This revolver is in need of refinishing. For the best results, the old finish needs to be stripped off, and the metal needs to be re-polished. It’s easy to see the pits and scratches under the bluing, and the S&W logo looks washed out from improper polishing.

Don't you just hate to see nice guns ruined by someone's misguided efforts? I sure do, and I bet you're the same way. It's bad enough when I find a rifle or handgun in rough shape from hard use and neglect, but it's even worse when I find one unintentionally damaged by poor gunsmithing. Unfortunately, this is all too often the case with revolvers that have been reblued.

I honestly don't think the work is deliberately poorly done. Most folks really do want to do a good job and take pride in their work. It's just that frequently the poor guy doin' the work doesn't realize his technique is not up to par, or he doesn't fully understand what a good bluing job should look like.

I've been in a lot of shops, and the differences you'll find in what people perceive as "good" work versus "bad" or "unacceptable" work are amazing. For some folks, if a reblue job has a shinny black finish, then by golly, it's great. The fact that the screw and pin holes are dished out, the lettering in the stamping is barely visible, pits and roughness can be seen under the bluing, or the corners are not sharp and distinct doesn't seem to matter. If it has a high-gloss finish, that's all it takes.

Recently, I bought an older 4-inch-barreled .32-20 Smith & Wesson revolver that had suffered through some very bad refinishing. At some point in the past, it had been poorly polished and then reblued. Consequently, the value of the gun was greatly reduced. In fact, it was darn cheap, and since I'm a fan of the old .32-20 cartridge, I couldn't resist buying it. I figured I could strip off the old finish and re-polish the gun, correcting as many of the flaws as possible in the process. Guns like this are great wintertime projects when it's too cold and nasty for outside activities like shooting. Eventually, I'll blue this gun, but first, I have to re-polish the metal.

The first step in the process was to completely disassemble the revolver and separate the parts. All the parts to be refinished were placed in a plastic parts box, and all other components were placed in a labeled zip-lock bag. This helped to ensure that no small parts would be lost.

Remove The Old Finish
The old reblued finish was removed by use of a chemical stripper. In this case, I used Naval Jelly, which you can pick up at almost any local hardware store. This is a liquid rust remover that is basically just a mild acid. It'll remove rust and bluing, but it will not damage the base metal. The finish could be taken off with an abrasive, but that would also remove metal, which you normally want to avoid.

Don't make the mistake of using Naval Jelly to try to take off rust on a blued gun if you don't want to remove the bluing. If you do use it on a blued gun, you'll strip off the bluing as well as the rust. Remember, bluing is a form of rust.

Once the metal had been stripped, I was able to see many imperfections that had been hidden by the bluing. There was quite a bit of fine pitting on both sides of the frame. In addition, the screw holes were slightly dished out, and many of the sharp edges on the frame were slightly rounded. Most of this could be corrected with some judicious hand polishing.