These neglected orphans just seem to be a magnet for me. I ran across this sad Mdl. 19-3 at a show a few months back. The seller said it had "issues". Well, other than the finish, it only functioned in DA half the time and never in single action. I'm always up for a challenge, but his asking price was ridiculously high. I ended up doing a straight across trade for a Phillipine 9mm Commander that I was into for way less than $300.
A good cleaning inside and out helped, but it still wasn't right. Turns out the yoke was slightly tweaked, and the center bearing of the star had been ground down to the point that the ratchets were dragging on the shield. So I did what I could with it, then took it to my new favorite Smith to take care of what I couldn't and do a strip and re-blue. While it was out, I stripped and refinished the grips.
The finish damage was more severe than I thought, so they did a satin finish on it. Here's what it looks like, three months later. All in all, I'm quite happy with it!
