Hello,
Would appreciate your guidance and experience on treating scratches on the matte silver finish on the 629 carry comp. It's a relatively rare gun so I want to try to keep it close to the factory finish if I could, but there are scratches on the cylinder as well as the barrel and frame.

Anyone have good luck in buffing out light scratches without going full bore polish to a mirror shine?

For those that opted to polish the matte silver to a mirror shine, did you have it professionally done or DIY?

Any recommendations on who / where to have it professionally polished?

Thank you all in advance!

On Matte finish (glass beaded) Stainless revolvers you need to make decision when you buy it. Will the gun be a safe queen held as an investment, or will it be a using gun. If you choose to shoot it, it will get marked up, the beaded finish is quite delicate.

Let me make an analogy. You paid $700-1200 for a gun and are worried about preserving it's exterior finish so it always looks brand-new and retains it's value for re-sale at some future date. Or you buy a new car for $20,000 -$100,000 knowing full well that it depreciates 10-20% by the simple act of signing the documents and driving it off the lot! You don't think a minute about this. This makes absolutely no sense to me, does it to you?

You bought it to use, it will show signs of this use! Suck it up and get on with life. No matter what you do the gun will continue to collect marks as long as it is used as it was intended. As with other "durable goods" it will wear out eventually!

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Gunsmithing since 1961

OP - you can easily maintain your gun to a finish most will never notice is not the factory. I do this on 3rd generation Smith pistols that have a lot of scratches.

You use a series of scotch brite pads. I've never tried to buff out scratches, or 'blend' them with the original finish. I have hit the sides of a slide, and left the top alone.

The end result is far from shiny. Let me know if you want and I'll post a picture of my 5906 that has a three step scotch brite pad done on it. IT was a police gun so it came pretty beat up. Looks good as new now.

Thanks PDx, yes pls post or send pics.

Here's some picture for you.

The one with the AR receiver shows two 5906's before any attempt to clean them up.

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What color scotch brite sequence to remover scratches.
Thanks

I polished several of my 686's myself. I hand polish the edges, and used a Dremel on the flats, it takes about 2 hours. I mirror polished the 2.5". The 4" was my first attempt and I didn't want to overdo it, so I only semi mirror polished it. If I ever decide to go back to matte I can always have it bead blasted.

Mdl 686 9-2011 031 by alazgr8, on Flickr

[IMG]Smith 686 1 by alazgr8, on Flickr[/IMG]

Smith 686 2 by alazgr8, on Flickr

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NRA & CRPA Life Member

Here's an example of a silica sand (60 mesh) sandblasted finish on a cosmetically challenged 5906 police trade in. Your choice of technique depends on which finish you like better, the matte or bright finish.

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

Try using a med. fine cloth backed sand paper to cover the scratch and rub with wood stick. worked for me.