any media blasting will wash out the laser etched marks.

Those laser marks cannot be re-applied.

The heat from the laser etching process hardens the steel to a greater degree than the rest of the part. So, what you wind up with after blasting is a ghost image of the laser etched marks. Even with some fairly "toothy" blast media you will still see a ghost image.

I spoke with the folks at Springfield several years ago about this and as I recall, they don't even have the machinery anymore that was used to laser etch the late 3rd gens & TSW guns.

And as I was told, even if they did have the machines it is impossible to precisely locate the parts such that the mark can be re-lasered exactly over top of the original marking.

Even older guns that are rollmarked sometimes also have stuff laser etched on the slides such as "Caution decock lever automatically returns to the ready to fire position" or on the 10xx guns you see the "caution refer to instruction manual" below the ejection port. That stuff is laser etch and any refinishing will wipe it.

Cheers
Bill

 

[Sevens]

Bill, do you offer bead blasting as a service, and is the price fairly stable or does it vary with model? I might be interested in this (from you... nothing that S&W does these days has my interest)

 

[BMCM]

Sure, just on stainless though. I'm not equipped for blueing or blackening carbon steel beyond some minor touchup.

I use a mixed media of glass + aluminum oxide at 120-170 mesh size. There's a thread about testing blast media here somewhere and that stuff most closely replicates the factory finish.

Regardless of the media used, It will however, same as straight glass will, wash out any laser etched markings.

Model doesn't really matter a great deal as it involves the same amount of work regardless. Unless we're talking about a xxx3 model. Not going to blast an aluminum frame so in such a case it's just the slide, stripped slide stop, safety body, mag catch & nut

The arm must be completely detail stripped right down to the bones, then into the sonic tank to clean & de-grease, Then into the sink the rinse off the cleaning solution and remove any stubborn goo. Only when the components are perfectly clean do they go in the blast cabinet.

And then after blasting have to clean the parts all over again. That grit gets into everything.

I refer to Brownells Shop Price Survey they did a while back as guidance for my billing.

https://feeds.brownells.com/userdocs/miscellaneous/shoppricesurvey.pdf

Cheers
Bill

 

[ReloadforFun]

When you say numbers like "A0000" are you saying the serial number was removed?

 

[Blackrifle_1]

When you say numbers like "A0000" are you saying the serial number was removed?

No, its not the serial number, the serial number is stamped or roll marked in to the frame, I'm not sure what they classify it as but it is a number laser etched into the top of the frame near the slide. it may be some type of lot number depending on who it was made for since it is a LE trade in, its a letter followed by 4 numbers.

 

[tom2]

I have a stainless J frame that was brushed factory finish with lots of little scuffs and marks that finish accumulates on used guns. I had a blast cabinet at work with fine glass beads that I used to put a satin finish on the gun so that it looked like a factory matte job when done, all flaws erased. I also did what lazy shops don't do, I plugged the chambers and barrel with rubber stoppers so that I did not get a "frosty" bore or chambers. No stamped markings were impacted but the trick is to not overdo it, although with steel versus aluminum it is not hyper critical.

 

[ACEd]

No, its not the serial number, the serial number is stamped or roll marked in to the frame, I'm not sure what they classify it as but it is a number laser etched into the top of the frame near the slide. it may be some type of lot number depending on who it was made for since it is a LE trade in, its a letter followed by 4 numbers.

Typically a multi-function number most commonly seen on 40 cal - inventory mark for LE also serves as match marking (barrel, slide, & frame all marked same) for reassembly in case armorers have multiple firearms apart at same time.
A, D (early 4006 TSW said to be earlier CHP), E (CHP unique 4006TSW with 4 digits matching pistol s/n) are believed to be CHP variants. Other similar markings NPDxxx on 3953 and 6946 = Newark Police Dept; DPSxxxx on 4006 = Alaska Dept of Public Safety: PHxxxx and PRxxxx on 4006 = California State Parks; CSPxxxx on 4013 Blue over Silver and 4006 Melonite = Colorado State Patrol; full S/N rt side 3 places 4013 = Nevada Parole & Probation; 4013 Sxxxx unknown, possibly CA Prisons; 4013TSW Txxxx unknown (rare).