Posted this elsewhere, but I thought I'd add it to the gallery section
BEFORE & AFTER
So I bought this discontinued Gletcher TOKAREV off another forum member. ( Thanks Mantis )
I have a love hate relationship with this model, it's like the ugly relative of the 1911 ( Inventor, Fedor Tokarev, borrowed lots from John Browning's designs )
Its a WW2 Russian Tokarev Replica, but the only MAJOR incorrect detail is the slide serration grooves, the ones shown on this replica look more like the ones on Romanian, Polish and Chinese versions
The last photo at the bottom shows a Real Russian TOKAREV slide grips.
I was not a fan of the paint on the gun. It was like a greyish brown, black with microscopic silver flecks. Not at all what the gun would have normally looked like when blued in WW2
I was going to sand it , polish then blue the gun, but when I did some research I discovered that many Tokarev's were polished to a silver / chrome / or brushed finish.
Seems this version was popular with the Russian mafia, or and was used for officers and others on parade.
I realized after seeing them in a chromed finish, that the lines and design of the pistol actually accentuate it's design is silver
It took time to remove the paint, it was like an oven baked on hard coating... paint remover did not work, only time and elbow grease.
Sanding 400, grit, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, wet sanding, and then polish cream and buffing. I then buffed it with micro crystalline museum great wax for final coating.
The dummy rounds and mag were added for photo dress up, buckle is a real soviet era soldier's item.
I did not overdo the polish because I still wanted it to look like an old gun that had been around, so I left whatever dings and scratches it had
For those interested in silver Tokarev's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e4VA4A8OK8
Pardon my bad grammar
A REAL RUSSIAN TOKAREV
