Don't know where to put this...

[Forty Rod]

...so The Longbranch got elected.

I have two small .22 superposed pistols that are very good copies of Frank Wesson's guns from about 1870-1880.  Aside from cosmetic differences the two are identical.

#1 I got from Old Scout several years ago.  It has black semi-gloss barrels, sorta rough "in-the-white" spur trigger and hammer, and a nicely done chrome plated frame that had a very thin gold coating when I got it.  As it began to rub off I removed it down to the chrome.   The grips are a solid black material, probably a plastic of some kind.

MADE IN USA on top of one barrel, CAL. .22 LP on top of the other. Serial number is on the lower right frame under the barrrrels, and CDM PRODUCTS INC, NEW YORK NY in a circle on the right side below the hammer.  Inside the circle is a very large hollow outline 2 with a small LONG written inside the top "loop" of the 2.  Inside the grip frame on the right side is a @ and on the left firearms intl corp and WASHINGTON D.C. in two lines.

#2 came from Curly Cole just last weekend and is all black except for the "in-the-white" hammer and trigger (which are nicer than on #1), and has fake mother-of-pearl grips.  The finish is much cruder and the stamping is also not as well done.  It has .22 CAL L. R. on the out side of the top barrels, no matter which one is on the top.  The serial number is under the barrels on the right, and SPORTARMS MIAMI FLA is crudely stamped on the upper left side of the left frame.  The number 2 is cast on the inner grip frame on the right and SD is on the left.  The action is both lighter and smoother than #1 and the arbor is tighter.

Construction is interesting.  There is a steel "recoil shield" dovetailed horizontally into the softer cast frame.  The triggers and barrel arbors are held by roll pins. the barrel latch by a solid pin.  The hammers and grips are held by a through screw.  There appear to be only four  moving parts in each gun: the manually turned barrels, the latch, the hammer (which has a half cock notch on both), and the trigger.  There is a spring on the latch, a trigger spring, and a mainspring.
"
Now, you and I both I know these guns aren't worth much more than decorators, "wall hangers" if you will, but I'd like to remove the finish from the barrels of both and the frame of #2, and make new better-looking grips for them and them "wall hang" the little darlings.

Suggestions, hints, techniques, and "secret formulas" are welcome.  Offers to buy them aren't.    

Offers to sell me your little pocket revolvers and derringers will be considered,    either originals or reproductions (if they look sufficiently like originals), but believe me when I tell you that as long as they can be made presentable-looking, I don't care if they work or not, and I don't want to pay much.  I want "atmosphere" guns to hang on the wall.

Thanks.   

[St. George]

'Some' of these little pistols have a zinc barrel with a steel liner.

Refinishing that sort of thing amounts to figuring out a metallic color of paint or other coloration process.

Just so's you know.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Forty Rod]

Strangely, they both have steel (or at least iron) barrels.  Magnets do stick to them and they are harder than zinc. 

The frames?  Now that's another matter.  I think they are brass but I wouldn't bet the rent.

Not gonna shoot them anyway.

[Curley Cole]

Ya didn't tell em that right after I gave it to ya I tried to see how far I could "throw" both of them...(me and my arthritis)

I thought it was cool how much alike they were...

glad you are enjoyin them...

curley

[Howdy Doody]

Forty,
Are you asking how to make them look real antique or wanting to put a finish on them to make them look the same?
For making them look the same, how would the parkerizing stuff Brownells sells and can be baked in your oven look? If you want old looking, how about ammonia, but I am not sure how that would look on different materials. You know ammonia in a plastic bag trick. I have always wanted to try the parkerizing kits and never have, so you could be a guinea pig for me. If you mess up yours then you could tell me and I won't mess up mine. What are friends for after all? I have used the spray on chrome on plastic motorcycle parts and some metal parts and it works really well. Another option.

[Forty Rod]

Well, the arty kept you from throwing them very far.  I found them easily enough. 

[Howdy Doody]

Tried to see a picture by doing a search and am not sure what your revolvers look like. How long are the barrels and do you have a trigger guard that is squared off in a reverse curve at the rear? Some of the pictures I came up looked like the grips were like the modern small framed ones.

[Forty Rod]

Not revolvers.  They are two shot superposed, swivel breech pocket pistols.  Barrels are 2 7/8", overall length is 5 1/8", height is 2 7/8" to the top of the hammers, and the dang things are 7/16" thick without the grips, which add a full inch to the width. 

Search for Frank Wesson pocket pistols and you'll find one for sale in the first entry that pops up.  Mine don't have the "key ring" hammer or the sliding dirk, and they are a hair larger, but they are very similar.  I checked the first one alongside an original and they are very close to identical.

Frank Wesson made a plethora of guns in the period follow the Civil War.

I put the barrels on the new one in brake fluid (A trick taught to me by an old gunsmith when I was a kid, and re-taught years later by a model railroader friend... Doesn't attack plastics.   ) to see if it will loosen the "paint" enough to brush it off.  If it works I think I'll just start to steel wool them to polish them up a bit and then re-paint them a semi-gloss black.

Highjacking my own post: I was digging around in some stuff and found a cardboard box with a slip fit top.  It's 7/8" x 1 1/8'\' x 3 1/4", medium tan with a yellow label:

ONE No. R 6
MARBLES
FLEXIBLE REAR SIGHT
For Remington Autoloading Rifles Nos. 8 and 81.
Calibers, .25, .32, and .35 Rem. an .300 Savage

There's a price tag stuck to it: $16.00.

The original instruction sheet is inside but it's too brittle to unfold, so I'll leave it be.

This sight was bought by my Dad when he bought an 08 Remington in .35 caliber in 1941, from a man named Arch Simms in Woodland, WA.  Simms bough the gun in 1921,  I bought it from Dad in 1961 and the sight (with the screw-in aperture disc missing.) was on the rifle at that time.

My daughter found an aperture ring on EBAY for $10.00 + $2.00 S&H.

Now if I could find a new butt stock an plate to replace the one Dad cut off to fit him.....  (He wasn't very tall or wide, but he was a very big man in other ways.)

Anyhow, I thought you'd like to know.