Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Making Dad's Colt Right

Shown is my late father’s Colt .22 Peacemaker. My father passed in 2001. I want to “make it right” to honor his memory. I have two issues with it that I want to “make right.”

There was a time when a young engraver by the name of Paul A. Harris lived across the street from my parents. My dad and Mr. Harris struck up a friendship, and Mr. Harris offered to engrave my father’s Colt. I don’t know how long Mr. Harris had been engraving when he engraved my father’s gun, or how long he continued to engrave. From what little I know about engraving, the work is very fine.

Please excuse my ill composed photos. I was trying to capture certain features or colors and I believe I was successful in that regard.
MY PHOTOS ARE IN AN IDENTICALLY TITLED THREAD IN THE IMAGE GALLERY. I DON'T POST PHOTOS OFTEN ENOUGH TO BE GOOD AT IT. I WILL DO WHAT I CAN TO GET THE PHOTOS ON THIS FORUM. THANKS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
THANKS TO DAVE284, THE PICTURES ARE A FEW POSTS BELOW (6 PICTURES SHOWING FRAME COLOR AND GRIPS.)

My first issue is the “plum” or purplish color of the frame. The frame was originally case hardened, but it had to be sent to Colt to have the case hardening “removed” so the gun could be engraved. I don’t know what “removed” means, or how it was done, but that is the story as told to me by my father. After engraving, the gun was re-blued and the aluminum grip frame was redone, I assume re-anodized. I do not know who did the refinishing, but as one can see, the color of the frame is much different from the barrel and cylinder. I assume the difference is due to different steels, or perhaps the “history” of how the steel in the frame was treated in all the processes involved to get to the gun to the current condition. Regardless of the reason, I find the color of the frame distracting and unattractive. I believe it detracts significantly from a beautifully engraved gun.

My current plan for the frame is to strip the gun down to frame and barrel and send it to Turnbull Restorations. They will remove the barrel, color case harden the frame, loading gate, and hammer, then reinstall the barrel. I will then reassemble the gun. It won’t be cheap, but Turnbull does beautiful color case hardening.

The second issue is the grips. Years ago, when my father was still living, I bought and fitted the stag grips. They are from Eagle Grips. I was never happy with them, but I was in no position to return them. I managed to fit them well where they were too large, but of course I could do nothing where they were too small. I think the right grip is pretty, but the coloring on the left grip panel is not. In addition, there is a lot of “pith” on both panels, especially on the backstrap. To me, these grips also detract from a potentially beautiful gun. My choices here are the original Colt black grips (which I still have and which look surprisingly good with color case hardening), prettier stag grips (probably now quite expensive), some form of faux ivory (real ivory is just too expensive), some species of attractive wood, or some other exotic material. All will look good on this revolver. My current thinking is the original black grips or a good faux ivory.

I am interested in opinions from those with experience. I am especially interested in comments on my plan to send to Turnbull. The grips are not permanent, but anything done to the frame is not so easy to correct.

Thanks in advance for any replies,
Gun Doc