Cleaning an Old Revolver

by Ed Buffaloe

A few years ago I bought a First Model Smith & Wesson .32 Hand Ejector as a parts gun but I didn’t really need the parts and I hated to destroy the gun since all the serial numbers matched and the bore was in good shape. However, it was one of the dirtiest, ugliest guns I had ever seen, so I ended up putting it in the far reaches of the safe and forgetting all about it. Recently, looking for something to do, I reorganized the safe and found this old gun.



		Smith & Wesson First Model .32 Hand Ejector, SN 6554, Before Cleaning and Polishing (click to enlarge)

It was nickel plated but was pitted and darkened in many places, and the plating appeared to have been completely worn away on much of the barrel. The right grip was cracked and had been sloppily repaired, resulting in it being glued to the frame. The topmost sideplate screw was missing and had been replaced with a brass screw. Someone had tried to sand or polish a couple of locations but had apparently given it up as a lost cause. When I opened the cylinder I saw that one of the tines of the ejector star was broken off. The gun had clearly been used and abused for more than 120 years.

When I decided to try to clean the gun up, the first thing I wanted to do was remove the sideplate and look at the lockwork but I couldn’t get a screwdriver into the screw slots. I finally got out a magnifying glass and discovered that the slots were completely filled with grime, likely composed of dried, hardened oil mixed with dirt and lint. I had to scrape this grime out of all five side screws, plus the screw holding the ejector knob, plus the grip screw, using a pin and a spring hook. Most of the screws had never been loosened and were firmly cemented with hardened oil and grime. I was very careful with all the screws, using correctly sized drivers, and succeeded in getting them all loose without damage.



		With Sideplate Removed



		Rebound Levers and Trigger Assy.

Amazingly, dirty as the gun was, the double action trigger still worked, which is a testament to the quality craftsmanship of the Smith & Wesson company. It did not appear that the gun had ever been cleaned or that the sideplate had ever been removed.

I removed all the parts and put them in my ultrasound unit, with a diluted ammonia solution, for a half-hour. When the parts had been cleaned, I suspended the frame itself in the solution, so that the opening for the parts could be cleaned, for the same amount of time. The mirror-finish surfaces of the polished parts had been etched by acids in the oil and still appeared dirty, so I first went over them with a wire brush on a dremel tool before polishing them with Micro-Mesh sanding sheets. The sanding sheets are cloth with abrasives and are intended for wood work, but I find them invaluable for polishing metal. I started with 1500 grit, then went to 2400, 3600, 4000, and finally 8000. I held the sheets on a perfectly flat surface (I used a Case Moonstone, but a piece of glass or any hard, flat surface will work) and rubbed the various parts back and forth until the original shine was restored. They are not perfect but look very nice.



		After Cleaning the Lockwork and the Inside of the Gun

After cleaning and polishing, the parts and the inside of the gun were sprayed with Lubriplate FMO 350 AW Spray lubricant. Then I used cotton swabs and a soft cloth to remove almost all of the oil, until only a very thin film was left. Then I carefully reassembled the gun.

Finally, I spent four or five hours polishing the outside of the gun. Since it had been nickel plated, there was no question of trying to reblue it. I couldn’t tell where the nickel ended and the steel began except where the nickel was damaged and the steel beneath had begun to rust, so really all I could do was polish it as best I could. I started with a sisal wheel and coarse polishing compound, and finished with a cloth wheel and fine polishing compound. Then I polished it by hand with Micro-Mesh sanding sheets, again starting with 1500, then using 2400, 3600, 4000, and 8000. I also reglued the right grip plate. It is far from perfect but at least it looks a little better. I still need a new ejector and the top sideplate screw.



		Smith & Wesson First Model .32 Hand Ejector, SN 6554, After Cleaning and Polishing (click to enlarge)

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