I have that exact same revolver. Mine is a 1959-60 manufacture, sold by Navy Arms. My revolver was a gift from a friend. He lost almost his entire gun collection due to a house fire. That particular revolver was dug out of the ashes of the total loss of the house. The revolver had been in an old handmade leather holster and was soaked from the water the fire department sprayed to put out the fire. This was in the mid to late 70’s.
The charred holster was cracked off and removed. The finish on the grips had evaporated basically, but the wood was fine. The blueing on the metal was blotchy and burned away to bright metal in many places. The grain of the leather was burned into one side of the cylinder.
My friend contacted Navy Arms and told them what happened. He ended up sending two revolvers back to Navy Arms. One was the 1851 Navy, and the other was a Walker. Navy Arms thoroughly checked and completely reconditioned those revolvers. The damaged bluing on the 1851 Navy was left alone. This was all done free of charge and returned to my friend. Many years later he gave me both of those revolvers.
About ten years ago I got curious about the 1851 Navy. I contacted Navy Arms and told them what I had and wanted to know the manufacturing date. The owner of Navy Arms had recently died. They had to surrender their sales records to the feds, so they had no information regarding that revolver.
I received an email from Navy Arms several days later. They had contacted a retired gunsmith who worked for Navy Arms. He remembered working on that particular revolver. He estimated the manufacturing date to be 1959-60. I thanked the Navy Arms employee who helped me. In return, she sent me all the available spare parts they had left in stock for both the 1851 Navy and the Walker for free. I was told Navy was moving away from the black powder revolver business.
My 1851 Navy is a great shooter. I wouldn’t part with it.
