doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com How to get those remarkable metal finishes

I've spent hour and hours trying to get receivers, magazines and other parts finished prior to being blued. Is there a book out there somewhere that can teach me how to properly finish metal prior to bluing. You can't have a crappy prepared finished surface and expect it to look nice. I'm currently toying with a
gew88 receiver and hope to someday put on it a swedish 8mm barrel for shooting cast bullets. As you might expect these rifles run the gamut from good all the way down to scrap. Out of 6 bbld actions I have 1 receiver that had minor pitting a miracle in and of itself. So if there is a book out there that can help me, please steer me in the right direction. Thanks, Frank

I am doing this purely from (faulty) memory, but I think Doug Turnbull has a DVD or VHS video on metal prep work.

Don't know about any books specifically addressing metal polishing, however Trinidad (TSJC) offers summer gunsmithing seminars on this subject and others such as engraving and checkering. If you can't attend, it might be possible to obtain some instruction info from either the school or the individual instructor.

One of the TSJC summer seminar metalwork instructors is a poster on this forum, if he sees this post then I hope he'll chime in with better suggestions.
Regards, Joe

PS: Brownell's Gunsmith Kinks books are a great source of suggestions for different metal treatments and how to get them. Joe

A few years back a man named Jack Belk put up a nice tutorial about stoning actions on the AR Gunsmithing forum. I believe Jack's no longer in the business but his work is still online.

Here's link showing him working on a Mauser and a Win. M94.

Another about FN action.

Lot's of good stuff in his albums.

I also have the .docs he wrote to accompany this, I can email them if you like.


Rob

John E. Traister has 2 books, published by TAB Books Inc. One is titled "Professional Care & Finising of Gun Metal" & the other is "Professional Care & Finishing of Gunstocks", a lot of elementory information, but if you don't know it , it's good information. Don't know if they're still in print, I got mine in a used book store,( 1 of the perks of livin in the big city )but I'm sure Amazon or 1 of the used book sellers can hook you up. Good Luck, ...MIKE...

Sounds like you have had problems with the finishes you have been getting after much work. What are some of those problems?

There isn't any magic to it. Its a process of back and forth, really. first with files and then with polishing paper (wet/dry sandpaper). Use the sand paper wrapped around a hard tool like a file or hardwood stick. This is to avoid ripples and dishing out holes. Shape the tool to fit the surface if you need to. Use a lubricant with the paper. Always polish on to an edge and never off it. As you progress thru the different files and paper always polish at a slight angle to the last direction so you can tell when you have removed the lines from the previous polishing.

You can buy a book but it ain't going to tell you much more then I just did. Takes patients. Work smart not hard. One last thing, clean your file after each stroke and don't wear out the paper. Change it often, it is cheap. If you can get to a 400 paper and all the lines left by the paper are in the same direction it will blue good. You can go to a finer if you like and you can glass bead or vapor hone to get the right color. But those processes will not hide a poor polishing job.

Hope this helped and good luck.

Man, there is a LOT of magic to it. I have polished actions and done a good job - takes me maybe 2-3 full days to do just a highwall action and the lower tang, (ie, not the block, the lever, the hammer, or the butt plate). I'm pretty fussy about it but it's not even kinda simple. Sure, flat surfaces are easy. But a "thin" side highwall has concavities that are darn hard to polish in the longitudinal direction, and easily gouged out if polished orthogonal to that. And that's relatively easy compared to the compound curves that come up from the wrist with flats on either side, and small curves up around the receiver face (top and bottom) than have little surface to register your polishing implement with.

No, I think there is a ton of magic in there, and I would love to polish and action with a pro to point out what I was doing wrong.

My latest polished action is due back from the engraver (Ken Hurst) any second... I hope I hope I hope.
Brent

Take for instance the steyr 1894 receiver I'm currently doing. Lotta small pitting on the receiver ring, pitting at the woodline on both sides of the receiver. I'm trying to cleanupthe receiver ring with out messing up the oweg
steyr
1894

Problem now is instead of having only a few large pit I now have a bunch of little ones on the receiver ring. Right rear receiver had a bunch of bad pitting, managed to reduce this down to one small pit. Left receiver wall had a lot of fine pitting. All gone except from where the gew88 is stamped. I am of the opinion that these actions were case hardened. Its definitely not soft metal by any means. In some cases where there large pitting I have now got little pitting. I took the time and checked the FN action getting worked over. I did not use a stone that large. I used a 3/8 triangle stone with some silicon carbide paper wrapped around it. The stone basically acts like a support surface for the silicon carbide paper. There is some fine pitting around one of the bolt stops two holes. Wish I could send pics but am technically challenged. That about it so far.
Thanks all for your suggestions and help. Frank

LRF, you said in so many words what I have been struggeling to say. The better the metal prep is done the better the finished product will look. I'm not a gunsmith, just an ameture trying to do better each time. Thanks, Frank

There’s a reason that the polishers were generally the highest paid workers.

Polishing is not easy if done right.

Couple of hints…stay away from polishing wheels; the only thing that will ruin a gun quicker is a double charge of Bullseye.

Polish the round/curved surfaces first… flats last, that way you help keep the sharp edges/lines.


Try and keep your final polish marks going in the same direction.

V/R

Mike