Those little jagged scratches on the matte finish of some of my stainless 3rd Gens drive me crazy too. Someone recently mentioned soda blasting and I'm looking into that. But as others have said, the potential to do more harm than good makes me cringe and tread very lightly into that arena. And anything that changes the finish from original matte to something else (like brushed or polished) is very likely to decrease the value of the gun. Truth is that I am always willing to consider a SS 3rd Gen with a few scratches, but I wouldn't even think about buying one where the finish was changed or butchered though excessive blasting. Would you? It's something to think about.