Polishing a SS revolver into a mirror finish???

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Brianma65

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I've decided I want to change the finish on my 686. It's now a matte finish and I want a mirror finish. I've watched you- tube vids and I can get a mirror finish with some mother wax and some buffing. But what I really want is the bright shiny look of the Colt pythons :). Is there a DIY way to get the bright shiny look?
 
You won't get it with any kind of wax. Mothers mag and aluminum polish maybe but that'll still take a long time.

In order to get results in any reasonable amount of time you need to sand it first. Depending on how rough the original satin finish is will decide how coarse of sandpaper you need to start with.

Wherever you start (800 grit?) you'll need to finish with atleast 2000 grit before you apply polish. I've done this to wheels on cars a lot but it's a different material. Good luck.
 
I don't actually know, but I would imagine a buffing wheel and some rouge would work. You're not talking about the shiny chrome ones are you? That's a totally different finish. It's much harder than stainless and won't scratch as easy. A buffed stainless finish will scratch if you look at it the wrong way.

I personally wouldn't use sandpaper.
 
Well that's the fastest way if you want results. But of course I said it depends on what the original finish was, if it was a bead blasted satin finish you'll be there quite some time.

Of course it doesn't hurt anything to start from the highest grit (the polish) if you insist on doing it that way.

All you do with the mothers mag polish is slather some on with your hands (gloves) and rub it until it becomes very black. Keep rubbing continuously for a while and then buff it off with a soft towel.
 
Here are some old pics of a set of wheels I sanded up.


This is after 2000 grit sand paper.


And this is after rubbing and buffing the mothers polish.
 
The you-tube vid I watched shows mothers polish and cotton cloths only. No sandpaper . The you-tube guy said you get about 95% finish of the bright shiny finish. Anyway I'm off to crappy for some mothers polish.
 
Be careful, you may well end up dubbing all of the crisp features and have a mushy looking gun on your hands.
 
Well I'm into it now. It's getting shiny but not as shiny as I thought. I'm using the mothers polish and cotton cloths only. And if I were to remove any markings or features , I think I would have to polish for a few weeks, non stop :). I'll see how this turns out and if I no like , I'll look into nickle plating , maybe?
 
I think if it is a bead blasted finish and you were to start with 320 or 400 grit water paper or emery cloth and then gradually work up to 600,800,1000 and so on you would get the results you want. Do a final polish with mothers, autosol or even brasso would yield a nice finish. You would want to be careful to stay off any sharp edges as it would round them off. You could use a block of sorts for the flats . I use a small piece of aluminum flat bar that's 1"×1/4" and about 6" long. To do radiused places like inside trigger guards roll your cloth around a dowel or something round of an appropriate size.
 
Looks good so far—I did mine a few years ago using Mother's Mag and Aluminum over the winter. It was a bit of effort, but surprisingly easy.

686lb.jpg
 
Definitly with a buffing Wheel and buffing paste, that's what I've did, 5-6 hours job :

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