Author Topic: Plum colored finish (Read 718 times)

Mayor of Hobbs Knob · « **on:** May 10, 2005, 03:50:41 AM »

Can anyone tell me about the plum colored finish on the frame of my .357 SuperMag? What guns does this appear on? How common is it? Does it add or detract from value? etc. Thanks.

Mayor

unspellable · « **Reply #1 on:** May 10, 2005, 08:03:06 AM »

The plum color is caused by variations in the bluing process or in the alloy being blued. It does not enhance the value and in my mind detracts slightly from the value, pariticularly if the revolver is not all the same color. Yours is not the only example.

BLASERMAN · « **Reply #2 on:** May 10, 2005, 01:34:52 PM »

I bought a.357 in 1983 and mine is also plum colored
I still have it.

wiley · « **Reply #3 on:** May 11, 2005, 03:59:28 AM »

The 356 Max frame was case hardened. Mine isn't plum colored and I can't detect that it was treated that way, but I recall it was part of the literature. That might be a part of a reason. Also did some hot bluing, a long time ago and got plum colors. Seemed to be affected by the temps that the salts were held at during process

Mayor of Hobbs Knob · « **Reply #4 on:** May 11, 2005, 06:12:57 AM »

Interesting. I saw a .357 SuperMag somewhere on the internet a while back and it was plum colored. If casehardening was the answer you'd wonder why the regular .357 Mag mentioned in a previous post was also plum. Part of the fun of DW's is that there are so many unknown and questions you can't find answers to.