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Thread: Nickel Plated Tell3 Air Pistol.

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graemevw View Post
    That looks like it has worn, not peeled. Looks like it's led a hard life.
    How old is it?
    Looks to me like it was probably plated well when it was done.
    I believe around five hundred Tell 3s were made between 1936-1940.
    Consequently, the low Ser No would suggest this particular example dates from 1936.
    Although its cosmetic appearance isn't the best, the pistol still shoots well with reasonable power.

    Brian

  2. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by ccdjg View Post
    Thanks for your comments. It is always better to get information straight from the horse's mouth rather than books. I have only done a small amount of nickel plating myself, (electro and electroless) so my experience is very limited and most of my information came from books. I do know that you can of course plate straight onto steel if you want, if it is well prepared,and I have done it myself, but the general message I get from the literature is that for a top quality product, and to cover over surface imperfections an initial thin copper plate on the steel is generally used. I always assumed, perhaps wrongly, that companies like Venuswaffenwerk, Webley etc. would have gone for the quality option, especially as the extra cost involved is pretty minimal.

    It is a good point you make about the nickel flaking off with the copper still attached.

    Whatever the plating technique used, I would still be very suspicious of the originality of any vintage airgun less than 100 years old if it has lost most of its plating, as this suggests that the original plating process was an amateur job and not something sanctioned by the manufacturer of the gun.
    If we can find a tell 2 with less than perfect nickel finish we might be able to see if the factory used copper?
    Morally flawed

  3. #18
    ccdjg is offline Airgun Alchemist, Collector and Scribe
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    Bryan, Your pistol is a perfect example of a gun that begs that old chestnut "would it be better refinished or left as it is?" I know we have debated this many times on here, but what is your take on this? What is anyone else's take on this? These are some of the considerations that would apply to your gun:

    • the current cosmetic appearance is not easy on the eye in a collection
    • the pistol is classed as fairly rare
    • it is not so old that it can't be used as a shooter
    • does the current finish do the pistol justice, or is the story it tells more important?

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by ccdjg View Post
    Bryan, Your pistol is a perfect example of a gun that begs that old chestnut "would it be better refinished or left as it is?" I know we have debated this many times on here, but what is your take on this? What is anyone else's take on this? These are some of the considerations that would apply to your gun:

    • the current cosmetic appearance is not easy on the eye in a collection
    • the pistol is classed as fairly rare
    • it is not so old that it can't be used as a shooter
    • does the current finish do the pistol justice, or is the story it tells more important?
    Hello John,

    I'm primarily a British spring powered air pistol collector, so wasn't all that fussed about adding German made pistols to my collection. I do however appreciate 'Firearms Quality' air pistols and the Haenal 28, Hubertus and Tell 3 were considered exceptions. I soon acquired collectable examples of both the Haenal 28 and Hubertus, but the Tell 3 was far harder to source. I would consider the Tell 3 rarer than "fairly rare" with an associated price tag for a nice one easily being in four figures.
    This one turned up at an affordable price and was fully functional with what appeared to be all original parts. I wasn't too concerned about the cosmetic condition as I prefer either an honest, warn finish or a mint one to an example with an average amount of finish for the year remaining.
    So, to answer your question, had the Tell 3 been British made, I would have definitely hunted down an example in better cosmetic condition. As it is, I will leave the pistol as it is and shoot it more than I would if it were in collector standard cosmetic condition.
    A previous reply suggests that it would be nice to examine a nickel plated Tell 2 to determine if a copper coating was present before the plating was applied. Do you know if there was any contemporary advertising material for the Tell 2 which offers the nickel finish as a factory option?

    Brian
    Last edited by Abasmajor; 27-01-2022 at 01:25 PM.

  5. #20
    ccdjg is offline Airgun Alchemist, Collector and Scribe
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    Quote Originally Posted by Abasmajor View Post
    Hello John,

    Do you know if there was any contemporary advertising material for the Tell 2 which offers the nickel finish as a factory option?

    Brian
    I have had a search through my archives, Brian, and the first thing that struck me was that compared to the Haenel 28 and 28R pistols, Tell 3 catalogue appearances are quite few and far between. I have only five catalogue photocopies in my archives, two of which are Swedish and three German. All are fairly late (ca. 1938 - 1941 - Nazi Germany was still selling the Tell 3 in the early part of the war, both domestically and to neutral countries). None of the catalogue entries mention a nickel plated option. This does not prove anything of course, and it would more helpful to have an early catalogue description, when they first came onto the market, as that is when it is more likely that a nickelled option would have been mentioned (if at all). This happened with the FLZ1 pistol. One of the first catalogue entries listed a nickelled option, but it disappeared the next year and never came back.

  6. #21
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    Thanks to John for taking the time to do some additional research and to all those who provided their helpful inputs.
    I always learn something new from the knowledgeable members of this forum with the added advantage that it can also shared by others.
    Brian

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Abasmajor View Post
    Thanks to John for taking the time to do some additional research and to all those who provided their helpful inputs.
    I always learn something new from the knowledgeable members of this forum with the added advantage that it can also shared by others.
    Brian
    If it helps, Johns encyclopaedia does refer to factory nickel Tell 2 models
    Morally flawed

  8. #23
    ccdjg is offline Airgun Alchemist, Collector and Scribe
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Cornelius View Post
    If it helps, Johns encyclopaedia does refer to factory nickel Tell 2 models
    I think things have got a bit mixed up in this thread, as 'Tell 2 ' has crept in, where we really mean 'Tell 3'. So just to clarify: Tell 2, yes factory nickelled, Tell 3, the jury is still out.
    Last edited by ccdjg; 27-01-2022 at 09:04 PM.

  9. #24
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    At least we know VVW did offer a plating option for the Tell 2, but whether this was in the same timeframe as the Tell 3 is clearly another matter.

    Brian

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by ccdjg View Post
    I think things have got a bit mixed up in this thread, as 'Tell 2 ' has crept in, where we really mean 'Tell 3'. So just to clarify: Tell 2, yes factory nickelled, Tell 3, the jury is still out.
    Yes, sorry, my thinking was if we knew what the factory did about a copper undercoating on the tell 2 we could infer what they would have done on a tell 3
    Morally flawed

  11. #26
    micky2 is offline The collector formerly known as micky
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    Mine has a parkerise finish se/no 4 see Danny's excellent website. not sure how that came about.

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