Wireman
Member
Couple of questions for knowledgeable gun finishers. It is popular when bluing a 1911 to do the flats polished and the rounds matte (or bead blasted). Were early military (1920 era) finished like this, or were they uniformly polished? My interests are primarily in getting a nice looking finish, and not really concerned with how many hours of salt spray the finish will withstand.
How do the finishers generally produce a polished and matte contrast? J. Kuhnhausen's book shows a photo of a 1911 being prepped for bead blasting by covering the flats with modelling clay and cutting away unneeded sections with an x-acto knife. seems like using a knife blade like this is asking for trouble.
Would a finisher just bead blast the whole gun, then polish the flats last? I hate to leave this step to an unknown person because I have at least one blueing job where the finisher held the gun up to a soft buffing wheel and buffed off the sharp edges - that looks pretty bad and is an argument for doing the polishing myself by hand.
Finally, do any of the modern finishes produce this same polished/matte contrasting surface? Reading the Cerracote, NP3 and other web sites, it appears that the finish is uniformly matte and must be applied to a bead blasted surface. Comments would be appreciated. Thank you.
Wireman
How do the finishers generally produce a polished and matte contrast? J. Kuhnhausen's book shows a photo of a 1911 being prepped for bead blasting by covering the flats with modelling clay and cutting away unneeded sections with an x-acto knife. seems like using a knife blade like this is asking for trouble.
Would a finisher just bead blast the whole gun, then polish the flats last? I hate to leave this step to an unknown person because I have at least one blueing job where the finisher held the gun up to a soft buffing wheel and buffed off the sharp edges - that looks pretty bad and is an argument for doing the polishing myself by hand.
Finally, do any of the modern finishes produce this same polished/matte contrasting surface? Reading the Cerracote, NP3 and other web sites, it appears that the finish is uniformly matte and must be applied to a bead blasted surface. Comments would be appreciated. Thank you.
Wireman