Well, if you got $200 credit on a Taurus with a freckled finish, I'd say you did okay.
If this isn't to be a frequent carry gun in all sorts of weather, a blued piece will be okay. Just needs more maintenance.
Before stainless guns, I used blue, not nickel.
Unless I use real rosewood with a Tyler adaptor, I prefer Pachmayrs or Uncle Mike's grips. I tried Rogers years ago, but something about them just didn't grab me. Rogers was a former FBI agent who made wood grips, then started making those plastic copies.
Uncle Mike's are discontinued, but were designed by Craig Spegle. He can presumably duplicate them in real wood, but for a high dollar and a long wait.
Your nice blued finish will be more durable if the holster is lined. A good lining like that from El Paso Saddlery or older Safariland and Bianchi holsters is much kinder to your gun than is an unlined holster.
My M-66-3 was bought new in 1990 and I wore it almost daily for 21 years, in older Safariland and Bianchi Model 5BHL holsters and saw almost no finish wear. A couple of light scuffs were carefully buffed away with Simichrome polish. It's still my favorite gun, although I now lean more to my Beretta M-92FS if I expect trouble. But that's just due to it being a 9mm with a lot of ammo in it. The Bruniton finish has held up well, but I seldom carry it. Its holster is an older Galco, unlined, but with a quite smooth interior.
I guess you know not to fire much hot 125 grain ammo in a K-frame .357? Let us know how it shoots. My M-64 was very accurate indeed. Fortunately, the fixed sights were dead-on for 158 grain ammo.
