Too Bright and Shiney for me 4506

pmosley

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Traded for a 4506 (no dash) yesterday. Beautiful design, great balance. I have a number of 3rd gens - the stainless ones include a 5906, 4006 and 4516-2. All are immaculate and have the original matte finish.

The 4506 I just obtained has been polished to the point of being too bright for me. It's "pretty" but I really don't care for bling bling guns.

Is bead blast the viable solution? This will be a shooter so I don't want to spend a fortune. I'm into this one for $390 so Ive got some room to go before I exceed the likely value.

Anyone know of an Atlanta area shop that could perform the required "tone down?"


Thanks
 
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EVER THINK ABOUT POWDER COATING

Traded for a 4506 (no dash) yesterday. Beautiful design, great balance. I have a number of 3rd gens - the stainless ones include a 5906, 4006 and 4516-2. All are immaculate and have the original matte finish.

The 4506 I just obtained has been polished to the point of being too bright for me. It's "pretty" but I really don't care for bling bling guns.

Is bead blast the viable solution? This will be a shooter so I don't want to spend a fortune. I'm into this one for $390 so Ive got some room to go before I exceed the likely value.

Anyone know of an Atlanta area shop that could perform the required "tone down?"


Thanks



What about powder coat????:eek:
 
Interesting. Didn't know it could be done on stainless. I'll do a little research.

Thanks
 
I would give the green scotch-brite pads a try. Although it cleans up holster wear very good, I'm guessing it would dull down a shiny finish.
 
If the Scotch Pads don't work, yes bead blasting should do the trick. I don't know enough about the medium you would need to use to get the results you want, but I did have a guy take a highly polished 5906 barrel and return it to a matte grey using a bead blaster. I have also had 3rd Gens bead blasted to removed crazy amounts of wear and tear and make them look like new.
 
Pics in natural light would help. I have a 1066 and my very first gun, a 5906 that I have polished the slides to a semi-polished finish. Not as bright as the second gens, but definitely brighter than the matte finish.
 
I hope this isn't too far off track, but here is a pic of my 686 that I sent back to S&W for the same reason. I am quite pleased with the results:
61bd04ea.jpg
 
you will need to take the gun completely apart if going to bead blast. grit will get into everything and will need to be cleaned.

flushing a part like a pinned extractor may not be sufficient from removing media remnants.
 
I don't like the looks of stainless guns. I had my 625 bead blasted and it looks great. Semi-autos I have my gunsmith paint.
 
When my dept. retired our 4046's a local gunsmith here in North Carolina offered to refinish them for officers that bought their pistols. He did a complete tear down of the pistol, bead blasted the frame, slide, extractor, barrel, slide stop, trigger and hammer then reassembled and lubed them for a whopping $55. A number of my co-workers said that was the best $55 they ever spent as all of the holster wear was gone and the pistols looked like new.

This is easy to do on an all stainless gun and the blasting media is usually captured in a blasting cabinet and reused so you're basically just looking at the labor of the complete tear down, bead blast and reassembly. You could probably check with your area gunsmiths to see if they offer glass bead blasting and how much they charge. It will certainly return the pistol to the orignal factory look.
 
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