Vapor hone finishing service?

[TAROMAN]

Trying to find a source for firearms vapor honing.
This is the finish S&W used on "special" models such as the NY-1, CS-1 and LadySmith revolvers back in the day.
Have found a few sources, but they're unwilling to touch firearm parts.

 

[mlea5150]

Mag-Na-Port does a "velvet hone" finish which is probably comparable.

 

[PatriotX]

A bead blaster and the 'special sauce,' a combination of abrasive and glass beads discovered by a member here, does a pretty good job at replicating that finish.

 

[terrancemc]

I've been doing this for years. It is simply beadblasting and the correct grit beads is 270 as told to me by PC Gunsmith Jimmy Rae years ago. Brownells sells these beads and it gives the same finish as the factory finish. Vapor Hone is just a name shop's have given it to sound like it is something special.

 

[DWalt]

As I understand it, vapor honing is much like bead blasting, except the blasting media used is a slurry of water and abrasive grit instead of grit in air. As above, my assumption is that dry bead blasting using the appropriate bead material, working pressure, and grit size should produce much the same results. That is, that vapor honing is essentially just a little "kinder and gentler" version of conventional bead blasting. A softer and smaller size grit in air should work as well. This from someone who has done a lot of bead blasting but never had anything to do with vapor honing or even saw it being done.