Restoration of antique revolver?

K

KimberSmith

Inactive
I have had for a few years now a revolver from the New York Arms Company, I have been unable to find any information about this company on the web? It is a five shot revolver chambered for the .32 short, with the exception of nickel plate having been damaged by moisture / rust seeping under the plate in some areas the gun remains in incredible condition internally. Almost as if it were purchased and stored in a barn unused for 100 plus years.

All components fit tight as designed and function flawlessly, thus the only required work is to remove the nickel plate, which I would like to do anyway and then re blue the gun. Any suggestion regarding a site that deals with removal of plate and restoration concerns?
 
The New York Arms Co., aka the New York Pistol Co., was active around 1880, and seems to have had some connection with a man named Freeman Hood, who had an interest in a number of gun companies, including the Hood Firearms Co., which made similar revolvers.

As to removal of plating and replating, talk to any shop that does plating. They can remove the old plate electrically and replate. But take care on two fronts. They may not want to deal with guns and you should disassemble the gun since they probably won't know how.

Also, there are a number of places that deal with plated guns; most gunsmiths have the names and they are available on the net. Do a Google search on "gunsmith plating".

Now for the bad news. Those pistols belong to a class of revolver commonly called "suicide specials" because they were generally considered incapable of firing more than one shot. (Not true, of course, but they were not of high quality.) They sold in 1880-1900 for as little as $1.00 and today rarely bring more than $50 or so unless in perfect condition. There is a mild collector interest, but not enough to have inflated prices. A replated gun would have no collector interest at all.

I have had some success in having plating removed and then bluing the gun, but the guns in question were of higher quality, and I was doing it mostly to see if it could be done.

In other words, restoring that gun would be, IMHO, a waste of money.

Jim
 
Thanks

Thanks for the insight regarding manufacture, it brought me to a few sites where I was finally able to find references to the Crescent Firearms Company in Norwich Connecticut who made cheap revolvers, rifles and shotguns from 1888 to 1893 after which it was controlled by H & D Folsom Arms Company till 1931".

Crescent Firearms owned the The New York Arms Co name with about a hundred more brand names made on special order for whatever company wanted them with their own name applied.

I am under no delusions that the revolver is worth anything, but I would like to blue it and shoot it a few times, then set it aside as a collector item. So I will now look for someone who can do the removal of the nickel plate at a reasonable cost.
 
Removing plating

Kimber,
If you cannot find someone to remove the plating on your old revolver just do it yourself.

Cruise the web for information on home plating setups for nickel. By simply reversing the polarity, you can remove the plating yourself. These home setups use a small 12 volt battery and household items. There is a site for anodizing aluminum at www.uwyo.edu/~metal/anodizing.html that shows the basic setup but you would need different metal bars to remove your nickel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top