2 stainless steel .357's... can't get them polished enough. Need help

Ya know, I happen to have a Security Six and a GP100
If you send then my way I think I could take care of that
Problem for you.

I think I have a holster for that Service-Six too !!

My Dad has a Speed-Six, so I think we have all the bases
Covered. I wish I had your problem, LOL
ENJOY your porn. Rugers are a beautiful thing.

SEMPER FI

BTW welcome to the THR

donut132

I used Mothers Mag Polish paste on one of my stainless guns (S&W Model 649), and it looks polished enough for me to think it looks very much as if it was nickel plated. I would say just keep at it for a more shinier appearance.

They look great. If you're looking for mirror like shine, get a nickle plated gun that's never been handled. The shine done by polishing depends on the metal finishing done before. I've seen Rugers shine nicely, but never mirror like unless some serious sanding and polishing have been done with abrasives.

I'd recommend leave as is and enjoy.

The reason that they don't shine more is that all you are doing is polishing the original brushed finish. To make them have a mirror finish, you need to sand the brush marks out before you polish. I have used progressively finer grades of sandpaper to accomplish this with good success.

Start with 600 grit and work your way down to 2000 grit. Buy the time you get done with the finest grades of sandpaper, you will need to do only minimal hand polishing. You could get a cloth buffer wheel and put it on a bench grinder and go after it that way, but if you aren't skilled in polishing metal it is real easy to round off the edges.

I would try jeweler's rouge with a buffing wheel on a dremel.It does look like some deep scratches from what I can see.I think they need to be smoothed before trying to polish.

Every consider just collecting jewelery?

I've spent about 20 hours on each of my guns I've polished. Both are shinny, but if you want a true mirror finish, I think you are looking at many many more hours of hand polishing, or using a buffer. Just a tip, take your time. I usually do about a 2 hour session per gun when I do polish. I put in a movie, grab a beer, the cats get comfortable, and away I go.

The reason that they don't shine more is that all you are doing is polishing the original brushed finish. To make them have a mirror finish, you need to sand the brush marks out before you polish. I have used progressively finer grades of sandpaper to accomplish this with good success.

Start with 600 grit and work your way down to 2000 grit. Buy the time you get done with the finest grades of sandpaper, you will need to do only minimal hand polishing. You could get a cloth buffer wheel and put it on a bench grinder and go after it that way, but if you aren't skilled in polishing metal it is real easy to round off the edges.

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Exactly! And you really need to know what you're doing because just rubbing and sanding with your fingers will basically turn it into a shiny blob. Care has to be taken to keep the flats flat and every edge straight and crisp.

STOP! You've done the best you can do with the finish. The next step is abrasive polishing to remove the machine and brush marks from the metal. This will also blur the markings and stamps on the gun.
It ain't no Glock, leave the dremel in the drawer.
They look great by the way. Shoot em and enjoy.

Whatever you do, don't use a dremel.
you will have tiny swirl marks that will cause you even more hours of polishing.
Don't ask how I know.

Def. dont use dremel

How about switching from Mothers to something like Flitz. I haven't used it to polish a gun to a mirror finish, but from my experience Flitz is just better at blasting through crud in tarnishes, and seems to be "stronger" for lack of a more appropriate adjective.

Oh, and I'm envious of your Service Six. That's an exceptional purpose-built wheel gun right there!

As others have stated the issue you have is that the brushed finish you are trying to eliminate is significantly deeper than the abrasive you are using is able to handle, with a reasonable amount of work.

Follow the advice above. Start with 600 or 800 grit and work the metal until all of the marks are going the same direction you are sanding.

Now move to 1000 grit and do the same thing
Now 2000 grit
Mothers after that.

Use a flat edge with the sandpaper wrapped around it to work the flats and especially around the corners. This will take some serious detail work to prevent rounding off the corners and giving the gun a melt look.

Being that you have already started, I would recomend that you use the technique outlined above on the top of the barrel first. It is a big flat surface and should give you the ability to refine your technique of how hard to press vs. what grit to use in order to get the finish you desire. Once you have that part shining like a mirror you can then move on to treating the rest of the gun.

Stay away from the Dremel.

Dremel + Guns = BAD (in nearly all circumstances)

The Dremel tool, because of it's speed and ability to remove metal very quickly will lead to a "wavey" appearance on the flats and will round off corners in a heartbeat.

After you get it all Marine Corps shined, are you going to carry it in a holster, and then go shoot it? Waste all of that time shining and then go blast some rounds through it....... or are you just gonna put a couple of nails in the wall and hang them? Looks as if you've gotten a good shine now, go shoot them, enjoy them for what they are, Picasso's are for hanging on the wall.

If you want it all shiny, they make different grits/grades of polishing/rubbing compound.. then follow it up with the Mother's etc.

What the others said about using sandpaper to remove the brush finish scratches is spot on. To get to the mirror like finish you have to remove enough metal and do it with care so as to keep the surfaces clean and crisp. Nothing worse than flat areas that are wavy and round "cylinder" barrels and cylinders that are wavy. It just makes the gun look like a half used bar of soap.

A couple of tricks you can use with the sandpaper. For the flat areas wrap samll pieces around a small hunk of flat aluminium stock or a good hardwood ply. For the round areas fold the paper around two layers of pop can side metal. The pop can metal will only curve one way at a time which will force the paper to cut flat lines along the cylinder shape at the same time it's cutting curved in the desired direction.

Do not skip grits as you sand the metal. Given that you've done quite a bit so far I'd say you could start with 600. But from there go to 1000, then 1500 and finally 2000 before you go back to the Mother's. And all the sanding should be done "wet" using water with a small drop of dish detergent in it.

Yup. Fine sandpaper is the way to polish metal. The polishing compound will eventaully get you there but it will take a VERY LONG time and your arms will get VERY TIRED. Trying to get steel that rough to a high polish with only polishing compound is like bailing out an Olyimpic sized pool with a thimble. I use nothing but wet or dry sandpaper up to about 1500 grit and call it good. But only on a customer's gun. I wouldn't polish any of my guns to that level because you'll forever be polishing out every little scratch that shows up and trying to blend it in. A holster will "de polish" down to a lower level. All of my working guns are either bead blasted or finished to about 400 grit. Besides being hard to maintain, you'll blind everyone on the range and pilots in overflying aircraft.

donut132 said:

.I might try and take the grips off,..

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I was going to bring that up. It's obvious you didn't take the grips off. Don't try.. take the grips off. The whole handgun can be disassembled.