SP101 any reason to not beadblast

[camsdaddy]

I have a recently purchased SP101. I am thinking of beadblasting. I had thought of polishing it but im not much on polishing. There is no reason other than I like to tinker. I womder is there any downside to beadblasting. This gun is and will be carried. Holster ware isn't a negative for me. Just soliciting your thoughts.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

No reason not to....I mirror polished the cylinder and lightly polished the frame on mine. I may do the whole frame now that I knocked out my MK II mirror polishing project.

 

[camsdaddy]

It will cost me nothing. I have actually done another revolver and like it. I just didnt know if there was any negative effects. I figure I will just hold the gun at a distance so its more of a suttle dusting. At least untill I see I like it.

 

[Naybor]

Well, I've had a beadblasted stainless weapon and when new was very good looking. Then, new scratches shows bad, and finallly, shiny wear spots started to show. Ended up polishing the thing to a shiny finish where wear spots and scratches don't show so bad. After all, a stainless steel gun is stainless all the way through, and beadblasting is after all a surface finish.

Try it! If you don't like it you can polish it out!

 

[camsdaddy]

I guess so I will try it tomorrow. Like you said I have nothing to lose and it wont cost me anything but maybe five minuets.

 

[BCRider]

It sounds like you're just removing the grips and doing the whole gun in one piece. That makes me want to shake my head. The parts need to be removed and stuff you don't want blasted need to be masked off. Like for example the front and rear surfaces of the cylinder where you either want to retain a smooth finish to aid in keeping it decently clean or in the case of the rear where you don't want to alter the sizes or finish for the sake of the hand. Even the notches for the cylinder stop are best masked off with some sort of ruberized paint or whatever to avoid a rough finish in the notches and half round groove leading to it. And then there's the muzzle crown which certainly should not see any blasting.

I could go on but I think you get the idea. By all means blast away. But you need to protect a lot of the areas where a bead blasted finish is less than ideal for the function of the gun.

 

[Just One Shot]

I have a bead blasted S&W 60 that I traded for. It adds a completely different look to the gun and removes any possibilty of glare which is good on a CCW.

 

[gglass]

I chose the shiny road. A shiny stainless pistol will show finger prints a bit more than a bead blasted or brushed stainless finish, but it does have the advantage on scratches and blemishes. A shiny stainless pistol just needs to hand rubbed with whatever you used to shine ti to begin with. A blasted or brushed finish is much more difficult to reblend to match the rest of the gun.

My Ruger SP-101

• .357 Magnum 3" Barrel
• IBOK Trigger Job 2.5 lb SA / 4 lb DA
• Mepro Night Sight
• Complete pistol dehorn and shine job
• Ugly lawyer roll-mark removal from the left side of the barrel
• Hogue Grips

 

[jbowserk]

4lb DA trigger pull? Holy crap. Does it set off primers reliably?

 

[camsdaddy]

WOW! Whats the polishing process that you used? Thats purty.

 

[MIL-DOT]

gglass, I absolutely drool everytime you post that friggin' photo !!!
I think the first time I saw it was in a reply to my thread about a super-tight mainspring on my SP101, then several times,since. It really does look nice.
NOW,STOP IT !!!

 

[kp]

GGlass - Who removed your roll marks for you and what holster is that?

Regards

 

[gglass]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

The process for shining and rollmark removal is as follows and was done by me:

I used successively finer wet/dry sandpaper (400, 600 & 2000 grit). I made sure that I followed the existing contours of the barrel exactly, and I would mask off adjacent areas of the barrel or frame so as not to change those areas while working on another.

It too approximately a week of sanding, in the evenings, while watching TV to dehorn the entire pistol and remove the nasty rollmarks from the left side of the barrel. I then spent one more evening polishing the entire pistol with Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish.

I hope that helps guys.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I like the shiny look, too. One day, I might get around to mirror polishing the entire gun. Of course, you can't do it with Mother's and a rag. You have to do it with a buffer. I recently did it to a MK II.