Help with a DWM 1923 Commercial

[ithacaartist]

A pantograph is a machine that follows the motion of a tip, which is guide, around the number or character used as an example, with another tip that is more of an engraver or cutter. This transfers a more or less exact copy of the original to the receiving part where the number is desired. If examined under magnification, one can tell the difference between a character created this way versus one that has been stamped into the material with a die and hammer strike.

I'm on the bandwagon of saying the halos on the barrel look suspect, as if they had been carefully dabbed with bluing remover to be created. The authentic effect is a result of the physical things that go on when steel is struck with a die. The metal immediately surrounding the mark is compressed, and a certain amount of metal is displaced, raised around the edges of the mark. If stamped after being rust blued, as a barrel properly would have been, the bluing itself, which is actually rust, is affected. The oxide that comprises bluing is hard, and shifting the material it coats affects it. The trauma causes some of it to lose its grip, to fall away, revealing the lighter steel below. The closer to ground zero of the strike, the greater the compression/displacement of underlying material. This creates a gradient effect, and the halo will be brightest right around the mark and fade away as undisturbed steel is approached. These halos are rather uniform in transparency, and end abruptly. Get out your 10X loupe when you have the pistol in hand, and you'll see what's what.

The retaining pin atop the left toggle knob looks suspiciously dark, and I agree with Doug's observation. Theoretically the exposed end of the pin should be unfinished--"in the white". A pistol that has been re-blued when the toggle links have been left assembled often has a retaining pin which was re-blued right along with the rest of the assembly. There's plenty of vintage red rust showing in the finish near its location, so the pin's end may look dark because of simple corrosion on the raw steel. The better refinishing jobs entail dis-assembly of the joint, and setting the pin aside so it remains properly unfinished. A booster may carefully remove the blue on the pin, to make a refinished pistol appear original. Another job for the loupe...

Worst case scenario, you still did just fine at this package price! Take that Win ammo and see how she does. If you can, save the brass, which is relatively scarce. You can reload it yourself, of sell it to someone who does--there are plenty on this forum! And if the holster turns out to be original, you did even better.