Square butt to round butt conversion on a nickel gun. is a refinish needed?

[WheelGunnerRealGunner]

I have a nickel square butt model 13 that I would like to turn into a round butt

I understand that this conversion is not an uncommon job. but I would like to keep the factory finish... is it possible to do this without needing to refinishing the entire gun?

the front and back strap would be bare metal after the conversion surely, but is there a way to keep that part from rusting without removing the entire nickel plate and starting over?

 

[series guy]

Trade it on what you want. Don’t ruin an original gun. And yes the gun would need a refinish which would also hurt the value.

 

[austintexas]

I agree sell it and buy what you want. Years ago I wanted a round butt M-24-3. So I ruined a collectible gun to get what I wanted. I paid $200 to devalue a revolver that today would be worth around $1000. I sure wished I had left it alone.
SWCA 892

 

[WheelGunnerRealGunner]

ah that's a shame, i really want a round butt k frame but it's not worth ruining the factory finish + cost of getting whole gun refinished

i was hoping there's a way to retain the nickel in most of the gun and just refinish the grip but that sounds like a no go.

 

[chief38]

I do agree and strongly suggest finding a RB Revolver the way you want it. Once you remove the SB, the Nickel finish would have to be completely redone to make it right.

Unfortunately, to re-nickel a gun today does not pay. Between the price of refinishing, the scarcity of places now even offering re-nickeling, the wait times and shipping the gun both ways, it just becomes impractical. Of course if this Revolver is sentimental and you are both willing and able to spend what they want - then go ahead, but financially and quality wise, I'd just buy a new one and sell yours.

All that said....... there is one more option - although it's kind of a last resort. You can go ahead and round off the Revolver's SB and then after sanding the finish completely smooth with finer and finer grits, polish the hell out of it with Flitz. While it will still be raw steel, you can blend it in by polishing it so 99% of people would never know. Even you will not see a difference if done right.

How do I know this you might ask..... I have a few vintage and valuable (to me) Nickel Revolvers that needed parts that were just not available (in Nickel) any more. I took blued parts , stripped off the finish, polished them up vey well and no one would ever know the difference. When I look at my own guns, even I forget sometimes. Because the steel is so highly finished and polished, no rust has ever happened. Again, this is an option you probably don't want to do unless you can't find a new Revolver in the condition that you want.

 

[Igiveup]

Perhaps a polished RB stainless would do the job for you. M64 or M65 are fairly available right now in the market place, turned in police revolvers.

 

[WheelGunnerRealGunner]

I do agree and strongly suggest finding a RB Revolver the way you want it. Once you remove the SB, the Nickel finish would have to be completely redone to make it right.

Unfortunately, to re-nickel a gun today does not pay. Between the price of refinishing, the scarcity of places now even offering re-nickeling, the wait times and shipping the gun both ways, it just becomes impractical. Of course if this Revolver is sentimental and you are both willing and able to spend what they want - then go ahead, but financially and quality wise, I'd just buy a new one and sell yours.

All that said....... there is one more option - although it's kind of a last resort. You can go ahead and round off the Revolver's SB and then after sanding the finish completely smooth with finer and finer grits, polish the hell out of it with Flitz. While it will still be raw steel, you can blend it in by polishing it so 99% of people would never know. Even you will not see a difference if done right.

How do I know this you might ask..... I have a few vintage and valuable (to me) Nickel Revolvers that needed parts that were just not available (in Nickel) any more. I took blued parts , stripped off the finish, polished them up vey well and no one would ever know the difference. When I look at my own guns, even I forget sometimes. Because the steel is so highly finished and polished, no rust has ever happened. Again, this is an option you probably don't want to do unless you can't find a new Revolver in the condition that you want.

Thanks for this, you have given me a new hope. While i wouldn't say the gun have sentimental value. its a nice example of a 13 (pinned barrel, recessed cylinder, nickel finish). The only thing I don't like is the square butt

but the chance of me finding a round butt with all those other features is low...

 

[scattershot]

Just buy some grips that cover the backstrap.

 

[2152hq]

Polishing the bare metal to mirror bright is an option. Just some care in keeping it looking good is needed. That's not a problem with a gun that is a personal favorite.

Another way is to touch up the Nickel plate with Brush Plating.
Likely not too many use the things anymore, but they do work well if you take the time to prep every thing and followup with the necessary buffing of the new plating.

There used to be the Texas Platers brush platers kit out there. I used that one for many years and it worked just fine. Even did entire handguns with it.

Since the part being worked on is never submerged into a container of plating material, certain areas of the part can be plated while the rest of the part is untouched.

I think Caswell Industries (sp?) has a slightly different version of a brush plating outfit now,,or at least they did. I never used their version.

The cost of the plating outfit may well cancel any thought do it this way,,I really don't know what these cost now.
But it is one way to do this .

The polish on the metal must be an absolute brilliant mirror polish to begin with. Plating will not cover up scratches and marks.
In my work using the Texas Platers kit, I had to copper plate first,,a thin quick flash plate.
Lightly polish that copper plating.
Then Nickel plate over the copper.

The Nickel plating when done is not brilliant and shiney.
It is dull, milky color.
Then you must polish/buff that nickel plate up to the final high polish.

All the polishing on small parts like this can be done by hand.
The final polish on the copper flash plating and the final nickel plate I used to do with Simichrome polish.

I used to use the kit for Gold, Silver, Nickel, Brass and Copper plating.
A small M/C battery charger for the power source.

An awful lot of A5 and Win21 triggers got replated with it!