# S&W 469 Project



## Sharps40 (Feb 17, 2014)

Here it is.  One of two handguns I'm feeling a need to put hands on.  The other is a flat latch in need of shim and blue but it will be second.  Firstest in the gate is the slide for this semiauto.  

Frame anodizing is in fair shape, better than 90% so I intend to leave it alone....I'm not interested in coatings and paint as they will wear away much faster than the anodizing and given this is a mid 80's handgun, it still looking pretty good in blackened alloy.

But the slide and controls are suffering from thin blue and turning plumb in places.  There's a couple of scuffs and dings that could stand polishing out so, for sure, the top half gets rust blued....after a function test.

The guts look great...no signs of happy boys with files or stones and nothing in the way of galling between the steel slide and the alloy frame.  The action is slick, trigger is long but easy to stage and breaks clean.  

I suspect I should pop for new springs from Wolff.....these factory springs are a mite old now.   But, everything passes safety and function checks, including the halfnotch recall so I don't expect any surprizes at the range...other than going from double action first shot to single action second and the decocker.  But, if the granddaughter likes this one, its hers at 21 years...so....

A rust blue on the top end and controls.  

Clean up dings/dents in slide and rear sight.

Respring as needed.

Perhaps groove the flat top of the slide and the rear face as well to eliminate glare.

For now, even though I immediately got them dirty, the brand spankin New Old Stock Smith and Wesson grips look and fit great and certaintly better than the cracked originals.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 17, 2014)

I just file tested the slide.....sing went the file across the surface.  More than hard, all over too.  So, I think instead of grooving the top flat and rear face of the slide, I'll matt these areas down during the polishing phase....50 to 80g draw fileing should provide a nice matted non glare surface....rest of the slide will get a finer polish.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 17, 2014)

Well, at least we know the 469 slide is hardened all over like Colts 1911 slides....not spot hardened like the off shore 1911s made in dimly lighted sweat shops by the lil bald midget ladies with tiny hammers forging em outta old Texas Loan Star steel beer cans.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 22, 2014)

Lets improve the front sight.  But, lets work with Momma Smith gave us.  A tiny nub of front sight, .180" high and .150" wide....and durn near harder than my drill bits!

Plunging straight into the front sight, drilling nearly to the bottom of the sight and slightly wider than the slot I want to finish up with (trying for a mechanical lock later).  Then some work with hacksaw blades and a touch up, carefully mind ya, with a cutting disc on a dremel....the front sight nub is now slotted.....two wings and a nice clean slit right up the middle...






Gentle heat is applied to the sight and a spare light pipe from a shotgun project and a blob of bright red plastic flowed, pressed and molded into the newly formed slot.






After things cool down a bit of gentle sanding thru 400g wet and some polishing with motorcycle face shield polisherupper and if it survives being blued and then survives shooting, I'll call it a success.  But for now, I can't push it out of the slot, no matter how hard I polish it or press it with my fingernails.  I think it'll stay there.






Its much better than the old front sight which is not only fixed but a simple groove down the center that was originally filled by the factory with yellow paint....yuck.
















From the back end....a couple views.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 23, 2014)

Disassembly of the 2nd Generation slide and frame is covered in detail on the web.  Not difficult, just a lotta parts and springs to capture and track.

Here I've broken down the slide.  Parts to blue are at 4 oclock with the slide.  Parts that get lost easy are laminated to the schematic with tape, front and back so they have to be deliberately cut free later when needed.  Everything else is dropped in a sammich bag till I need it.  Off to the shop.....I'm thinking wirebrushed finish for the small parts and sides of the slide....coarse 40 to 80g finish on the upper slide flat and then go rust blue.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 23, 2014)

Polishing finished.  The slide and all the little parts, pretty much stripped and matted...ready for rusting.  Somma them lil knooks and crannies are hard to do.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 23, 2014)

Front sight survived the first rust and boil...so far so good.  A bit spotty, its hard metal....this one will be like rustin a 94, patience required I am sure.






Got some supplies for trout fishing......even picked up some turkey shot since we're gonna combine a hunt in april with fishin.....guess I'll have to keep the shotgun in a plastic bag while I'm in the stream....

A lil better shot of the rust....it'll be a bit thin about the lettering....prolly still some gunk and grease in the letters....but it'll boil out and even up.






Into the soup pot and boil then card and rust again.....we'll boil again about 230 PM I think.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 23, 2014)

Ready for the third boil.  I suspect this slide is hard enough, has enough alloy in it to need 8 or more rust cycles to color fully.  Everything is blackening fine, except the slide release....so far it acts like stainless, stubbornly refusing to develop a layer of rust.....I'll keep after it.






After the third boil, everything but the slide release has its fuzzy coat of black on it.....front sight insert is weathering the blackening compound and the rusting just fine.....a good omen for that installation.






Rubbed out...a watery dark grey with a hint of black coming in now.  Its not fighting me too much at this point and I remain optimistic, course If I coulda found Drain Out crystals I woulda hot tank blued this slide due to hardness....but, though walmart says they got em, I ain't found that home caustic bluing supply locally....yet.....


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## trial&error (Feb 23, 2014)

drain out crystals???


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## Sharps40 (Feb 23, 2014)

Yep, its similar to commercial caustic bluing....nitrate and lye.  Add water and boil at the same 290 degrees as brownells salts and it works just the same.  Great for small projects.  You can also use Amonium nitrate and lye....Drain Out is Sodium Nitrate and Lye.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 23, 2014)

Rusted nice on the fourth go round.  Need several more like this to even out the finish....got one stubborn watery grey spot on the left front of the slide to contend with.


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## georgia357 (Feb 23, 2014)

Interesting, be sure to keep us updated.  The 469 is the first pistol I've owned and I absolutely love it.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 23, 2014)

Boiled it all a fifth time....the small parts are done...except for the slide release....it mighta just started to rust....we'll see in the morning.

As for the slide....lookin great.  Got the translucent spot colored and it has evened up nicely.  I'll keep working on the blue tomorrow and perhaps into Tue/Wed.

As for the parts....carded with 0000 steel wool and wiped down with a mix of Rig and Hoppes 9 Oil and left in a baggie to sit and wait till the slide and slide stop catches up.  With luck we'll have a nice clean and satiny new top end by Wed.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 24, 2014)

That's just about right.  Seven cycles to get this slide blackened.  It came out good and even.  A dark battleship grey black.  Softer metal gets blacker than grey.  But, it looks great.  Resting in some Rig and Hoppes 9 Oil.  

I'm still trying to rust blacken the slide release, I'm wonderin if its stainless steel!

Anyway, will clean up the slide well tonight and get it all back together.  

The front sight insert survived all the rough treatment and heating.  Betcha it stays in there when I'm shooting too.  Can't wait to put this one back together.  Its gonna serve duty round the house and as a trainer for the Granddaughters.  (And when it gets bungered up, all I gotta do is rust it again an it'll look just like new)


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## trial&error (Feb 24, 2014)

awesome, I've never seen the process before.  I imagine the temp is critical so not to change the temper of the metal.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 24, 2014)

No....you can't boil water hot enough to change the temper of steel.  

With a smoke wrench and oil quench to blacken, or even Nitre Blueing yes and maybe....but not with hot water in the rust bluing process nor in the caustic (factory) bluing process.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 24, 2014)

Not bad for a gun well under 3 bills.  Well, the tally so far....new old stock grip panels to replace the cracked originals.  New easier to acquire front sight....so far its held up to a lot of abuse in polishing and temp swings....time to test and see if it can stand up to the old stop go stop go....if not, red epoxy fill will be the service replacement.  But I betcha the glow pipe stays in jes fine.  And the slide reblued...looking good in satin very dark grey almost black.  As for that pesky slide stop....one of the sneaky S&W deals.  Just would not rust, would not scratch with 100g aluminum oxide and barely polished with a coarse wire wheel at 2000 rpm, even Birchwood Casey Super Blue wouldn't touch it and I've use BCSB to blacken aluminum and brass too.  So, must be stainless steel.  So, it'll stay bright. 

Frame will stay the way it is.  Anodizing it at home wouldn't be serviceable....best ya can get is a Type 2 anodize at home and though it'd be well colored when dyed, that aint the hard anodize that's on the frame now, that is, Type 3.  So, since I don't like paint, a few boogers on the receiver are fine with me.

Range trip is in order at this point.  See if it works good.  Bet it will.  Next step is to decide if I want to order a spare new back strap in plastic or gen one up in steel or aluminum to last for the long haul or even try a set of Hogue rubber or wood grips.  Fun.  

Here is where it sits tonight.  





















New red sight sure looks better out there than that original black and yeller nubbie.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 24, 2014)

I reckon the granddaughters will like shootin it and if I can get a second 915 for em, this will lead them to their full size handguns when they grow up.....unless one of em decides to take this one...I wouldn't mind.  I think it looks good enough they'd be proud to own it too.











The looks at the working end ain't no slouch neither.











And that pesky slide release.....


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## ncrobb (Feb 25, 2014)

Nicely done.  Your threads are fantastic and I appreciate you taking the time to post them.  I think I might be learning something...

Robb


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## Sharps40 (Feb 25, 2014)

Thanks.  Soon as I can find the supplies....home hot caustic blueing of a 1956 Flat Latch for about $6.


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## Sharps40 (Feb 25, 2014)

I am often asked about rust in the bore from the slow rust blue process. It is insignificant compared to hot tank (caustic factory) bluing. Many will disagree but I'll stand on long experience. 

In the slow rust process, nitrates are not applied to the bore, no color/ferroferric oxide is developed. Trace amounts of red rust can be developed but they literally wipe out.

In caustic (factory) blueing, the bore is left open since no person in their right mind will risk 290 degree caustic burns from a plug popping out and the bore is in fact blued...i.e. coated with ferroferric (black rust) oxide just like the external parts. There is no detremental impact. The rust is shortly shot out of the bore by friction.

Long and short, while most suppliers recommend plugging bores for parkerizing, I have never seen any supplyer recommend plugging bores for slow rust or caustic hot tank blueing. In point of fact many warn against it due to retention of moisture causeing pitting around the interfaces of the plugs. 

Done correctly, slow rust and caustic blueing are not injurous to the bore of a weapon and acheive the same results....a coating of ferroferric (black rust) on the steel components. 

In fact, the recently completed 469 slide went thru 8 rust and boil cycles. The only rust on the interior of the slide was a few specles along about cycle six on the disconnector way since I saw no reason to blacken that part of the slide.......it rubbed off with my finger tip at completion of the 8th cycle. i.e. the disconnector way remains bright, smooth and unmarred, same for the lug ways.


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## Sharps40 (Mar 9, 2014)

Shot it today.  Wow.  Shoots great an totally reliable.  Great ol gun. Gunna be a fine trainer an rough an ready companion.  Front sight is a success. It is more visible an it didnt fall out.  Gotta select leather.  Be a fine fishin gun next month.


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## cmshoot (Mar 9, 2014)

Outstanding!


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## Sharps40 (Mar 10, 2014)

Now I gotta get a crimp die or some such so I can load 9mm snake shot for the first round or two in the pipe when fishin!


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