Anybody ever had a revolver refinished?

T

tlhelmer

New member
I have an old S&W snub that is blue, but has some small rust spots. I was thinking of having it refinished. Anyone done this? Who would you send it off to?
 
Depending on the gun and condition you might actually be decreasing the value by having it re-finished, but if you feel you need to have the whole thing re-blued I'd just send it to the factory.

Their are places that can do it $20 cheaper and even a few that can do a better job for more money, but there are A LOT of places best avoided. If you don't know where those are your much better off playing it safe IMHO
 
Once had

A Colt Diamondback nickle plated. I rode horses a lot back then and would be caught in the rain a lot. Got tired of having to clean and lube every time it happened so I had it plated and all I had to do then was just blow the water out and was good to go. Don.t know who did it as I just asked the gun dealer to have it done for me as I knew he would know the best place to send it(and he did:D ) Wish I had kept it but I used it as a trade in on an auto when I was short of money (and as a compromise to the SO for getting another gun.:o )
 
But if it's not collectible, refinishing won't hurt. Try to find someone going to a gun bluing class and pay them $20 to take it as a project. They may even do it for free. Better yet, if you have time, take the NRA class yourself and bring a bunch of guns. You're going to get your money's worth. I certainly did (and did a lot of guns for a lot of other people).
 
Assuming that the S&W isn't particularly unique or collectable, I would check with the factory. They usually do the best work with their products, or so I have found the case with Rugers. However the last time I priced out refinishing an old M10 S&W they quoted me a pretty stiff price--more than the job was worth to me. Sounded like they were discouraging work instead of soliticiting it. I would make the inquiry, though.
 
If not factory...
AP Coogan in Florida (if still open).
Does super work in hard chrome; black and silver.
Had three done over the years.
 
I have a J Frame

that is carried daily and is kept close to the body. It is a 37 Airweight and its age (about 30) was showing. I sent it to Mac at Shootin Iron restorations in Phoenix and had it done in the Tuff-Gun finish. It is matte black and looks good and is very rugged. It has about 2000 rounds since being refinished and it is holding up well. Best money I ever spent on a J frame.
 
Sure, trooper, a couple of heirloom revolvers. Sent them back to S&W. They did a great job. IMO, worth the cash because of sentimentality.
 
Bobby Parker re-finished my custom Model 57, but it's not parkerized. I don't like the roughness of parkerized guns. I wanted a matte-blue finish, and that's what I got.
 

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I was just having a discussion today about firearms refinishing. I don't understand the whole basis of refinishing destroying the value of a firearm. This has been repeated often enough that most of us just accept it as a given, but one day it occured to me that it is riiculous. If you buy some old house that George Washington stayed in, you certainly maintain it. If it needs painted, you paint it. If you found a 57 Chevy rotting away in some farmers field, you wouldn't keep it in that condition, you would restore it. So why not with guns ? I can understand that many of these restoration jobs butcher the original gun. They polish the markings off the metal, they put a finish on the gun that was never original etc. Yes, I have had revolvers refinished. In fact I have one being refinished right now. I don't think I destroyed the value of a Ruger Blackhawk, or a S&W Model 10 by having them reblued. There are millions of them out there and they are both still being made. What could it hurt ? I do kind of regret not sending the model 10 back to S&W, but I decided, I didn't really think they could do a better job. I think a huge majority of the job is in the prep work. This particular revover didn't have any dings or anything, the finish was just gone. I may be wrong on this, but I figured that my regular gunsmith could stick the gun in a blueing tank as good as the next guy. If I am wrong, I can chaulk that up to experience. In hindsight, I still would rather have the gun blued by the factory and probably would go that route in the future.
 
If you found a 57 Chevy rotting away in some farmers field, you wouldn't keep it in that condition, you would restore it. So why not with guns ?
Click to expand...

But if it's a decent (if not perfect) original paint job you can pretty well bet it's NOT been neglected and rotting away in some farmers field for twenty years gathering problems you might not be able to see under that fresh coat of paint. That makes it worth more to most people. I'll not get into the folks who long for a can of 1957 air to fill their tires with ;)

I think guns are a lot alike the above. Aside from the histoical aspect which "just is" for no logical reason. A re-blued gun from unknown decent makes me nervous because I'm wondering why it was done (neglect, home gunsmithing experiment gone wrong, fire:eek: etc. )

Course if your keeping it nobodies business but yours:cool:
 
Years Ago-

Don't laugh, but I had a 3" barrel Rossi .38 Special
nickel plated.:eek: :D As it turned out, the nickel
job was superb; and it raised my profit margin a
flat $100, when I got ready to sell it!:cool: :)

Cost of Rossi $65.00
Nickel plating 35.00

Total $110.00

Sold for $210.00

* Needless to say, the buyer didn't know a Rossi from
a Smith & Wesson.:confused: And it didn't really matter
to him; cuz it was going to be a tackle box gun!

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member
 
I don't really see what you could cover up by refinishing. And, it wouldn't bother me personally that something needed refinishing. We talk about this all the time on this board; you have a gun "carried a lot and fired very little" or something to the effect. It might be a police trade in, it might have been someone's concealed carry gun, it might have been an old war horse etc. It has no finish. Not only are we improving the looks of it, but we are now protecting the metal from rust. I might hazard a guess that the old antiques (Colt Single Action Armies come to mind) develop that patina that is so desireable and refinishing it of course destroys that. However, I can't see how refinishing a gun made within the last 50 years or even 100 years hurts anything if done right.
Sorry for the obsession with this topic, like I said, this was something I was just having a conversation about the other day and I would really like to understand the rationale behind this urban legend.
 
I have two older S&W's, both about 1970's vintage, which I am planning to have refinished. Neither has any real value as a collector so a good original S&W finish would be a good idea IMHO. I live in S&W's backyard so I can take my pistol to them and pick it up, saving the shipping fees. This makes their higher price more competitive since I would have to spend money shipping it any placew else.

The Model 10-5 will probably go back to S&W but I am having a harder time with the Model 15. I learned to shoot in the AF with a parkerized Model 15 and have considered having this pistol refinished to match that. For this I may have to go somewhere else such as Robar.
 
I have a S&W Brazialian contract 1917 45 acp

that I had parkerized. there was practically no finish left on the gun at all so I had my gunsmith do the following:
Action job - replace springs with new factory power replacements
blue action parts (hammer trigger etc)
Blaze orande ramp in front sight
Green parkerize rest of gun
finished it off with a set of camo pachmayr presintation grips

currently I have obtaines a 3" barrel for this gun. Its gonna go back for fitting of the new barrel and finishing to match the rest of the gun.
 

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