Revolver maintenance video by Hickok45. Also has hundreds of shooting videos at his home range:
Revolver maintenance video by Hickok45. Also has hundreds of shooting videos at his home range:
That's a really nice J frame. Nickel can be difficult to photograph well.
I agree with @dlbleak - Fitz polish and lots of patience. use your fingers and an old t-shirt. Avoid the temptation to use a dremel or a buffing wheel. I'd probably switch to wood grips as well.
I think im going to order some nills grips. I used to order my hk p7 and p7m8 grips from the US distributor (mactech if I recall). Unless you know of something similar in quality without the $200 dent in my wallet.
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I cruise eBay for factory wood grips at a good price. I may or may not have a dozen or so sets around. I keep them for situations like yours. You gun is worthy of discussion though. The frame says mod 36 with no dash number behind it but doesn’t have a pinned barrel. The model numbers were not stamped on s& was until 1957. That year they designated that gun the model 36. It was the 36 until 1967 and then it became the 36-1. I think they forgot to stamp the - number on it. If you play with smiths for many years, you’ll find cases of mistamped guns.
I may be wrong, but I believe that they made the Model 36 (no dash) and 36-1 concurrently until 1988. The no-dash had the tapered barrel and the -1 had the heavy barrel. If I am reading the book correctly, they alternated the dash numbers on the 36 for tapered/heavy barrels until the change to MIM & the J magnum frame with the 36-9 in 1996.
This Model 36 (no dash) with a serial number dating it to 1982 was made after the barrel pin was eliminated:
A square butt 36 no-dash, also from 1982. Unfortunately I had to sell this one in a time of duress.
This is a heavy barrel model 36-1 from 1983. Sadly, it got away from me also:
I also keep an eye out for nice factory grips on ebay. If I catch set at a good price I'll buy them for the exact same reason.
I learn much more from this forum than I contribute! Folks on here are very helpful.
S&W has been pretty inconsistent over the years. It's hard to be certain of many things. (Note the many "hedges" in my previous post.) The one that I think amuses me most is the model 30 & 31. For some reason, Smith & Wesson decided to give different model numbers to the round butt and square butt versions of the same gun.
The model 30 is a round butt:
the model 31 is a square butt:
The model 30 is a round butt:
the model 31 is a square butt:
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