Weird Brasser.

[Clydesdale4x4]

Buddy of mine gave me an 8" '58 yresterday, my first brasser. Doesn't look to have ever been fired, but it's weird. I'll try to host pics, this forum and pic hosting aren't things I can seem to manage (I'll turn RAW/HEIC off on my iPhone,and try linking jPeg's).

Brass has an antiqued finish almost,(like this: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/antique-crackle-finish) and ALL of the metal, and the grips, have brush marks under the bluing, EXCEPT for the cylinder.

[Clydesdale4x4]

Annnnd it eliminated my pics and reply. I'll come back with a google photos link here shortly.

[Clydesdale4x4]

Only markings are as pictured.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8MSkffVt7WXtcAJd8

[Hawg]

Its a kit gun. That's the way kits came in the 70's. Rough as cast brass that has to be polished out and really oversize rough cut grips. The way it looks around the recoil shield is the way the whole frame looked as it came.

[Clydesdale4x4]

Can we assume the crackle on the brass is just something the former owner did? maybe a spray clear coat of some sort?
Why are the grips undersized so horribly, witht he weird abrasions? Just chlak it up to someone bubba-ing an antiquing job?


(edited for clarity)

[Hawg]

Can we assume the crackle on the brass is just something the former owner did? maybe a spray clear coat of some sort?
Why are the grips undersized so horribly, witht he weird abrasions? Just chlak it up to someone bubba-ing an antiquing job?


(edited for clarity)

No the crackle look is rough brass the way it came out of the mold. That's the way kits came in the 70's. The grips were rough cut and vastly oversize. Putting kits together back then was no picanic.

[Clydesdale4x4]

Wild.
How do i find proof marks etc. Saw none in the usual spots. Curious to know what the "171" means (assuming production number) but what house made it, when? etc.

[Hawg]

 It may be marked under the grips. My guess would be ASM. Some didn't mark their kits. That is probably a later made kit, maybe in the 80's. The older ones had tool marks in the steel and weren't blued. That looks like factory blue and the markings are still crisp and clear.

[Captainkirk]

Hawg nailed it. It's an assembled kit and somebody rough ground the grips down to fit...a bit too much. It shouldn't be hard to disassemble and do it up right. You might need a new set of grip blanks tho...

[Clydesdale4x4]

awesome. Every time I take one of these apart, I find myself wanting to ship them off to Retreever to have them redone, as they never fire again.

[Clydesdale4x4]

How much of the brass can I remove in the name of "smooth finish" before I start to hurt it?
As I remove the layers of crazing (?), I find divits.

Did dremel out the cylinder pin resting hole, so now it no longer needs tapped out,a nd it's polished to 1500 grit, do i need to go smoother?
Loading ram still binds, it's also been sanded smooth with 600#, and then polished with 1500#.

Gently removing and polishing the brass walls it slides through. Should be as fluid as my stainless gun, is my thought.

[Clydesdale4x4]

Phone pics were too large, so link it is. On the loading ram, I had polished with 1500, then rotated in it's "cavity" to show the marks where the brass was rubbing on it still.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9bSt8TUd3pTf9GGh6

As you look at the top strap, you can see one side quasi-smoothed, and the other side barely touched, I would like the divits out, goal is a high polish smooth shine, but I fear removing the amount of meat to get there, not just from that area, but the whole of the gun, if the divits under the crinkle finish are that deep every where.

[Hawg]

I'm not seeing any divots. You just haven't gotten below the crackling yet. There is a nasty gouge where a screwdriver slipped. Keep going until all the crackling is gone.

[Clydesdale4x4]

I'm not seeing any divots. You just haven't gotten below the crackling yet. There is a nasty gouge where a screwdriver slipped. Keep going until all the crackling is gone.

I assumed these were divots. Will keep sanding.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5sfRytBvo7kuKRo17

[Hawg]

I'm not seeing any divots. You just haven't gotten below the crackling yet. There is a nasty gouge where a screwdriver slipped. Keep going until all the crackling is gone.

I assumed these were divots. Will keep sanding.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5sfRytBvo7kuKRo17

Keep sanding. They're just part of the crackling from the mold.