I found a few hours from work and was able to get the 3" Octa-barrel polished to my satisfaction. I used the old gunsmith standard, a Norton Combination India stone, the fine side, to do the whole thing. Once I got focused, and determined how to avoid the projecting barrel lug and front sight, the whole thing only took about 30 minutes. I didn't really do much polishing on the front sight blade area, as I may end up blackening that somehow, and I wanted to leave a rougher surface there, but the flats are now completely free of machining marks, and the finish shows that incomparable "stoned" look:





I've decided to have an engraving friend replicate "SMITH AND WESSON" on the left side, and ".22 L.R. CTG.” on the right, like the 2" 63s. That could get finished this weekend.

Then, all that remains is grinding and fitting that little ER locking bolt, and I am finished. I still need to clean up the frame itself, where flux has stained a few areas. Any advice of what type of abrasive I should use to replicate the factory finish? I know some have used 3M pads, but which grit comes closest to producing the original factory finish?

Thanks,

TBR

Very well done, TBR! It will be interesting to see the finished project.

For the sight blade, I would suggest masking off the whole barrel except the sight and bead blasting it. For some reason, blueing is always darker and more consistent on a bead blasted surface than a polished one (cold blue anyway). This would give the sight a dark matte finish similar to having just smoked it with a carbide smoker, only much more durable.

On my stainless guns, I use green Scotchbrite to finish them with. It gives a nice brushed finish, but I think the factory finish is a little finer than that.

Yes, I agree on the bead blasting and bluing, but both the blade and barrel are 416 stainless, so I'll need to come up with a durable means of blackening. The Brownell's Baking Lacquer has given a good, durable finish at times, but also sometimes totally unacceptable results, just flaking off immediately.

Are the Scotchbrite pads all the same grit size? I thought there were grit options on those.

TBR

Scotchbrite pads are color coded for grit size. I use the green and maroon mostly, maroon is coarser than green. I think white is a fine grit, probably a chart on Google somewhere.
Brownell's has Oxynate #84 hot blue for stainless steel & cast iron.

My engraver blew past his promised date by 10 days, but I'd rather have it right than fast:







I'll torque the barrel on tonight, grind the ER locking detent, and this one will be done!

TBR

Pretty darn nice!

__________________
Jim
S&WCA #819

...except for painting the rear edge of the front sight blade with flat black paint, but the gunsmithing on this one is done. FWIW, the green 3M pads are definitely coarser grit than what S&W used on the no-dash era 63s, but it was closer to the grit of the fine India stone I used to polish the barrel flats, and probably closer to the current finish on S&W revolvers, so I did just a bit of light polishing to match the two finishes...might could use a bit more:




What looks like a gouge in the frame, where the barrel is screwed in, is actually my witness mark for the 4" bull barrel...the frame was softer than I expected :




I hope my experience with this little 63 will serve as a reference for others attempting similar projects.

TBR

Well done! Thanks for taking us with you on the journey!