How to polish Stainless Steel to a mirror like finish?

[DavidTM]

Actually......a number of years ago I bought a Walther PPK-S for a good price. It had one heck of a scratch in the barrel (those PPK barrels are fixed to the frame) from what looked like a stuck round and it appeared the guy tried to "un-stick" the round with a mallet and a gouging tool!!!

Actually, the gouge was probably .004 or .005 deep and ran about half of the barrel.

So.....starting with some 220 grit and working to 600 and then with Flitz, I got that barrel to the point that there was no more gouge. I later sold it for about $50 more than I paid for it. It was a fine shooting gun....and much nicer looking when it left me.

Dave

[thomae]

I have a 8" variable speed grinder that I only use for buffing. I purchased (I believe it was at my local Lowe's) their 6 different grades of buffing compounds. They are numbered 1-6 and the coarsest is for strong rust removal and the finest is for final polishing of softer metals like gold or silver (I also use it to remove scratches from CDs and DVDs.)

I purchased (at Harbor Freight, because I was there and they were very inexpensive) 6 buffing wheels. 3 of them are spiral sewn and reasonably hard (for the three coarser buffing compounds) and the other three are softer for the more fine coumpounds.

I labeled the side of each buffing wheel, using a "sharpie" marker, with the number corresponding to the buffing compound to be used on that wheel. This way, if I want to use a fine polish on some jewelry, I won't gouge it with some "left over" coarse compound from a previous buffing job.

Using progressively finer polish, I can obtain a mirror finish on almost anything. The trick is knowing which compound to start with so you don't spend unnecessary time buffing out the marks left by the courser compounds (comes with experience, & trial and error), and also being careful so that you don't change the contour of too many corners that you don't want to round over .

I have not done a whole gun, but I have polished a lot of small parts. I have a nickel plated High Power that had a rather sharp-edged stainless slide takedown lever/pin. I took a dremel to it, contoured it so it would not catch on the edge and then polished it to a mirror finish using this method.

Mostly it takes time and patience. Also, since the buffing compound is held in a wax-like substance (so it sticks and does not simply fly off the wheel), it does work better when the metal is hot, so the wax can melt, flow, and the actual grit gets spread around.

This is how I do it. There are other ways, and they may or may not be better. There is always a trade off between speed, time, dangerous chemicals, money for supplies, and what the wife will put up with.

This is my free advice to you, and it's worth exactly what you paid for it!
Have fun!
All the best,
Scott[

[orionz06]

I also believe that it is best to go only one direction with the paper in addition to what Lycan has suggested. Takes longer but comes out way nicer.

The "rule of thumb" is to rotate 90 degrees when you change grits. Since you are only removing the previous sanding marks this is the easiest way to do so. Once you get into a polishing compound it doesn't matter too much.

Using progressively finer polish, I can obtain a mirror finish on almost anything. The trick is knowing which compound to start with so you don't spend unnecessary time buffing out the marks left by the courser compounds (comes with experience, & trial and error), and also being careful so that you don't change the contour of too many corners that you don't want to round over .

Correct, I have polished tons of things without ever touching sandpaper. Using the right compound is key, but honestly I have just been using brown and white rouge as of late.