Post by tinkerpearce on Sept 20, 2018 0:23:23 GMT -5
As a result of Linda discovering why you don't bid on two of the same gun at once on GunBroker we wound up with two S&W .38 Safety Hammerless (4th Model) revolvers a few years back. One got converted into my 'Steampunk Snubby,' and the other was set up for Linda. Linda's gun had somewhat tatty nickel plate, ancient Mother of Pearl stocks, and I added a grip adapter. I also bobbed the barrel to 1-5/8" to match my gun. She loved it right up until she shot it- since then it has been mostly sitting around except for the odd range trip.
I'm cool with nickel- if it looks good, and the nickel on this gun looked OK... from ten feet away. After that the closer you got the worse it looked. I finally decided to strip and refinish it, and finished the other night. People keep asking how I stripped the nickel so I'll tell you- fine-grit sandpaper, needle files, sanding blocks and rods wrapped in sandpaper. Yep, it took hours and hours-- especially after I discovered that the nickel had been masking rather a lot of fine pitting. I finally blued it with Van's Instant blue; despite being a cold-blue this provides a decent and surprisingly durable finish.
I wasn't going for a 'factory-new' finish; there is still a bit of pitting here and there if you look closely, but overall I am very happy with how it came out. The second picture shows it with the Steampunk Snubby.
I'm cool with nickel- if it looks good, and the nickel on this gun looked OK... from ten feet away. After that the closer you got the worse it looked. I finally decided to strip and refinish it, and finished the other night. People keep asking how I stripped the nickel so I'll tell you- fine-grit sandpaper, needle files, sanding blocks and rods wrapped in sandpaper. Yep, it took hours and hours-- especially after I discovered that the nickel had been masking rather a lot of fine pitting. I finally blued it with Van's Instant blue; despite being a cold-blue this provides a decent and surprisingly durable finish.
I wasn't going for a 'factory-new' finish; there is still a bit of pitting here and there if you look closely, but overall I am very happy with how it came out. The second picture shows it with the Steampunk Snubby.
