Can a gun with a blued finish be polished with any kind of super fine abrasive like mothers or diamond white jewelers polish or will this take the bluing off?

If you are extremely careful and gentle you can use Something like Mother's, Blue Magic or Simi Chrome to clean the bluing, but any of these will remove the blue quite quickly if over done. You cannot polish it to improve the finish as that is over doing it!

__________________
Gunsmithing since 1961

Be very careful with trying to polish a blued finish. A very gentle polishing can brighten a slightly clouded finish, but you can remove the blued layer with aggressive polishing. Why are you thinking of polishing a blued finish?

__________________
VCDL, GOA, NRA

Clean it, remove any oil on the surface and then use a non-abrasive paste wax.
I have a couple cans of Johnson’s I use.

__________________
I told you not to use Lifebuoy

You've effectively answered your own question when you used the term "abrasive"-----never mind "super fine" or "very gentle"!!

As for me, once over with Hoppes to remove whatever, and dry/polish with a soft, dry cotton cloth. That'll have it looking better than when the box was first opened.

Beyond that, you probably should be thinking about consulting with an OCD specialist.

Ralph Tremaine

The blue is actually a very thin layer of iron oxide. Normally about .0001 thick but thankfully pretty hard. But it still isn't that hard to rub it off. Witness all the guns with the blue missing around the muzzle and cylinder from being holstered repeatedly. Just being rubbed with oiled leather did that. Mothers polish has about 3000grit in it. Each grit is about .0003. Three times bigger than the blue is thick.

The collectors usual method is to "clean / wax" with Renaissance Wax. Developed by the British for protecting antiques. It does not turn yellow over time, neutral ph. It cleans and lays a protective cover over the gun. Highly recommended by Forum members.

__________________
H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

All abrasives will ... remove blue if you aren't very carefull .

A mild abrasive / cleaner I have used to remove very light surface rust , freckling and years of grime from the model 58 in my avatar ...
it was carried by a motorcycle cop in Louisiana ... was
Turtle Wax Rust Remover and Chrome Polish ... it is an extremely fine polishing compound in liquid form ... I used it on a cloth pad , rubbed gently and turned often to a clean small areas at a time . No power tools !!! ...and when the pad stopped showing brown-rust color being removed I stopped and moved to another area ... I removed no blue by going slow and being careful . Be too agressive ... and you can remove the blue finish !
A Wax job completed the clean up and it looked so good ... I was sorta surprised and didn't see any need for a re-blue job .
It isn't perfect but is nice looking for a 1970's revolver that was on-duty for 10 years .
The job turned out so well ... I made the model 58 my avatar !
Gary

__________________
Certified Cajun
NRA Member

A second vote for Renaissance Wax. After a non-abrasive cleaner.

Renwax or a Very soft touch with Flitz....

__________________
Even older, even crankier....

The same folks who bring Renaissance wax to you, "By Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen", also bring you a cleaner by the name of something floating around in my head, but I can't catch up with it long enough to write it down here which is non-abrasive-------AND removes rust-----and is also used by all the museums worthy of the name.

Actually, it removes rust you can't even see until it shows up on your cleaning rag to shock you! Any/all of you so cursed to own a S&W product finished in "Satin Blue" (the early post WWII funky finish) will count your blessings you used it on those, as they are very prone to transforming invisible rust on your gun to very visible rust on your rag---SURPRISE-SURPRISE-SURPRISE!!!

And even worse than not being able to pull up the name is the fact I have a can of it here---somewhere---and I can't find it!

Ralph Tremaine

And an even bigger SURPRISE is the name PRE-LIM----which just appeared in my head---but is not guaranteed to be correct----never mind I'm inclined to bet money on it!! AND you need to get a can of THAT too!!

Yet another SURPRISE is I just thought of THE REASON the "Satin Blue" guns are prone to possessing rust you can't see----my version of THE REASON: Skilled Labor (and for damned sure skilled polishers) was in short supply following WWII. What to do? What to do is use a finishing process which doesn't require skilled polishers. (This is something I've been told rather than something I know.) Satin Blue guns weren't polished, they were prepped by media blasting. I know media blasting leaves an irregular surface------------microscopically irregular---you can see it, but you can't feel it----it being a bunch of little hills and valleys. It strikes me those little valleys are a perfect place for rust to form. If that is really the answer, it at least makes sense.

Ralph, those memory pills finally paid off for you......Ben

__________________
Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

It's important to remember that the amount of gloss in gloss bluing is created by how well the metal is polished before being blued.

Ed