missyoak:
Gentle? Hah! Its time to bring out the Gimp!
On a more serious note, you have a .38 Military & Police Post War transitional model manufactured in 1946 or 1947. Serial range for those years was S817000 to S924878, so 1946 seems likely.
it is a transitional model because it still uses the pre-war 'long action' hammer, which was replaced by the current 'short action' in late 1947, while incorporating the wartime developed positive hammer block safety that was standard on all S&Ws from the 1950s on. The S prefix indicates the presence of the hammer block safety.
The long action tends to give a smoother trigger pull than the short action.
The grips are probably Franzite, which were quite popular in the 1950s:
http://www.franzitegrips.com/
S&W use 1957 and the introduction of stamped model numbers as a handy cut off point, stating PlusP should not be used in guns made prior to then. In reality the post war guns are fine with .38 Special +P. A search on member Saxon Pig & .38 special +P will bring up several threads where he discusses the use of Plus P in his postwar guns. American +P is the equivalent of European standard pressure.
Avoid the use of +P+ though, as there is no industry standard for this and you won't know what you are getting.
Parkerizing was a matte grey finish, the gun will be blued to the standard of the day.