What's a good first pistol kit in .45 or .54

[ChrisHarris]

I'm just tickled to death.  I'm grateful for the kit and I want to get started.

hotfxr - the local gunsmithing school does really good work and they do it for really cheap prices.  I've used cold blue to touch up parts in the past, but was never happy with the results.  To that end -- what would be period correct for this pistol?  I don't think it would look good with a case hardened lock and a browned barrel.  It feels like it would look better with a blued barrel.

Anybody know the twist rate in the barrel?  Not that it will make much difference.....

[mongrel]

Bluing has been a fairly common gun finish for a lot longer than some of us seem to realize, whereas browning was far from the universal process that many of the same "some of us" insist on believing it to have been. Not to say it wasn't a common finish, just that it wasn't the "one and only" that some think it to have been.

To go off on a quick tangent, I chuckle when I recall an uber-purist at Friendship displaying his most recent browned masterwork, and Jim Chambers (you know, that obscure lock guy who knows a BIT about the original guns) dryly commenting, "Very nice. You've replicated a 200-year-old rifle." Which is how so many originals have come to now appear to have been browned -- they've been around for a couple centuries. Ever seen how beautifully-browned a lot of not-so-old hammers and wrenches are just from sitting in toolboxes? Likewise with guns. In a great many cases they weren't that way to start with. A surprising number were what we call "in the white" when their first owners took possession. They didn't look like museum pieces.

Back on-topic, blue the gun if that pleases you. It will be absolutely 100% correct on a gun of the mid-19th century, and so far as being correct on a "derringer" -- there were many, many, many imitations and knock-offs of the actual Henry Deringer pocket pistol, so there would be no accurate, educated means of anyone declaring that this type of pistol was "always" this or "never" that. And, if you like using the gunsmithing school's student services, great, go for it. I like the notion of giving such students some real-world practice of their craft. However, a very good blue job can be had using Birchwood Casey's "Super Blue" formula, if you read and FOLLOW the directions and are willing to possibly repeat the process. The result is a pleasing blue-black that holds up well. Not a high-end hot-blue finish by any means, but decent and arrived at via a single bottle of fluid that retails for around $11-$12.

And, incidentally, Traditions and CVA are the same critter, just that Traditions has a bit better fit and finish. I can't speak to issues like having to bend the tangs on the one "brand" but not on the other, since I don't assemble kits of any kind, but both have always been made in the same Spanish factory.

[ChrisHarris]

Thanks Mike.  Your insight as always, is very much appreciated.

[ChrisHarris]

I started working on the lock plate today.  Trying to attach pics, but they are too big and I can't resize them in my smart phone.. Apparently it's too dumb. 

I did an inventory of my parts.  I'm missing several pieces.  Screws, the barrel pin, that brass piece for the barrel pin, and the bolt that goes through the front trigger guard hole, into the trigger.

Time for a trip to the local Ace. 

[beowulf]

as mike said , bluing has been around for a very long time . I`ve seen original 16th century suits of armor that were blued !

[mongrel]

I started working on the lock plate today.  Trying to attach pics, but they are too big and I can't resize them in my smart phone.. Apparently it's too dumb. 

I did an inventory of my parts.  I'm missing several pieces.  Screws, the barrel pin, that brass piece for the barrel pin, and the bolt that goes through the front trigger guard hole, into the trigger.

Time for a trip to the local Ace.

For everything but the wood screws, Deer Creek Products (deercreekproducts.net) sells replacement parts for the CVA Philadelphia Derringer. They even have on-line ordering.

[ChrisHarris]

Pics

[ChrisHarris]

One more

[ChrisHarris]

For everything but the wood screws, Deer Creek Products (deercreekproducts.net) sells replacement parts for the CVA Philadelphia Derringer. They even have on-line ordering.

Thanks Mike!!

[BartSr]

I found one of these puppies in a pawn shop last year.  The full cock did not work but it was only $50 OTD.  I worked the lock over and now it's a fine pistol.

BartSr

[ChrisHarris]

I need help with the barrel.

I'm dealing with some spot rust on the barrel.  I'm planning to blue it.  File the rust off with a flat file?  Sand with heavy grit paper? 

Is it okay to file off, the serial number and all writing on the barrel?

What level of polishing is normal, underneath the tang? At the back of the breach plug?  Under the barrel?

[hotfxr]

I have a cheap sand blasting cabinet from Harbor Freight. Using glass bead it would make short work of that rust without damaging the metal like sand would. Short a bead blaster, I (and only I, this is just my opinion) I would use the rust & bluing remover from Birchwood Casey then blue away. (They make a bluing kit that is, or used to be quite reasonable that has everything you would need to blue 3-4 pistols or a couple of rifles)

[ChrisHarris]

more pics

[ChrisHarris]

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