Polishing SS

[Mr. Blue]

I have two SS 1911’s with minor scratches, so I bought some green Scotch Brite pads to see what results I could get. I haven’t attempted anything on my guns, but rather started experimenting on a stainless steel magazine. Attempts:

*Mothers Polish approx 100 times. Wax on, wax off — no noticeable results.

*Scotch Brite Pad — immediately put surface scratches on the magazine. I was attempting to remove a pre existing scratch. I figured, now I polish this out? Another 20 times, wax on/off. — No noticeable difference.

Any thoughts on this? Different scotch Brite pads? Sand paper? More/less polishing paste (I’m applying a very thin layer, rubbing it in 4 or 5 swipes, then rubbing off completely (repeat).

Different polishing compound? More elbow grease, could I being doing this correctly but it takes 30 hours?

[Mayor McRifle]

Maroon (very fine) and Gray (ultra fine).

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[mofugly13]

Polishing SS

Green scotchbrite scratches stainless, as you found out. Blue scotchbrite does not. I found this out by scrubbing my shiny pots and pan lids with green...


Probably your best be would be a polishing wheel on a bench grinder with the proper grades of compound

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[freonr22]

Semichrome....

[Mr. Blue]

Ty all

[Mr. Blue]

Probably your best be would be a polishing wheel on a bench grinder with the proper grades of compound

[mofugly13]

I'm not an expert in any sort of way, but a wheel on a bench grinder is 'loaded' with polish, and you run that over your piece, then you switch to a different wheel with a finer grade, run your piece on it, switch to finer....and so on. I dont really know what grit you would start with or how many grades you would go through until you got the desired polish. But, the wheel will turn black, and you just keep using it. No need to switch to a 'fresh' patch of cloth. Its the polishing compound doing the work, the cloth is just the vehicle for it. I'm sure you could polish that out with a polishing setup on a dremel.....(ouch, sorry to bring that into the discussion) but what you would end up with is a highly polished patch on your mag. And trying to polish the whole mag with a Dremel might be tricky in making it look even and not wavy all over.

I guarantee there's someone on here who knows more about polishing than I do.

Polishing that scratch out, is also going to affect the sharpness of the "8" stamped in the mag body.

If it was me, I'd leave it. I call that kind of scratch "character".

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[67Cuda]

Show the scratch on the 1911.
I'd try a gray wheel and feather it, then blend to match the other areas.

[AtomicOrange]

I have taken scratches out and polished a stainless revolver with 1500 and then 2000 sandpaper using light pressure from a pencil eraser and then my fingers. Go only with the "grain" in the steel. I sometimes use a bit a Flitz polish on the sandpaper.

[Mr. Blue]

I'm not an expert in any sort of way, but a wheel on a bench grinder is 'loaded' with polish, and you run that over your piece, then you switch to a different wheel with a finer grade, run your piece on it, switch to finer....and so on. I dont really know what grit you would start with or how many grades you would go through until you got the desired polish. But, the wheel will turn black, and you just keep using it. No need to switch to a 'fresh' patch of cloth. Its the polishing compound doing the work, the cloth is just the vehicle for it. I'm sure you could polish that out with a polishing setup on a dremel.....(ouch, sorry to bring that into the discussion) but what you would end up with is a highly polished patch on your mag. And trying to polish the whole mag with a Dremel might be tricky in making it look even and not wavy all over.

I guarantee there's someone on here who knows more about polishing than I do.

Polishing that scratch out, is also going to affect the sharpness of the "8" stamped in the mag body.

If it was me, I'd leave it. I call that kind of scratch "character".

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[Mr. Blue]

Show the scratch on the 1911.
I'd try a gray wheel and feather it, then blend to match the other areas.

[GeeBee49]

Removing scratches and just polishing metal are two different things. You cannot remove a scratch unless you take the surrounding surface down to the depth of the scratch even if the depth is minuscule.

[divingin]

The black is not SS being removed; it's a fairly common telltale of surface atoms coming off (nickel, perhaps?) Many fine abrasives show this (run Iosso or JB's Borepaste down a SS barrel one pass and you'll see it. Moreso scrubbing with it.) I'd hazard a guess that you don't need to change your cloth for much longer than you're using it for currently.

I'd also guess that it's going to take a loooong time to remove that scratch by hand.

[five.five-six]

Red and green will scratch glass.

Use 2,000 grit WD sandpaper then mothers + some sort of dermal type thing. Slow with the buffing wheel.

[Mr. Blue]

Removing scratches and just polishing metal are two different things. You cannot remove a scratch unless you take the surrounding surface down to the depth of the scratch even if the depth is minuscule.