Last year Linda bought me a S&W 1903 .38 Hand Ejector for my birthday. We got it cheap because a previous owner appeared to have bead-blasted it and re-blued it, producing an ugly matte finish. It had been on my agenda to refinish the gun and I finally got around to it. Stripping the original finish proved to be... interesting.
I detail-stripped the gun, and then looked at what was needed. Once I got into it the gun's finish turned out not to be bead-blasted. There was a uniform network of tiny pits, as if the gun had been chemically 'pickled' to remove the previous finish. This had hidden some cosmetic ills, especially the side-plate which had been 'bubba'd' a bit and was no longer entirely flat n the surface, and the shield had been reshaped slightly.
It took quite a lot of work to get rid of the pits (mostly) but eventually I got around to re-blueing. I was thinking of going for a deep-black but got to the second cycle and it produced a lovely antique-looking finish that reminds me of the old 'London- Gray' finish from the 19th century so I stopped there. I can always change my mind later, after all.
Here are some before and after pics. I've got to get better lighting for these pictures...
I detail-stripped the gun, and then looked at what was needed. Once I got into it the gun's finish turned out not to be bead-blasted. There was a uniform network of tiny pits, as if the gun had been chemically 'pickled' to remove the previous finish. This had hidden some cosmetic ills, especially the side-plate which had been 'bubba'd' a bit and was no longer entirely flat n the surface, and the shield had been reshaped slightly.
It took quite a lot of work to get rid of the pits (mostly) but eventually I got around to re-blueing. I was thinking of going for a deep-black but got to the second cycle and it produced a lovely antique-looking finish that reminds me of the old 'London- Gray' finish from the 19th century so I stopped there. I can always change my mind later, after all.
Here are some before and after pics. I've got to get better lighting for these pictures...