Scratches in Stainless Steel

• Jun 17, 2009

• #1

Cypress94

Senior Member

Anybody had any experience trying to polish scratches out of stainless steel guns? Any advice? My thoughts are that it's not going to be easy, stainless steel is hard to manipulate and the scratches may not actually be in the metal, but may be some sort of coating that actually has been removed by the scratches? The gun is a S & W 645. They are not deep, just cosmetic. Thanks in advance

 

• Jun 17, 2009

• #2

rutandstrut

Senior Member

Is it a shiny finish or matte finish? If it is shiny you can try some metal polish like flitz. If it is matte you will probably have to have someome disassemble and grit blast the part that is scratched. I am not sure if they put a coating on after the metal is grit blasted.

 

Last edited: Jun 17, 2009

• Jun 17, 2009

• #3

boneboy96

Senior Member

send a PM to fastgun1962. He does a lot of polishing work and can probably answer your question.

 

• Jun 17, 2009

• #4

C

cobra97

Senior Member

No experience with stainless guns, but we use Barkeepers's Friend on other stainless stuff. If it doesn't work, you can always use it to clean the sink. Grocery store where the other cleansers like Comet are. Don't use anything other than Barkeep Friend and just try a small spot first.

 

• Jun 17, 2009

• #5

Cypress94

Senior Member

Thanks for all the help, I think I'm going to try some of the advice and a little old fashioned elbow grease!

 

• Aug 27, 2009

• #6

M

mikey357

Senior Member

I use the Maroon and White "Scotchbrite" pads from 3-M--Probably hafta' buy 'em at an Auto Parts Store--to closely match the "Brushed" finish on S&W Stainless handguns...HTH....mikey357

 

• Aug 27, 2009

• #7

Woodscrew

Senior Member

Anyone tried steel wood on stanless or is that just a NO NO? I was wondering if you did the whole side of the area the scratchs were in and rub back and forth in the same dirrection.

 

• Aug 27, 2009

• #8

Wild Turkey

Senior Member

brass wool works

 

• Aug 27, 2009

• #9

germag

Gone But Not Forgotten

If the ScotchBrite pads don't work, you might try some 3M Rubbing Compound....maybe the heavy cut.

 

• Aug 27, 2009

• #10

Hunley

Senior Member

Please keep in mind that any polishing you do to remove the scratches will more than likely remove some of the metal along with it.

If you can live with the scratches, I would recommend doing so. It's similar to removing the black rings on a revolver cylinder. Anything you do to completely take them off it going to take off a little metal with it.

Unless you are planning on selling it, I would leave it alone. Everyone who has stainless knows how it is in terms of scratching. I have a S&W 66-2 that was my father's and it is covered with tiny hairline scratches. So is my SA 1911 GI Model that is less than a year old. It has no effect on the function of the gun and poses no rust problems as long as you clean it and oil it once or twice a year (more often if shooting it, ofcourse)

 

• Aug 27, 2009

• #11

M

mikey357

Senior Member

As far as using STEEL WOOL on a STAINLESS gun...DON'T DO IT!!! The Steel Wool will "Imbed" in the Stainless, resulting in lil' reddish-brown "Blobs" when the Steel Wool eventually RUSTS...don't ask me how I KNOW...

As far as getting rid of the "Burn Rings" on the front of a Stainless cylinder goes, I use a two-step process...being fundamentally LAZY...err...wanting to "Work SMART, Not HARD", I SOAK 'em overnight in a glass jar full of Hoppe's #9...then attack the front of the cylinder with a Bronze or Brass "Toothbrush"...

That will work 95% of the time...if the "Burn Ring" is a lil' TOO STUBBORN for my preferred method, I will use some FLITZ on a coupla' patches to get the rest...BTW, I've been doing this on Stainless Revo's about 20 years, and have yet to cause any measurable "Wear" to one of 'em...YMMV, of course....mikey357

 

• Sep 1, 2009

• #12

Woodscrew

Senior Member

For you guys that said the maroon scotchbright pads work. I just wanna say Thank You. The first rub added a few hundred more scratches to the 5 0r 6 I was trying to get rid of.

 

• Sep 1, 2009

• #13

Willjo

Senior Member

In mold shops and tool and die shops they use a diamond polishing compound to polish molds with this you can polish it to a mirror finish and take the scratches out. It comes in several grits. It would be best to try on something else then the gun.

 

• Sep 3, 2009

• #14

Fat Daddy

Senior Member

000 or 0000 SYNTHETIC steel wool works great on a brushed stainless finish like the GP100. Just use very light pressure and go with the grain. Again, this is just for the brushed stainless guns.

If I'm not mistaken though the finish on the 645's are a matt stainless and anything other than professional attention is a waste of time.

 

• Sep 8, 2009

• #15

J

jcarroll

Member

(patchpusher) on here just polished my SS 1911 that had a few scratches and took everyone of them out...think he had to bead blast the frame and then polish..im sure he would give you some info!

 

• Sep 16, 2009

• #16

steelhorses

Senior Member

I just used barkeepers friend to remove some light surface rust on an old milsurp. Didn't remove any of the bluing but eliminated the rust completely. Next I tried it on a stainless barrel with a few tiny rust specs. Completely disappeared without any scratches. This stuff works great if you are careful with it.

 

• Sep 16, 2009

• #17

H

Henpecked

Senior Member

Someone will hvae a reason why this is wrong, but...

I have used brasso to remove scratches. Worked great. Like anything else, you have to be careful.

 

• Oct 6, 2009

• #18

nc/ga hunter

Senior Member

Willjo said:

In mold shops and tool and die shops they use a diamond polishing compound to polish molds with this you can polish it to a mirror finish and take the scratches out. It comes in several grits. It would be best to try on something else then the gun.

Click to expand...

You can use diamond polishing compound to remove scratches. However the process is tedious and should be done by someone with experience. The depth of the scratches will determine what grit size of stone you will start with. For example you start with a 400 grit stone you will want to rub in one direction and remove all scratches with depth (this may look worse then when you start). You then have to make sure that everything is real clean and start with a 600 grit rubbing 180 degrees from the 400 grit . Then you have to step up to a 800 grit and change directions again going the same way as you did with the 400 grit. Once you have finished with the 800 grit you can start with the diamond compound ( if I was doing this I would use the yellow). If you aren't clean and leave any residue between each grit you will have to start over. I cannot emphasis the importance of being clean. Again, I would highly suggest you have someone with experience do this, this will remove metal and can create low spots if not done by someone with experience.