I recently purchased a S&W40VE. I saw some video on You Tube of a couple of polished SW40VE's slide and barrel, but I don't trust You Tube. I don't want to ruin the appearance of my new handgun, but I would like to polish the slide, and maybe the barrel. I have a Dremel and I've already polished the feed ramp, but that as far as I'm willing to go with the Dremel. I know first hand how the polishing pads can come off and expose the sharp steel bit. I don't want that to happen while polishing my new handgun. I want to polish it by hand. I live in a small Mississippi hick town, and I couldn't find any of that Mothers whatever stuff or Frazzel polish. What else will work, and can it be done by hand with past-middle-aged-arthritic elbow grease? I'd rather not use emery cloth or sandpaper of any type. Like I said, I don't trust those You Tube guys motivation for posting how-to videos. All they want is maximum number of hits so then can attract sponsorship. For all I know they could have had a gunsmith to do it. IDK. Thank you.

I will try to answer your question.

This knife was very worn/scratched when I got it, as it was a TSA seizure.
While not the same steel, the knife steel is hardened to around 55 hRC, so it is fairly tough.

And I know you said no sandpaper but that is what I used.
I just soak it in water for better performance.

The process:

200, 400, 800, 1000, 2000 grit sandpaper, followed by
flitz polish and mothers mag polish. Then sharpened with EdgePro. BTW I sanded the scales too. They needed it badly.

All by hand. It takes time but its worth it. I have used a Dremel
on many things, but for this I would stay away from it.
I have heard of people using various degrees of large cotton buffing wheels, but unless you intend to use them often, the expense may not be worth it.

Let us know if you decide to take on the project.

Here she is, tell me what you think.

Victorinox Climber Yellow

Nice..... I have a SW9VE. I have just polished my barrel. I am thinking of doing my slide next. On the barrel, I used 1000 girt / with Rem oil. Moved up to 2000 grit / with Rem oil. Finished it off with Mother's. It' s like a mirror finish now. The slide I am just going to do the sides only, not the top. I was told to use 220, 600, 1000 and 2000. Good luck!

Black Talon has a great way to polish metal, I have used that method before and the results can be great. But It takes a lot of time and energy to achieve such results. I polish a lot of different guns( Gun Parts), the best way I have found is with a firm cotton buffing wheel and Mothers mag polish( I just run some Jewelers rouge on the wheel before I start buffing) as long as you have a firm grip on the part your buffing you will have beautiful results in lighting fast time. I would stay far away from using a dremel tool , or a drill with buffing attachment , Unless this tool is ln a locked /stationary position. Its really easy to slip off the metal and put some really nasty gouges in your metal. Here is one example of a Taurus PT92 I polished.

Very nice! I finally found some Mother's. It was in the auto section at Wal*Mart. I used that and elbow grease. It turned out nice. Not as shiny as that knife blade, but nice enough. It definitely reflects light, and I can see a distorted image of anything next to it. I have no earthly idea what 55hRC refers to, but I'd like to know that, so I'll look it up when I'm done here. Anyway, the point is that I don't know how hard the steel is in the slide and barrel, or how dense it is or whatever the proper term is. No, but I did do it by hand, except for the tight spots, which I did use a Dremel on. I took a photo of the finished product, but the photo doesn't do it justice, so I won't post it here, yet. Thank you for your suggestion.

Yeah, I only used a Dremel for touch up on the inside corners, and I did have some slips, no matter how careful I tried to be. But I was lucky, no scratches or gouges. I will say one thing though. I used the Dremel to polish the underside edge of the slide and rail of the slide channel. Polishing that bottom edge sure did bring out the grain in the metel. I don't even know if grain is the right word. It may be the tool marks from the manufacturing process. I didn't expect that though. Glad they are where they can't be seen. I guess there's nothing like polishing a piece of anything to bring out the natural beauty and any hidden flaws, like all those apparent tool marks on the underside edge. IDK. But even they are smooth now too. lol

We do have a bench grinder out in the garage, but it has grinding wheels on both ends. I thought about buying a buffing wheel for it and changing out one of the grinding wheels, except that I don't know anything about it. It belonged to my dad.