Vintage Nickel Smith: restoration questions

[O/U]

Hi folks,

I landed one of my holy grails of handguns this weekend. It's a model 19-3 that looks virtually unshot. There's no top strap cutting, the cylinder locks up tight and the action is as smooth as butter. There is zero for and aft play in the cylinder, the hammer when cocked feels welded to the frame and the barrel looks as if it's seen no more than a few hundred rounds at the very most. The charging holes look clean too.

The nickel finish is in excellent condition, but there are a couple faint spots here and there that look like old fingerprints that won't come off.

My question is in regards to the care and feeding of a vintage nickel finish. Should I attempt to polish these marks out or do I risk damaging the finish? I know with antiques they are better left untouched, and I wanted to check with the Smith experts here before doing anything.

I am floored with the quality of these old revolvers. I compared it to several new Smiths and the lockup and yoke gap was much tighter on the vintage gun. The case colored hammer is gorgeous, as are the blued parts. It's a cliche at this point, but they just don't make 'em like they used to.

One more thing. I've read a bunch of reports of the post-pinned barrel 19's being damaged with a diet of full-house .357's. This is a pinned barrel model, but the forcing cone is flattened at 6 o'clock (like all 19's). Other folks seem to think this is hogwash. Do you guys give any credence to the rumors that the model 19 should only occasionally be fed .357?

Lastly, do ya'll want some pics?

 

[pj150]

Definitely pics. Dash -3 should have recessed cylinders as well. I echo the statement in that they certainly don't make them like they used to.

Mpro-7 and a little flitz from time to time is ll you need for cleaning. Nickel will have a bit of a yellow tint which makes it unique. Some cloudiness on the heavily touched/ worn areas but alot of that can be buffed out wit some elbow grease.

Congrats on a nice find. Keep the .357 to the heavier bullets and you should be fine.

 

[dwarven1]

 

[O/U]

I shouldn't have teased in the first place!

Here are some shots. Nickel is really hard to capture, especially when it's this bright . The recessed cylinder is particularly classy I think.

Thanks for the tips pj150. I used Pro Shot one step cleaner when I brought it home. Pro Shot is one of the non-hazardous, non-ammonia-based synthetics that I've been using with good results for a couple years now. Do you think it's ok for nickel?

I have some newly acquired factory 200 grain hardcast cartridges. Do you think those will be too big?

Any more info on the care and feeding of these old beauties would be appreciated. I traced the serial number and it was manufactured either the year I was born, or just after. Pretty cool!

 

[pj150]

Nice piece. The finish looks great. Grips are a recent variety but very nice.

My only concern(may be nothing) is that the S&W stamp on the right side (on the side plate) seems a bit high, too close to the edge. Nonetheless, it's a great looking gun. It'll clean up to new.

200gr? I am guessing this is the Cor-bon stuff. Not sure if you can use those with this revolver- a lever action sure, or maybe in a Ruger or L/N frame Smith. I wouldn't try in a K frame. Stick with the .38spl and .357/158 grainers. It's too nice of a gun to FUBAR it.

 

[O/U]

Nice piece. The finish looks great. Grips are a recent variety but very nice.

My only concern(may be nothing) is that the S&W stamp on the right side (on the side plate) seems a bit high, too close to the edge. Nonetheless, it's a great looking gun. It'll clean up to new.

200gr? I am guessing this is the Cor-bon stuff. Not sure if you can use those with this revolver- a lever action sure, or maybe in a Ruger or L/N frame Smith. I wouldn't try in a K frame. Stick with the .38spl and .357/158 grainers. It's too nice of a gun to FUBAR it.

Thanks again for the tips. The stamp on the side plate is high. In fact it really runs right up to the upper edge of the side plate itself. I noticed it but didn't think much of it. What does this mean?

The 200 grain loads are from Double Tap. I've found some 180 grain HP's from Federal as well. You think they're both liable to be hard on the gun?

 

[dwarven1]

The only "restriction" I've heard of is that the lighter 125gr loads are supposed to "flame cut" the top strap of the K-frame .357. Yet I've seen no evidence of such with a few thousand of those rounds through my 4" Mod 19.

Since I'm not using mine as a carry gun OR likely to put many more thousands of those rounds through it, I'm not worrying about it. If that's what I have, that's what I shoot. YMMV.


BTW... that's a SWEET looking gun.

 

[pj150]

Pull the grips and look to see if there is a circle with an R inside. There should be also a corresponding N stamped as well (as you see stamped on the Cylinder face) . The N just stands for Nickel and the Circle R will be for a refinish. Not to say that a refinish couldn't occurred without the stamp but from what I have seen, the circle R should be a factory refinish. Sometimes there is a datecode as well.

The sideplate screws aren't all buggered and look pretty new. The small gap where the sideplate meets the frame at the top near the trigger should be closer in tolerance. Run your fingernail against the seam. Does it 'catch' anywhere along the line? It should feel as if it's one piece.

I'm not an expert at determining if your gun has been refinished or not and I don't want to alarm you. Just regurgitating the things I have read and to look out for. The other stampings and corners of the gun seem pretty sharp and not buffed 'soft' so I don't think it has been refinished. Perhaps someone else who has more experience may chime in.

Sorry for nitpicking. I really like the nickeled smiths and every time I see one, my 'inspection alarm' goes off and I go over the details gun as if I was going to buy it. Don't get me wrong, it really is a nice gun and I would have bought it myself if I saw it.

 

[O/U]

The only "restriction" I've heard of is that the lighter 125gr loads are supposed to "flame cut" the top strap of the K-frame .357. Yet I've seen no evidence of such with a few thousand of those rounds through my 4" Mod 19.

Thanks Dwarven1. I have read the exact same thing; hot, light magnum loads are the culprit of the flame cutting and the larger loads are kosher.

I'm not planning on dumping thousands of heavy loads through it, but I do want to know its capabilities. I'm not a collector and I bought this thinking that I would carry it as a hunting sidearm and wanted to train with it accordingly.

Of course, now that I have it home the thought of wrapping it in leather and carrying it through the woods makes me feel a little sick.

It's interesting that pj150 is confirming that the grips are not original. They don't look like any of the checkered grips I've seen on other model 19's. They are very comfortable though, and in terms of feel I prefer them. Any thoughts as to the date of the grips?

I need to find a pinned and recessed model 29 now to match it!

 

[O/U]

Sorry for nitpicking. I really like the nickeled smiths and every time I see one, my 'inspection alarm' goes off and I go over the details gun as if I was going to buy it. Don't get me wrong, it really is a nice gun and I would have bought it myself if I saw it.

Yeah, you're freaking me out here a little bit.

Kidding of course!

There is no circled "R" under the grips, but I do see a large "N", a circled "J" and a triangled "K" along with the S/N stamped along the bottom of the square-butt frame.

The side plate is definitely very slightly "gappy", and the worst spot is exactly where you noted. My finger nail does catch there a little bit. The photo exaggerates the problem though, and the seam near the forward-most screw is almost invisible.

I took the plate off myself as soon as I got home to inspect the lockwork. It was clean, clean, clean; cleaner even than I've seen with factory-fresh Smiths. The rear-most screw will not sit perfectly flush to the plate. It was like that before I removed the plate, and I couldn't do any better when I reassembled the gun. I don't want to force anything, so I snugged it down and left it alone.

 

[Pilgrim]

Nice!

Cleaning is a little different than with blued guns. DO NOT use cleaners with any ammonia in them, it will attack the copper plating that is under the nickel, if there is any place for it to seep thru. As I understand Hoppes #9 has ammonia, so stay away from that.

I have a nearly equally nice blued 19-3 but nickel is something else. Getting a mint nickel gun is almost as good as sex, - better when you get old like me! I just scored an equally mint Mod 36:

I need more nickel.

 

[O/U]

Pilgrim,

Sweet 36! Looks like it's untouched. Congrats. One thing your 36 has over my 19 is that it has what look like the original grips. Nice find!

I just did some nickel restoration research last night. I've learned that Maas metal polish is the way to go. I've located some and will let you folks know how it goes. Here is the website:

http://www.maasinc.com/guns.aspx