Ever since we started working together he would talk about it. It was a Smith&Wesson Model 19 .357magnum. He bought it in 1979, the same year I was born. He was a rookie officer with Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. He had to supply his own duty weapon, so he chose the Smith&Wesson. There it sat, faithfully on his hip, for twenty-five years. It was a silent partner in his long career in Law Enforcement until 2005, when the department he was working for made him convert to a pistol. He reluctantly went out and bought a Glock 22 to replace his old companion. He shot the Glock only once.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina broke the levies and water flooded his home in the Ninth Ward. He lost everything. He wasn't allowed back to clean up until December. He was able to find the S&W, Glock and a Hi-Point 9mm pistol in the wreckage. He used penetrating oil to free the actions enough to unload the rusted weapons. He wanted a working firearm, and the Glock was in the best shape, so he cleaned it up the best he could and put the Smith&Wesson and the Hi-Point in a Tupperware dish to be dealt with later.

On October 22, 2007, he gave me the Tupperware dish with the guns inside and asked me to see what I could do. I have restored knives and flashlights, and I have cleaned up some rusted guns before, so I was pretty sure I could help… I had no idea what awaited me when I opened that container the next evening.

 

I took pictures and posted them on online gun forums. I asked for advice on what to do, and I got a lot of helpful suggestions. One suggestion was to contact the manufacturers and ask for help.

The first company to respond was Hi-Point. They were very clear that it did not matter how the gun was damaged, their lifetime warranty covered it. Smith&Wesson’s only reply was to say the gun was beyond repair.

Below is a work-in-progress. Follow the links for all of the pictures.