How to De-horn?

[The Mighty Beagle]

My police trade-in but new-to-me S&W 4516 has some downright sharp edges on it underneath the trigger guard. I was wondering, since I'm kinda cheap, can I de-horn these myself and still leave the gun looking halfway decent? The gun already has some hoster wear on it but is in Very Good to Excellent condition nevertheless.

I don't really have much smithing experience, but was wondering if I could just take a stone from my Lansky knife sharpening kit and take the edges off ...

If not, what would I need to buy? The edges are not the sharpest I've seen on stainless guns, but are very irritating even with limited firing and handling. I'm not going to send it to a gunsmith, since I'm kinda tapped out after buying the gun.

Thanks!

 

[Old Fuff]

I don’t see any reason you couldn’t do the work yourself. You need several short pieces of wood dowel with different diameters, a flat stick (like the kind the hardware stores give away to stir paint) and an assortment pack of different grades of emery paper (found in paint stores and automobile shops that sell refinishing supplies).

Clamp the frame (or what ever part you’re working on) in a padded vise, wrap some emery paper around either a dowel or flat stick depending on what kind of edge you are working on, and simply “sandpaper†a small bevel where you need to remove the sharp edge.

Start with #220 grit and work your way toward finer grits (higher the number the finer the grit) until you’re satisfied. Take off enough material to get the job done, but no more then you need to.

 

[mete]

Abrasive paper will do the job but I like to start with a set of small files then finish with fine paper.

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

Thanks Old Fuff, sounds pretty straightforward.

I hope it won't look all shiny like some of the holster wear does, but then again that'd be a lot better than the darn thing doesn't cut into me anymore.

 

[Old Fuff]

See if any machine shops in you're area have a bead-blaster. If this is a matt-finished stainess gun you can easly restore the original look after you get done working on it. Just be sure to COMPLETELY disassemble it first, and if you do the barrel, plug the chamber and bore.

You can "blast" a piece of scrap to be sure the finish is what you want before doing the gun.

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

Actually, I hate the matte look, and was more interested in how to give the gun a uniformly shiny appearance. The matte look shows every sign of holster wear, with those areas looking polished and shiny. Why not just polish the whole gun? I have a dremel-type tool from Sears with a polishing wheel, but don't want to leave streaks on my gun's finish, which I have on other stuff I've practiced on.

Is there a better way to polish it?

 

[Old Fuff]

Two ways, (at least).

1. You can hand-polish the whole gun using dowels and flat sticks with emery paper like I suggested before. But this is a major labor-intensive operation. The advantage is that you are unlikely to get in trouble with over-polishing.

2. You can polish the gun using a series of buffing wheels. This will probably involve buying equipment and require more skill then you have. I wouldn’t recommend trying to polish an entire gun with a Dremmel tool though.

For more information on these gunsmithing procedures and the necessary tools go to: www.brownells.com and order a copy of their catalog.

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

thanks, I think I'll take the sandpaper route to be cautious.

 

[Johnny Guest]

All of above - - -

- - - Are good suggestions.

Let me add a couple.

Especially, please do NOT try polishing wide areas with Dremel or equivalent. If you can get access to such equipment, power polishing is the BEST way to go. Cloth wheels and a couple of grades of buffing compound. All this is expensive for a one-off job. But, even if you have a pal with such gear, try to get some good instruction and PRACTICE, for hours and hours, using scrap metal or junk gun parts. Even experienced polishers frequently "wash out" roll marks, lettering, and stamping, and "dish out" pin holes and screw holes.

Try this: Get a dead-flat surface. A sheet of glass is good. Tape your sheet of fine abrasive paper to it and move the stripped slide and frame around on the flat surface. If surfaces are not scratched up, begin with very fine grit and progress to the finest available. Your local hardware store may not have anything finer than about 660. Try a hobby shop or shop specializing in automobile finishing supplies.

Once you have the surface as polished as you can get it with above methods, use cloth - -- First muslin with some body to the weave - - and Simichrome or Flitz polish. Then progress to an old, all-cotton T-shirt and the polish. Rinse frequently, polish with a dry, soft cloth, and inspect under good light. Once you reach a satisfactory result, STOP! See above remarks about over-polishing.

This is a time consuming procedure but, with patience, can yield some very nice results. Don't get into it unless you're willing to spend hours and hours on the project. If you are unable to do so, take your pistol to a good refinishing shop, or a 'smith with a good reputation for refinishing. Do NOT just leave the job with a shop assistant. Actually talk with the person doing the work, and explain EXACTLY the result you desire. If the job is improperly done, it is difficult-to-impossible to go back to the way it was.

Very best of luck to you - -
Johnny

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

Thanks Johnny, you gave me some great ideas.

Today I started on the 4516-1 with some sandpaper as mentioned above, and boy that was surprisingly effective. I figured it would take a file to change the contour of the sharp edeged areas, but that worked fine. I found I had to be careful, but didn't get into any trouble and learned alot about melting edges and different strokes one can implement. It improved my pistol's handling, though not as much as desired. I'm starting to realize that Smith & Wesson just didn't design the grip area under the trigger guard right, purposefully leaving unneccessary edges. It was like they thought you wouldn't notice. None serve a purpose that I can see other than making your hand hurt during recoil.

I am about ready to use some medium and then some fine grits on it, as the countours are good but look kinda rough and scratch-like where I worked.

What a fascinating project, thanks to all who chimed in!l

 

[Art Eatman]

I don't remember whether it's Ace or TrueValue, but one of them has emery paper to 1000 grit.

Art

 

[Johnny Guest]

And speaking of de-horned - - -

ART - - -

Did you do that slick ol. Commander yourownself, or have someone do it for you?

JPG

 

[Art Eatman]

Naw, a buddy of mine. We rented a double-stall workshop with a small office. That made the rent affordable. He worked on guns, I worked on cars. I learned a good bit about gunsmithing during that couple of years.

, Art

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

Well today I finally cleaned all the grit out of my gun (from where I've worked on it.) Once I got started with the sandpaper and dowels, I just couldn't stop, because my particular 4516 had more BUILT-IN edges on it than any gun I've ever owned. When I say "built-in" I mean it seemed as if they went out of their way to create a boxy, sharp-edged grip frame devoid of any rounding between sides.

So rounding is what I did.

I ended up working on the following areas:
1. underneath the trigger on the grip frame
2. the sides of the trigger guard where it breaks hard just in front of the mag. release
3. the front edges of the trigger
4. the tang
5. the side of the left grip where it was abrading my thumb

It seemed like it took forever to get the edges broken and re-contoured just enough not to be offensive during handling, but I did it. To finish, I applied Blue Magic polish. It looks ok, but now feels GREAT.

Upon firing today, NO MORE ABRASIONS ON MY HANDS!

I owe it all to The High Road ... thanks. A good pistol is now GREAT.

 

[Old Fuff]

Well the manufacturer could have done what you did, and in years back they did. But now-a-days they don't want to spend the money on skilled hand labor so that leaves it up to the owner. While you may, or may not end up paying for a refinish job you saved a lot by doing your own polishing and "melting" of sharp edges. So from now on any sharp edges left on a gun you buy will become history in short order. beats buying band-aids.

 

[The Mighty Beagle]

Exactly my thoughts, everything I did ought to have been by the factory, and would have taken 5 extra minutes for them.

I won't be paying to have it refinished - I had to keep my work from looking TOO GOOD compared to the old scratched-up bead-blasted finish. One day I'll just use some Blue Magic polish on the rest of the gun to shine it up for good, but for now I like it as a beater carry gun.

 

[Gun Plumber]

Matte finished SS weapons

I just GOTTA speak up here. Yes, if you want a nice shiny firearm, using all sorts of abrasives will shine it up. On the other hand, if you happen to LIKE matte finishes (some do, some don't), then I will spill the beans about an 'old gunsmithing trick'.

It's called scotchbrite pads made by 3M. They come in SEVERAL grades and are color coded. One warning though. If you start on a piece, bringing back the matte finish, you WILL NEED to do the WHOLE PIECE.

And yes, I'm a gunsmith with a degree in smithing.