Refinishing Recommendations for Satin Stainless

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cwpowell

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Hi folks, I'm looking for recommendations for someone who is skilled in the art of refinishing stainless.
My rifle has a few marks and blemishes that o would like to get rid of.

It's a bolt action rifle, with a satin stainless finish.

Thanks!
 
A satin stainless finish can be had by 'sandblasting' with a fine glass bead. Very hard to match a factory finish so you can't just do one spot... usually have to blast everything.
 
I've done a ton of these. I just strip the rifle down, block off the chamber from the action side, tape off the muzzle and bead or glass blast the barreled action. You can also do the bolt if you take it apart and tape off
the sensitive areas.

Once I'm done, I rub everything down with 0000 steel wool and RemOil or CLP.
 
Mad_Mikee said:
I've done a ton of these. I just strip the rifle down, block off the chamber from the action side, tape off the muzzle and bead or glass blast the barreled action. You can also do the bolt if you take it apart and tape off
the sensitive areas.

Once I'm done, I rub everything down with 0000 steel wool and RemOil or CLP.
Click to expand...

I would advise against rubbing steel wool on freshly blasted stainless as you're risking the introduction of iron into the surface. What makes stainless "stainless", is the protective passivated chromium oxide layer which is free of iron. You're essentially doing what I would do after a rust blue, and then relying on the Rem-oil or CLP to protect from flash rusting.

After any SS is blasted/machined, whatever... the proper thing to do is re-passivate it with an acid. A nitric acid soak would be best, but a product called barkeepers friend (oxalic acid) works well too. I've used it quite often refinishing stainless stuff and it does a good job of restoring the protective chromium oxide layer. When it's finished it will be very corrosion resistant and free of any surface iron, although with 400 series stainless a little oil isn't a bad thing as even with passivation, it can corrode more easily than 300 series stainless.
 
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