I need your suggestion on the best way to polish a stainless pistol to achieve the bright stainless or nickel look.

Mother's Mag Polish (Auto Product), old tee shirt, and plenty of elbow grease. You will at least need to remove cylinder, crane, and thumb latch.

Ditto Philinms......I've done it a bunch of times and, as stated, elbow grease is key. The more you work, the brighter the shine.

Ditto for the above post's except that I use Flitz. Unless you really, really know what you are doing, stay away from the Dremel tool!

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Stay safe people!

I did a 3rd generation 9mm that had too many handling marks on it. Found that a flat wooden tongue depressor was a very big help on both flat and curved surfaces. Sometimes just the wood, other times with a layer or two of microfiber cloth.

For starting, you can use silicon carbide paper in a 1200 or 1500 grit, or well worn 400 grit to get rid of the brush marks and get down to base metal. If you have a laser etched gun, you may well polish out the slide etching and even the frame markings so be careful around the serial number. My last project has the serial number laser etched on the frame beneath the model number but the serial number is also stamped under the left grip.

In any event, be sure you do not remove any serial number without some expert advice.

Flitz, Mothers, Simichrome, Brasso, automotive scratch remover all have different degrees of abrasiveness, so play around with all of them.


Don't give up your day job.

Eagle One NEVVERDULL and 3M pads

+1 on Mothers, a clean, soft rag and elbow grease. Patience is also a requirement as the best results will come by being deliberate and moving slowly. I've done a couple of my stainless guns that way and was very pleased with the results.

A Dremel or a buffing wheel may get quick results or a bad outcome.... and you don't get to decide which.

For more years than I care to remember, I've used Simichrome paste to polish metal. You can get it at many motorcycle shops. I've used it many, many times on stainless S&W revolvers, and it does an outstanding job.

My 1970 Model 64 no dash as purchased last fall. Rescued from the previous owner who used a SOS pad on it...

Before and after...

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Take your time..quickly.

That's how it's done except as others have said you can use other products like Flitz amd many other metal cleaner and polishes. The key is take your time as it's actually an enjoyable project and you will love the results.

Maybe it is just me but I would like to know how to duplicate the factory satin ( sort of ) finish rather than the high polish finish. Seems to me the scratches show up much more on the highly polished guns more than the satin finish because my 629 is go and no show gun.

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44 Garrett Defender Ammo 4 me.

I bought this M64 from a guy who didn't take very good care of it. I mean, it was filthy. I cleaned it up and then took some simochrome and a well worn t-shirt to it and after a very short time came out with this. I didn't want a mirror finish but I'm sure I could have gotten it with more elbow grease. Remember to rub with the grain of the metal.

+1 on all the comments here. When I started down this road I found some great threads on this topic.

I went with the 2000/1500 grit sandpaper, then polishing wheel, then Flitz, method on a 64 LEO trade-in and got great results.

From what I understand, the original non-polished look is hard, if not impossible to replicate by hand.

Now where's the pic...

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But then, what do I know?

Here is a mid '80s model 60 after some work with Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish...

Edmo

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TRUTH: Don't delete my posts!

Mother's
Old towel
Model 63
Several old Westerns on cable.

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A real sucker for the J-frames

I have polished up a number of really beat up SS Smiths.
For jobs like this, you will need a lot more than Mother's.
I use auto body sandpaper (dry - tried it both ways) cut into 1" wide strips.
Depending on how bad it is, have started out with as coarse as 600 grit.
Different areas will probably need different grits to start. You may even need to use a fine file to smooth out deep gouges, usually the bottom of the triggerguard where the gun has been dropped.
Strip the gun, install sideplate with all flathead screws. I keep a set of screws just for this purpose.
For the flat areas, I wrap the sandpaper around a little aluminum sanding black I made.
After all has been worked with the first sandpaper, go to the next finer grade. Work it with this one to smooth out all the scratches from the last grade.
Repeat this with finer and finer sandpaper until you end up with 2000 grit.
You will quickly learn that if you don't completely remove the previous scratches before going finer that you will have to back up and do it over, Trust me on this!
After its polished to 2000 all over, start in with Mother's and rub, rub, rub. I start out polishing with a cotton shop rag and end up with a microfiber cloth.

Here are three of the worst that I have done:

This model 67 was a complete junker. $150 at the LGS. Dirtiest and most beat one I ever saw. Soaked 3 days in Ed's red before even starting on it:


Here's one of the $210 Ohio prison guns:


This one had a very coarse sandblast finish with lots of pitting (yes, stainless DOES rust!) like it had been a boat gun. It took more work than the others:


Final note: Unless you REALLY know what you're doing, do not use any power tools!

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Model 63 with Mother's

Model 60

I haven'y tried it but others have said that if you rub a green scotch bright pad always in the same direction you will end up with a factory looking finish. Maybe someone can confirm this for you.

I just worked over 3 Model 65's that had lots of scratches, some deep, and were polished pretty bright.

I stripped them, cleaned with Ed's Red, then blasted them with brake cleaner.

I used 3M Aluminum Oxide wet/dry paper wet with 3in1 oil. Started at 320 grit to get the bigger flaws, then dropped to 400 and finished with 600 grit, all hand rubbed, until I got the look I wanted.

I finished them with Eagle Wadding and they look just like the factory finish on my other stainless S&W's.

I can try to post some pics later, but this will give you the finish you want.

I have tried rubbing them with everything I could think of to achieve the factory "soft" polish finish.
Nothing has done it thus far.
One thing I havent tried, but will do some day, is soda blasting.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Thanks fyimo

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44 Garrett Defender Ammo 4 me.

I would not do it on my matte stainless Python but did it on my Ruger New Vaquero (sp?) in stainless. It took about 6 hours using a Dremel tool and many felt wheels and white rouge. It came out amazing and I am very happy with it. I think what is key is using the very finest grit so you see no polish lines. It also feels very smooth. You do want to keep the wheel always moving or you will not get a flat surface.

Id like to polish my new 686 but I'm worried about making a mistake. Assuming one takes their time with mothers and a polishing cloth, is this method fairly fullproof? Is there a way to make a mistake with this method?
MrR

You cannot hurt it with Mothers and a soft cloth.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Take the gun apart, remove the grips and crane assembly.Then use Simichrome on a damp cloth,rub in a circular motion using gentle light pressure.Use a tiny amount and work it till you need a little more.Polish clean with a micro fiber cloth, this is important because the polish leaves a residue that can obscure the shine slightly.

The cylinder will polish up quickly so spend the least amount of time on that.Avoid the roll marks as much as possible.
I polished my 625 for 1 hour each night for 3 days while watching the boob tube, at that point I was satisfied. It looked good after the 1st day and great after the 2nd day but I wanted a little deeper luster so I went for a third round.

Use a toothbrush to clean out the crevices.

I used a nearly worn out kitchen pot scrubber or glass range top cleaner pad to remove the lead residue from the front of the cylinder and forcing cone with the Simchrome on it.It made short work of the rings and saved me a lot of elbow grease.

Take your time, work slowly and check your work frequently and it will come out looking better than new.

Penmon - Simichrome sounds like a more aggressive polishing medium than jeweler's rouge and a Dremel? Is this true?

I will be getting a new in box, unfired 686-4 Power Ported 6" gun and may try your Simichrome on it. Will I decrease any collector value this gun will have, if it has any to start with?

Pretty 22 snubby suckersrus! Plain sweet in fact sir! Mike

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45.acp-why shoot twice.

A 66-2 before and after using Mother's and a soft cloth.

Obviously before


And after

Wax and a cloth sound a nice way to polish up a gun.

I'm just concerned about rubbing that laser etched logo off on newer Smiths. Anyone done that? Will it rub off?

My last Smith 686 was bought brand new and the finish was revolting. I rubbed it with lead remover cloth and it did wonders for its appearance. I stayed away from the logo though.

It will rub off. I had a 66-5 where it was just about completely worn off, in fact you could only see it when looking at it in the light at a certain angle. In fact, I had it for several years and never thought about it, I even posted a question here about it, at the suggestion of someone I shined very bright light at it, and looked at it from different angles, and only then could very faintly see it.

That's one of the things I dont like about newer Smith's, the cheap laser etched markings (and the lock, and the MIM, canted barrels, etc)

Here's another thread dealing with cleaning stainless.

best way to clean Stainless

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Ogy

Well that is just annoying. I'm glad I avoided the logo when I buffed the 686 up.

There is a company that does engraving and they do logos. I guess I could have it done by them on my new Smith if the price is right.

You can check them out. I have no idea how much they would charge though.

GUN ENGRAVING MACHINE | CNC Mahining Centers for Industrial Gun Engraving of Logos, Serial Numbers & Marking

b

Guess I have led a sheltered life. What is Eagle Wadding and where did you get it ?
Thanks

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44 Garrett Defender Ammo 4 me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by team sidewinder b Guess I have led a sheltered life. What is Eagle Wadding and where did you get it ? Thanks

Nevr-dull magic wadding.
Cotton impregnated with a polishing agent.
Used it in the Army to polish belt buckles.
Sold under Eagle name for polishing mag wheels and shiny bits.

NEVR-DULL

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Skeete,
I learned of Scimchrome by using it in my business.
We use it to restore vintage fountain pens, some worth 1000s of dollars, we use it because it works.
I have used it on celluloid,plastics, silver, gold, silver and gold plate and chrome and steel.It is far safer than rouge and a wheel and requires far less skill and practice.
I do not believe or see how you can hurt a stainless steel gun with it.
As to your new gun yes it may affect the value you are changing it from it's original configuration.It will become more valuable to some and less desirable to other, some won't care. In a way it's a custom modification.

I only polish older chrome or stainless guns in need of finish attention, blued guns I rarely touch other than waxing.

Penmon

I was reading one of the gun rags awhile ago. They were taking a tour of the S&W PC and the standard production line.

The foreman that was showing them around stated it took at least 15 years to properly train a person to buff/polish the S&W firearms.

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Ralph J.

Yes it will rub off and I was using Flitz/soft cloth on a 629. Didn't even notice until much later.