New cylinder on a J-frame .38 ?

[awdbandito]

I have an older model 37 S&W .38 that I carried for a while. I ended up with a little moisture between the cylinder and holster and the blueing got tarnished. It is only on the cylinder, not the frame. I was wondering if anybody knows what is involved in replacing the cylinder, or if somebody could remove the cylinder and re-blue it. If I got it reblued I would want it to be only on the cylinder, and undetectable by casual observation.

[The Rabbi]

When you say "tarnished" what do you mean, exactly? Rust? Discoloration?

It is entirely possible to remove the cylinder and re-blue it. However the blue will not match the existing blue for a variety of reasons (age, oxidation etc).

You could reblue the whole firearm. Without looking at it it would be hard to tell.

If you want something really cool, you can hard chrome the cylinder and create a contrast effect.

[DaveTN]

Well… first I would call Smith & Wesson service and see what they tell you. They take care of customers and cut some pretty good deals on repair work (like for free sometimes ). But if you don’t like the price they shoot you, it won’t cost that much more to have the entire gun blued by someone; I doubt anyone could match the bluing.

Todd Watts in Christiana did one for me (S&W Model 19) and it turned out great. Considering the cost of shipping a handgun it was a very good deal.

[awdbandito]

Here are pics of the finish damage. I never even thought about trying to call S&W. The finish on the pistol is pretty much new. This gun hadn't been shot 50 times when I acquired it still in the box. I just carried it for about a year. Thats why I was thinking a new cylinder would work.

[The Rabbi]

It will all depend on what you want out of it. If you want a pristine finish like it was when new then you'll have to refinish the whole firearm. If you want it just to be not very noticeable you might even be able to get by and put steel wool to it and use cold blue. Refinishing the cylinder alone will be OK but still noticeable. Hard chroming the cylinder will make it look kewl but not factory.

fwiw, I sent a gun (Model 19) to Smith for re-blueing and repair. They did an OK job, certainly not what the original finish from 1970 must have looked like.

[awdbandito]

Thanks for the info. I was thinking just replace the cylinder, that way I can look around for a cylinder that most closely matches the frame finish. I'll keep it sitting in the safe until I make a decision. It just pissed me off that I let this happen in the first place, and I want to redeem myself by correcting the problem.

[The Rabbi]

A new cylinder from Brownell's will cost about $100. No guarantees on matching the blueing. Reblueing the whole gun will cost about the same.