Lincoln pistol info

[splosh!]

. im told there are 5 different variants and wanted to know which this one is and any other info,please http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/...psfmjmg2b4.jpg

[ccdjg]

There are at least half a dozen Lincoln Jeffries pistol variants where the cylinder is in the grip, some apparently one-offs, others made sporadically in very small numbers. Yours, as it says on tin, is the Lincoln, the most numerous one, but even so, very rare. A very nice example, but it has been reblued using a method that wasn't around when the pistol was made, as evidenced by the purplish coloration on some of the steel parts, which may be cast rather than forged.

[sutherland2829]

What a superb pistol, have to ask what would one of these cost ?

[Garvin]

What a superb pistol, have to ask what would one of these cost ?

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....oln-Air-Pistol

[splosh!]

There are at least half a dozen Lincoln Jeffries pistol variants where the cylinder is in the grip, some apparently one-offs, others made sporadically in very small numbers. Yours, as it says on tin, is the Lincoln, the most numerous one, but even so, very rare. A very nice example, but it has been reblued using a method that wasn't around when the pistol was made, as evidenced by the purplish coloration on some of the steel parts, which may be cast rather than forged.

i was not aware this had been re blued, the purple coloration i have on many old pistols i was told this is a reaction with the original bluing on cast metal which may take over 70 years to turn purple

[ccdjg]

One can never be 100 per cent certain about these things but all the evidence points to a reblue. I am not a metal finishing expert, but I have seen quite a number of Lincoln Jeffries pistols, and these appear to have either been acid (rust) blued or heat blued, (or rarely nickel plated). The blueing does not seem to have been of best quality and and is often largely worn off, and for example the blue does not seem to survive as well as the blue on Webleys of similar age. With examples where the blue (or strictly speaking, black) has been well preserved it is a characteristic greyish-black, similar to that found on per-War Webleys, rather than the deep jet-black that your cylinder and barrel show, which is more like that on post-War Webleys. This type of black is typical of hot alkali blueing, which to the best of my knowledge was not available in the 1920's.

As far as the purplish coloration goes, I do know that this occurs when the hot alkali blueing process is used on guns which are made of a combination of drawn,forged and cast steel components. At temperatures which give the deepest black on non-cast steel, the cast steel tends to acquire the purple colour. This occurs straight out of the bluing bath and does not need any long term aging to be produced. This two tone effect is well known with post-War Webley Juniors, where the cast frame often has purplish tones while the barrel and cylinder are jet black.

As far as I know, acid blueing processes do not give these purple colours , but I would be happy to be contradicted on this.

[ccdjg]

I have been digging into my Lincoln pistol files and studying your photographs more closely, and I am not now quite as confident as I was that your pistol has been reblued. It would take a close inspection of the pistol itself to be absolutely sure one way or the other, looking for example at the depth of colouring, for any pits or scratches that might have been blued over, and comparing the degree of colour fading between exposed and unexposed parts of the gun.
Although none of the various Lincolns that I know of that have a reasonable amount of original blueing remaining match the colour characteristics of your gun (see for example http://www.network54.com/Forum/68145...ncoln+Jeffries), I notice that the serial number of your pistol is exceptionally high (1112; highest number yet recorded 1213) which means that it could have been one of the few made well into the 1930's and so might have been blued by a different process to most. This could also explain why the finish has survived in such good condition. I am very dubious about the "whiting in" of the lettering though, as this has never been reported before and if original has survived remarkably well.

Does anyone else have a high serial number Lincoln with similar blued characteristics to this example? It would add a lot to our knowledge of these rare pistols if this were the case.

[ccdjg]

Well, I seem to have been able to answer my own question. I have continued digging into my files and have now found details of a late Lincoln pistol with well preserved original finish. This pistol is actually an extended cylinder Lincoln with serial number 1212, which places it pretty close to yours in age. (The standard Lincolns and extended cylinder variants were serial numbered together.)
You can see from the colour photo here
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...pszbvq2pkg.jpg
that this has reddish tints to the cast steel parts and a deep black to the cylinder and barrel, similar to yours.

So unless there are obvious signs of reblueing on physical inspection, I would now say that your pistol has almost certainly not been reblued and is one of the best preserved examples of the standard Lincolns I have come across. To keep in this condition I would have thought that it had spent most of its life in its original box, but that would be too much to hope for – an original box for the Lincoln has yet to be discovered.

Apologies for my original scepticism, and congratulations on a unique find!