My 686-1 is high polished. Will someone post a picture of a stainless that has been beadblasted. Thanks

One of many that I did. I do rifles too...
This gun is a 625-1 made in 1988.


This gun I bought broken and restored it to new condition. It now sits on my fireplace mantle as a home defense piece.

This is another I did, a Ed Brown with finish damage, I fixed the poor melt job and beaded it like new.



In glass beading, you must take the gun down fully, remove the gunsites then plug up the barrel. After the job is done I wash them in the sink and blow all the water out. Once dry I reassemble them.

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Looks like a factory matte finish. I'm I correct?

It's Brownells fine glass beads. They see it by 5 gallon buckets.

I use the #270 in a cabinet and rifle barrels get done outside in back, because they are too long for my cabinet. I blast at 50psi. Only thing you must use is a dust mask or you will get the dust in your lungs...

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I bead blasted my 686 and 66 with a little hand held unit from Harbor Freight. The Central pneumatic unit was $19.99 on sale and 25 lb bag of 80 grit glass beads was also $19.99.

It worked perfectly and I have enough beads leftover to probably do 10 more guns.

It might look shiney in the picture but it is very matte, just like I wanted it.

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I went to Grainer's and bought a bucket of the equiv 320 grit. It has worked fine in my blasting box.

I get a smooth fine finish. It will even out the scuffs and some of the nicks. You will still see some of the deeper stuff if you don't work them out before blasting.

I plug the barrel and the charge holes in the cylinder.

To make sure all the grit is out - a rolling boil dunk, and blast with compressed air, then another dunk, let the moisture evaporate from the heat, then a quick spray with Remoil, just because I like a little oil protection on SS.

CR/JPG

Here's a question coming from a vast wealth of ignorance:
Can you do that to an originally blued-steel gun?
If so, what are your options for a new coating? Can you blue the
piece?
I've got a couple of firearms that I doubt can be brought back to "good"
condition, and am mulling-over various options. I'd post pics, of
course.
Thanks for your help,TACC1.

I traded into a 65-2 that was used and quite abused. I sent it back to S&W to be fixed up and had them bead blast it while it was there -- it turned out quite nice:




S&W's also done it to a few of their blued revolvers, like this 17-8:



The frame and barrel were bead-blasted blued to match the black anodizing on the cylinder (the cylinder is an aluminum alloy).

One caveat comes to mind regarding bead blasting aluminum parts. Be very careful with the beads you use and the pressure as it is easy to pit softer aluminum. Bead blast the steel or stainless parts first, then reduce the pressure before doing the aluminum parts. It will take a little experimentation to get similar results on the aluminum. Excessive pressure also presents the possibility of embedding the glass beads in the aluminum, a bad situation. Don't mean to scare anyone, just a heads up regarding a possible problem. When glass beading steel parts it is best done immediately prior to bluing, handling the freshly blasted parts is to be avoided as the oil and acid in your skin will cause uneven results in the bluing. Never use the blast cabinet to remove rust from rusty, greasy or oily parts, the rust particles will mix with the beads and produce less than desirable results. Good glass beading results call for the beads to be fresh and sharp and free from contamination of any type. Hope these tips help, good luck with your project.

valkyriekl & marksman,
You've answered my questions. That blued, and blasted,
17 looks just fine. Thank you, TACC1

Bead blasting is one thing. Fact is a clean satin finish is not produced with the bead. Its done with used clean bead marital. Better known as dusting by those that do it.