Smith and Wesson trigger discoloration

T

TheFineLine

New member
I'm looking at getting a 686 and have noticed that on many of the pics I see and the owned ones I've handled that the triggers are typically discolored/stained. Why is that? The trigger must be made of a different type of metal. Can the discoloration be buffed out? What's up with that?
 
Link us to a picture -- it kind of sounds like what you're describing is called color case hardening and that is a feature :D and it is not a discoloring or basis for complaint. It's actually fully intended to look like that. It's a very random colored pattern in the metal.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_m3l9S6DeB...AAADM/ALY_Pg_GiYc/s400/Stevens+Favorite+4.JPG
Are you talking something like this, but all contained in the trigger?

If that's not what you're talking about, link a picture.
 
I believe that all the newer Smith & Wesson revolvers, and those with the on-board lock are all running MIM triggers.

I don't know what you can do with MIM to address that.
 
If that wasn't a new gun, I would say someone had replaced the trigger.

But since it is a new one, I have no idea unless they put the wrong trigger in a stainless gun??

Jim

It kind of looks like the hammer matches the same color as the trigger, is that true??
 
The pictures you posted are of new production guns - these are different.

The trigger, hammer, front and rear site and cylinder release are all flat black. This is by design. I have a new model 69 like this. I assume that they are MIM parts.
 
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It's normal and I will explain if you bear with me.

For a century or more, S&W used color case hardening on its hammers and triggers so they would not wear out and would keep the fine edges needed for a good trigger pull, while retaining a softer center that would be durable overall.

When cheap Spanish imitations of the S&W were imported in the 1920's and 1930's, one way S&W took to keep the foreign guns from being passed off as S&W's was to trademark that coloring. If the Spanish makers copied the coloring, their guns could be banned from import for a trademark violation; if they didn't, their guns would not look like S&W's.

But when S&W went to MIM parts, case hardening was no longer needed; the MIM parts are hard all the way through. But S&W wanted to retain the colored hammer and trigger because they are trademarked, so they took to staining the parts. (A patent expires; a trademark does not, unless a company stops using it, so S&W had to keep using colored hammers and triggers on at least some guns.)

Jim
 
Very cool bit of history there James. Thank you for replying. Now that I know, I'll keep it original and pass on the story anytime someone asks.
 
Very interesting !
You can however case harden MIM parts. We did that on the MIM predicessor, sintered metal parts [really weird under a microscope ]. I wonder how the hardness compares between MIM and earlier case hardening ??
 
Not having a hardness tester, I can't answer that question, but S&W has been using MIM for a good while now and I haven't heard any complaints about parts wearing out. I don't know how S&W actually produces that "color". I don't know if they would tell us, but anyone interested enough can ask.

Jim
 
S&W has not used stainless hammers & triggers on anything for many years.
They tried it way back, had poor results, and went to either case or plated, then to the darkened MIMs you see now.

If you buff that finish off, you risk rust.
Not guaranteed, but the risk is there.
Denis
 
I'm looking at getting a 686 and have noticed that on many of the pics I see and the owned ones I've handled that the triggers are typically discolored/stained. Why is that? The trigger must be made of a different type of metal. Can the discoloration be buffed out? What's up with that?
Click to expand...

I had my 686-4 trigger and hammer polished to better match the SS finish. That gun comes with trigger and hammer that have a faux finish to make them look like the old hammer forged parts that were color case hardened.
 
Relatively few S&W revolvers were produced with stainless steel internal parts. The only two models that I can think of were the early M60 no-dash and M66 no-dash revolvers. This practice was abandoned fairly quickly because of galling issues: stainless apparently doesn't like to rub against stainless. Initially, S&W switched to flash hard-chrome internal parts for their stainless models (my M66-2 has such parts) so as to alleviate the galling issues while maintaining the look of the stainless hammer and trigger. At some point later, S&W switched to using the same case-hardened parts (or perhaps faux case-hardened parts for MIM guns) to, I suspect, simplify manufacturing.
 
When cheap Spanish imitations of the S&W were imported in the 1920's and 1930's, one way S&W took to keep the foreign guns from being passed off as S&W's was to trademark that coloring. If the Spanish makers copied the coloring, their guns could be banned from import for a trademark violation; if they didn't, their guns would not look like S&W's.
Click to expand...

Howdy

That is absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, starting in 1926 S&W marked REG. U.S. PAT. OFF on the rear of their hammers to protect their trademark.

This M&P shipped in 1939. S&W stopped marking their hammers this way during WWII.

MampPRoundButtHammer_zps164fb140.jpg
 
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