What is a Forehand Arms 32 caliber six shot revolver Pat'd Dec 7 86 Jan 1 87 with FW on the grips worth?

Answer 1

Doing some research myself on this subject and have only been able to determine that the company was named Forehand from 1890 to 1902. It had originally been named Forehand & Wadsworth, and was renamed when Wadsworth retired. It was sold be the family in 1902 to Hopkins & Allen. Sorry this only gives a rough date, but so far this is all I have found. The first answer narrows the date of manufacture down to a 13 year period, and that is a pretty small window for an old gun. All I can add is that if they were still using leftover F&W grips, it was probably made fairly early in this period. Unfortunately, this is not enough to get an antique designation from the ATF since the model was still being made after 12/31/1898 and there are no records to prove which side of that arbitrary date yours was manufactured.