Current 'satin stainless' finish

[Ari24]

I've just taken delivery of a new 617, which supposedly has a satin stainless finish. To me it looks as if it's been rubbed with steel wool and has scratches in many directions. This is my first new S&W so I don't know what to expect, except that having paid the equivalent of $1,400 US here in France, I'd hoped for better.
Can anyone say what is normal?

 

[two-bit cowboy]

Welcome to the forum, Ari24, and congratulations on your acquisition.

It's hard to answer your question without a few photos so we can see exactly what you're talking about. I've owned a fair few stainless Smiths, and I can't say I ever found a normal look among the finishes. Some were shinier than others with few scratches, and others appeared -- as you said -- to have been gone over with a steel wool pad.

If you aren't happy with the scratched up appearance you can probably fix that with a good polish, a soft cloth, and some patience. Be aware, though, that if you polish out all the scratches you probably can't get the gun back into its original condition, which some here say adversely affects the collector value.

I've included a few shots of mine after a three-hour session with a product called Flitz. I've seen other folks' guns that have a shinier and smoother finish because they polished them with a more aggressive polish (Mother's Mag Polish -- actually made for auto wheels).

Best of luck, and enjoy your new .22.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[Hapworth]

Pics to know for sure in your particular case, but with the right lighting and angle it's perfectly normal to see the brush strokes on satin finished S&Ws.

 

[SweetMK]

This 648 is MUCH older than your 617,,,
I think it shows the type of marks you are talking about,,,

Kinda normal,,, in my opinion,,

It is tricky to get the scratches to show in a pic,,,

 

[Mr.Harry]

Pics to know for sure in your particular case, but with the right lighting and angle it's perfectly normal to see the brush strokes on satin finished S&Ws.

I agree with this, but as another said, I can't see your gun or how deeply scratched up it might be. I wasn't entirely thrilled with the 'luster' of mine when I bought it. Seemed a bit dirty, for lack of a better word, so I gave it a polishing with mothers mag and a soft rag. I did not 'work on it' for any extended amount of time to make it mirror finish to the extent that you will see some here have (although I do kind of enjoy that look). A quick but thorough polishing improved the appearance greatly to my satisfaction, without changing the finish of the gun, I felt.

 

[Mr.Harry]

I should mention that I'm a chef and thence surrounded daily by stainless steel and I like it clean, which comforts me, but I'm also entirely used to the stainless showing brush-marks. To me, that's just how stainless steel looks.

 

[ridgewalker]

I've just taken delivery of a new 617, which supposedly has a satin stainless finish. To me it looks as if it's been rubbed with steel wool and has scratches in many directions. This is my first new S&W so I don't know what to expect, except that having paid the equivalent of $1,400 US here in France, I'd hoped for better.
Can anyone say what is normal?

When I got my 6 inch barrel 617 a few years ago I found the finish was rough on the left side of the frame around the cylinder release button. I thought about returning it to Smith but never did. Now that I have fired thousands of rounds through it, I feel that it has broken in well to be a good fun shooter. It's been so long since I looked, I don't even know if the finish still appears rough.

 

[Bob1943]

Agree that we need pictures to see if yours is worse than the norm.

In the last 6 months I have bought a new 686 Plus and a 617. Both had very smooth finishes, i.e., you really have to look hard and in the right light angle to see any hint of "brush" marks in the steel. But, I shopped for a long time to find some that looked that way, i.e., during the past 18 months (while shopping for these 2 guns), I looked at probably 40 686s and 617s at local stores. I saw quite a variation in the smoothness of the finish. A high percentage of them exhibited a very noticeable "abrasion" pattern from the polishing pads that had been used on them at the factory. Since the guns are polished by different people, no two guns will come out of the polishing process looking the same, i.e., you are bound to see some rougher looking than others.

As long as the "grain" of the polish marks are in a fairly uniform direction and texture over the entire gun, you could do as others have suggested and do some light polishing to smooth the look out a little bit.

I would be more concerned about a canted barrel, i.e., of the 40 some Smith revolvers I looked at, about 60% had canted barrels.

 

[Invictus357]

My 686+ came with that swirly look.

10 minutes of Mothers Mag polish made it looks beautiful.

Don't rub the laser etched logo though.

 

[TAC]

I've just taken delivery of a new 617, which supposedly has a satin stainless finish. To me it looks as if it's been rubbed with steel wool and has scratches in many directions. This is my first new S&W so I don't know what to expect, except that having paid the equivalent of $1,400 US here in France, I'd hoped for better.
Can anyone say what is normal?

Did you purchase from a reputable source? Was it described as "new"?

I've purchased numerous S&W stainless steel revolvers over the years. About a month ago, I purchased a new 640, and two 686's. None of them looked like you described.

They all had an almost flawless finish, but not polished. No scrateches, no swirls.

 

[Ari24]

Many thanks to all who replied.
Sorry I forgot that without photos it didn't happen. I've attached two.
The consensus seems to be that what I have is normal and needs work if I want it to look better. I think it looks much like SweetMK's snubbie.
I live a days journey from the shop where I bought the gun so it's not practical to inspect before purchase nor to take it back. They are well established and, from my previous dealings, appear reputable, so I don't think they would pass off a used item fro new.
I've shot it twice and with Pistol ammo, have managed to keep in the black so don't think there's a canted barrel issue.

I've seen other references to Flitz so will try to find some and see how it goes.
Love the forum but am jealous of the many great Smith collections.
A+

 

[TAC]

I would have to disagree. I have never seen a "new" S&W stainless steel revolver finish look like that. None of the three I purchased recently, look anything like that.

If they are in fact new, they have had something done to their original finish. They look like someone went over them with one of those Scott's pads, or light steel wool, for some unknown reason. It's very possible the seller wasn't even aware of this, so I'm not assuming he did something.

If you don't want to take my word for it, ask S&W.

 

[hkcavalier]

Looks like regular brushed stainless. The nice thing about it is incidental scratches won't show. Fingerprints barely show up. If you go the high polish route both are an issue. A bead blast matte finish is good for prints but one good scratch and nothing but a re-blast will make it look right again.

I get stainless because it's trouble free so, in general I like the most trouble free finish, even though it's not the prettiest. IMO stainless is never going to look as nice as old school S&W polished bluing or nickel.

 

[TAC]

Looks like regular brushed stainless. The nice thing about it is incidental scratches won't show. Fingerprints barely show up. If you go the high polish route both are an issue. A bead blast matte finish is good for prints but one good scratch and nothing but a re-blast will make it look right again.

I get stainless because it's trouble free so, in general I like the most trouble free finish, even though it's not the prettiest. IMO stainless is never going to look as nice as old school S&W polished bluing or nickel.

I agree with everything you said, but it's still nothing like the finishing currently coming out of S&W these days, or for sometime.

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

The finish on the OP's gun doesn't look Factory to me.

 

[TAC]

This video is a good example of what S&W's factory new stainless steel revolver finish should look like. Granted, the video is a Talon edition, but the finish would be the same.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTaNHBF0P0o[/ame]

 

[BUFF]

The S&W emblem below the cylinder release is almost gone. That doesn't look 'new' to me. If it is, it is on the rough/poor end of the finish quality scale. Then there's the vertical scratch on the sideplate.

 

[Bob1943]

The lighting on the OP's pictures could be enhancing the brush marks. Although, of the 40 some new S&W stainless revolvers that I have looked at over the past 18 months, I have seen several that looked similar to his pictures. I think it is just the "luck of the draw" on how conscientious the person was who finished the gun at the factory. Some Flitz or Simi-Chrome should smooth those brush lines out considerably.

Regarding the "scratch" on the lower right side plate - is that just lighting or a real scratch?

 

[Redlegvzv]

My new 617 which I think is typical of what a 617 is supposed to look like.

 

[Chrisj357]

Satin Finish

I bought a brand new 686 4" barrel and it had some marks on the frame I didn't care for and some (not all) of the "scratches" obviously intentionally put on by the factory looked like the sampling from the OP.

So I used some metal polish and buffed out the marks I didn't like (it was very quick and easy)

Then I used a green scotch bright pad to re-do the scratched look only way more carefully that was previously done. I was very happy with the finish and yes, it looks factory original only better.

My S&W 500 came looking beautiful and after my polishing and rubbing on the 686 both guns looked the same.