What polishing cloth can anyone recommend for polishing out small
scratches and stain on a stainless revolver?

Don't know about a polishing cloth but whatever you do, don't use steel wool or anything possibly containing any form of metal. That will just start corrosion initiation sites. Don

Old men's undershirts!

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Doc Garrett
Dead Man's Doctor

It really all depends on what finish you are stating with. Unless the finish is bead blasted or polished I’ve used 3-M 07448 GRAY FINE GRIT, and 07445 WHITE VERY FINE GRIT SCOTCH BRITE SCUFF PADS with great success. Deeper scratches can be easily removed with heavier grit RED or GREEN SCUFF PADS if necessary and then those scratches blended with the other pads. With a little patience and practice you will be able to match the surrounding areas perfectly. I found the gray and white scuff pads I was looking for at Grainger Industrial Supply.

All I have ever used is Mothers Mag Polish and a soft cloth.

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I agree with the above 100%

I took the plunge after encouragement from several fourm members and used 2000 grit automotive sandpaper.
I used WD40 as a liquid and it turned out pretty good. The 686 was in pretty bad shape and in my opinion it turned out great.
When I got it to look the way I wanted I used some Flitz and a microfiber cloth to put the finishing touches on it.

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it is beautiful!

This Model 60 has been hand polished a couple of times with Flitz. After an extended range session today I hit it again with some stuff called EZ Reflections chrome and metal polish. The gun looks better every time I polish it, the depth and shine is very comparable to nickel...

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"Shall not be infringed"

man, that is beautiful, too! i have got to try this!

Thanks to all the is what I was looking for was the Mother's and Flitz cloth!!!

I use an old cotton washcloth for polishing and do the final wipe down with a microfiber cloth. I use a microfiber cloth on blued guns too...

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"Shall not be infringed"

I totally agree.After a good coat the gun looks spectacular....Mike

well, i tried it, too! i got a pretty good deal on a 60-7, polished it by hand for about 6 hours with simichrome and an old t-shirt, then a couple of hours with mother's. i was looking for a set of the old ace boot grips, but haven't had any luck finding any. i got these grips for the time being.

X2! Its good stuff! I use it on the bare aluminum chassis' of my sleds, makes em shine almost like chrome. And just last weekend, i treated my new Smith to some quality time with Mothers and a cotton diaper. (clean of course! LOL!)

another vote for mother's mag polish and an old t-shirt...u can make it as bright and finished as you want to using this method...

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

My choices with positive results: FLITZ, MOTHER'S, and SIMICHROME Polish. If you want a mirror finish, I use 2000 grit auto repair sandpaper with dabs of Rem oil for wetness.

As far as cloth, an old flannel shirt has always worked great for me in getting out the fine scratches.

I use either Flitz or Mothers Mag Wheel polish with a cotton cloth.

I found this information very helpful! Thanks for the info!

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But then, what do I know?

Mother’s touched S&W’s:





Mother’s touched Rugers:





The cylinder is the hardest to polish. The steel is hard as heck and I don’t want to round off any stop notches. But it can be done. I break out the cotton rag and Mothers on a weekend movie and keep going with these from time to time. They all get better slowly but surely.

Another vote for Mother's. I polished a well used police trade-in Model 67 and it looked like it had been refinished in chrome.

BIRCHWOOD CASEY LEAD REMOVER & POLISHING CLOTH WORKS GREAT. JUST KEEP IT OFF THE BLUED PARTS!

Available at every auto parts store.

Another vote for Mothers followed by a good wax job to keep oxidation away. Took me a few episodes of "Dancing with the Stars" with Stacy Kiebler (WOW) to shine my 66-2 while the wife watched. I like it personally. Some like the original finish but I don't use this as a self defense weapon so am not worried about the shine and light reflection. You can always return it to its original look with some Scotch Bright (sp).

Let us see your's when you're done please.

Roger

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V/R
Roger / SG

I took my 64 down to the bare frame and cylinder, then I used jewelers rouge dissolved in gun oil and rubbed it out with my bare hands. It turned my hands black but it took off the crud and gave it a nice polish. All told it took a total of about 4 nights just rubbing the revolver while watching the idiot box to get it where I wanted it. Before reassembly the buggered screws were dressed by chucking them lightly in a drill and turning them on some 400 grit paper then polishing lightly with a Dremel tool on low speed as was the thumb latch all with same standard red rouge used to polish gold.

before

after

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Regards,
Guy-Harold Smith II

Great looking pencil there 357, I bet it writes great to .

Ooh, that's nice. Love the diamond grips on it, too.



GLCM Test Team 1980-84
Yes Virginia, the Air Force once had Infantry!

I just started on a 629 yesterday. Beginning with 1,000 grit but may step down to 600 around the grip area since it seems to be scratched a tad deeper than what 1,000 can remove.
Then up to 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 and finally 2,500 (all with pb blaster for lube) before it hits the buff wheel.

I have polished up a number of really beat up SS Smiths.
For jobs like these, you will need a lot more than Mother's.
I use auto body sandpaper (dry - tried it both ways) cut into 1" wide strips.
Depending on how bad it is, have started out with as coarse as 320 grit.
Different areas will probably need different grits to start. You may even need to use a fine file to smooth out deep gouges, usually the bottom of the triggerguard where the gun has been dropped.
Strip the gun, re-install the sideplate with all flathead screws. I keep a set of screws just for this purpose.
For the flat areas, I wrap the sandpaper around a little aluminum sanding black I made.
After all has been worked with the first sandpaper, go to the next finer grade. Work it with this one to smooth out all the scratches from the last grade.
Repeat this with finer and finer sandpaper until you end up with 2000 grit.
You will quickly learn that if you don't completely remove the previous scratches before going finer that you will have to back up and do it over, Trust me on this!
After its polished to 2000 all over, start in with Mother's and rub, rub, rub. I start out polishing with a cotton shop rag and end up with a microfiber cloth.

Here are some of the worst that I have done:

This model 67 was a complete junker. $150 at the LGS. Dirtiest and most beat one I ever saw. Soaked 3 days in Ed's red before even starting on it:


This one had a very coarse sandblast finish with lots of pitting (yes, stainless DOES rust!) like it had been a boat gun. It took more work than the others:


This was another well-used gun dinged all over and rusted in a couple spots:


And one that looked as if it had been dragged behind a truck:

Final note: Unless you REALLY know what you're doing, do not use any power tools!

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

How bout the laser etching? Will the mothers polish off the "engraving"

Mother's alone isn't aggressive enough to erase laser etching.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Actually, Mother's will all but remove laser etching. I used it by hand to polish my 629-3 6 1/2" Classic and before I realized what I'd done, the etchings on both sides of the barrel had just about disappeared. About made me sick. If I had it to do again, I'd stayed away from those areas.

TAROMAN: Nice write-up and photos. That's an amazing effort to the work that you did to pull that finish.

There seems to be some doubt about polishing and etchings or engravings. I have just bought a 629 Classic. Along the barrel there is one side the 'Smith and Wesson 44 Magnum' and on the other the '629 Classic' and then of course like all S&W there is their logo and stuff on the side plate.
So for those experienced out there. Did you go gentler on these areas or does just using 'Mothers' alone with a soft cloth leave these engravings intact?
I want to ask before getting down to the business of polishing up mine. I'll also be doing a 617 if the 629 goes well.

I'd recommend staying away from the etching all together. It doesn't take much rubbing to make it start fading.

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Don't You Ever Wash That Thing

Simi-Chrome polish with a tee shirt soft rag. Lots of elbow grease. We remove machining marks in injection die molds with it.

Save the used Simi-Chrome polish to polish the blued guns lightly.
It cleans up nickel finishes too.

I have a satin nickel 442 from the early '90s that looks like new, but I can't get the high gloss look I'd like. The only thing I've used is Mother's and the gun looks great, but still has the satin finish. Any ideas?

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Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)

I have used Flitz on my 686 and m49's .......... but
I do not get carried away with it.

I did not know about Mothers......
I will have to try that out to see how well it works. It is always
nice to have a backup.

Hoppe's #9 will work but lots of time and elbow grease is needed and a brass brush is also helpful.

For stainless guns -- The gray and white Scotchbrite® pads are available at NAPA stores -- they are apparently used when priming and painting cars. Not expensive.

But caution -- don't use the green pads found in grocery stores, Wal-Mart, etc. Far too coarse.

I've used Flitz (in a tube) with good results after using the Scotchbrite® pads -- but you have to be careful about how much you use it, or you will soon have a very shiny (mirror-like) surface that is not really like the original S&W "tumbled" stainless look.

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S&W Rover

wow I think we will refer to you as Master Yoda now! All those guns are beautiful works of art...

The satin nickel coating requires different preparation and application processes than a bright nickel finish. I don't believe it's possible to polish a satin nickel firearm to a bright nickel appearance.

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"Shall not be infringed"

+1 Mothers produces fast results without much effort if the finish is in decent condition, so go easy on it unless really you want a mirror polish.

I am a big fan of microfiber cloths - awesome for polishing. Great pic!

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586-7, 629-6, 19-3 Ni, 36