bikemutt
Member
In an earlier post I chronicled my path to a stainless S&W 940 9mm revolver which the prior owner had seen fit to polish to a high shine. And a good job was done of it IMO, I've seen Flitz jobs that look tacky because only the easy surfaces to polish were attended to leaving a mottly overall appearance.
Some time back I picked up a model 67 cheap that was in excellent mechanical condition but the finish had numerous deep scratches and many more lighter ones. I had my gunsmith sand or bead blast that gun to an even dull matte finish and to a depth that caused even the deepest scratches to become invisible to my naked eye. The improvement to it's appearance I felt was considerable but it came with a price: anything with a grease or oil base stuck to that finish like glue, as did carbon deposits, the gun always looked "dirty". I suspect the pores created by the blasting created a perfect greasy dirt collecting surface. Additionally, even the slightest new scratch seemed disproportionately amplified, as if the finish was somehow made softer. So I'm not doing that again.
I spent some time examining an unmolested stainless S&W, a 625-3, which has the standard matte stainless finish. Now that finish is so smooth it almost feel as if it had been clear-coated. Nothing sticks to it like it did with the bead blast finish.
My question is can the 940's mirror polished finish be restored to something close, or exactly like it wore when it left the factory?
Below are a couple pictures of the subject.
Some time back I picked up a model 67 cheap that was in excellent mechanical condition but the finish had numerous deep scratches and many more lighter ones. I had my gunsmith sand or bead blast that gun to an even dull matte finish and to a depth that caused even the deepest scratches to become invisible to my naked eye. The improvement to it's appearance I felt was considerable but it came with a price: anything with a grease or oil base stuck to that finish like glue, as did carbon deposits, the gun always looked "dirty". I suspect the pores created by the blasting created a perfect greasy dirt collecting surface. Additionally, even the slightest new scratch seemed disproportionately amplified, as if the finish was somehow made softer. So I'm not doing that again.
I spent some time examining an unmolested stainless S&W, a 625-3, which has the standard matte stainless finish. Now that finish is so smooth it almost feel as if it had been clear-coated. Nothing sticks to it like it did with the bead blast finish.
My question is can the 940's mirror polished finish be restored to something close, or exactly like it wore when it left the factory?
Below are a couple pictures of the subject.