Michael Tinker Pearce
Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2016
- Messages
- 1,575
My wife picked me up an early S&W .38 Hand Ejector with a 6-1/2" barrel for my birthday. She got it for a song because it had been 'ruined' by what appeared to be a bead-blasted finish and a matte re-blue. Also had Pachmyer grips. Neither the finish nor the grips were attractive or really suited the character of the gun, but it was mechanically sound and an excellent shooter with maybe the nicest double-action trigger I have felt on a revolver.
I've mentioned this gun a time or two, and my intent to refinish it and provide it with more suitable grips. This winter I tackled the project and discovered the gun had not been bead-blasted; it appeared to have been 'pickled' in a caustic chemical. It was a bit of a bear to refinish but I finally got it looking decent and went to re-blue it, intending to restore the original deep blue finish. I did repeated applications of Van's Instant Blue, buffing with 0000 steel wool between and arrived at a lovely gray finish. I liked it so much I stopped there. Detail-stripping and cleaning ancient crud out of the mechanism improved the already fine trigger.
Once the finish was looking good I addressed the grips, making a set out of some scrap walnut, and then checkering them. The checkering came out OK- looks like a period DIY job but not awful. A number of people fired the gun and we all agreed that the 'stock' grip wasn't optimal so I took a bit of time after work last night to make a t-grip adapter out of 6065 aircraft aluminum. Improves the grip no end and does not look out of place with the gun's 'vintage' character.
I'm happy with the gun and it is basically finished now... at least until I find some suitable antler for a pair of stag grips!
I've mentioned this gun a time or two, and my intent to refinish it and provide it with more suitable grips. This winter I tackled the project and discovered the gun had not been bead-blasted; it appeared to have been 'pickled' in a caustic chemical. It was a bit of a bear to refinish but I finally got it looking decent and went to re-blue it, intending to restore the original deep blue finish. I did repeated applications of Van's Instant Blue, buffing with 0000 steel wool between and arrived at a lovely gray finish. I liked it so much I stopped there. Detail-stripping and cleaning ancient crud out of the mechanism improved the already fine trigger.
Once the finish was looking good I addressed the grips, making a set out of some scrap walnut, and then checkering them. The checkering came out OK- looks like a period DIY job but not awful. A number of people fired the gun and we all agreed that the 'stock' grip wasn't optimal so I took a bit of time after work last night to make a t-grip adapter out of 6065 aircraft aluminum. Improves the grip no end and does not look out of place with the gun's 'vintage' character.
I'm happy with the gun and it is basically finished now... at least until I find some suitable antler for a pair of stag grips!
