Polishing and cleaning tips, tricks, and procedures

[dao]

Calling BirdsThaWord. Come in Mork, er I mean Bird.

Got a question for you. As I've continued to work on my Tisas' slide I've noticed that after each session it is left with some darker areas on it. They look a bit like tarnish but I don't see how they could be. It could be that my sanding block isn't quite reaching the center of the slide (from top to bottom) because the top and bottom edges are a bit raised and the slide is actually concave? If so it can't be much because from most angles the slide looks uniform in its degree of polishness (is that a word?), and brightness, but at certain angles in certain light these slightly darker areas persist.

Thought we might be able to use a thread like this for ongoing questions, tips, and tricks on cleaning/polishing/refinishing firearms?

One trick I saw on youtube was for matte stainless. To get scuffs out one can take a piece of sandpaper (80gr), place it over the scuff and tap it with a hammer gently. The grit on the paper essentially roughs the finish, and "reapplies" the matte texture/finish covering the scuff. I tried this on a Colt where a previous owner had created an idiot scratch but the frame was not exactly matte finished and so it had no effect. I did see it work on a stainless slide on the tube though.

[GROTMAN]

DAO, IT"S A WORD BUT JUST NOT LIKE YOU THINK.
Noun[edit]

Polishness (uncountable)

1. The quality or state of being Polish.

[tokuno]

My brother married a gal with a degree of Polishness. Her family name a generation back is Przybylowicz.
I wonder how the Starbucks baristas handle that one.

[yqtszhj]

One trick I saw on youtube was for matte stainless. To get scuffs out one can take a piece of sandpaper (80gr), place it over the scuff and tap it with a hammer gently. The grit on the paper essentially roughs the finish, and "reapplies" the matte texture/finish covering the scuff. I tried this on a Colt where a previous owner had created an idiot scratch but the frame was not exactly matte finished and so it had no effect. I did see it work on a stainless slide on the tube though.

At one time I thought I wanted polished sides on my CM9. After polishing it I couldn’t stand the finger prints.

I went back to a brushed stainless look, but didn’t like that so I bought a 10 dollar bead blaster and a bottle of blast media at Harbor Freight to hook to my air compressor. After disassembling the slide and blasting it (and getting glass bead media all over everything) it is about to the original factory finish.

I do remember Greg making a post in years gone by about the sandpaper trick you mentioned on the polymer frame and it looked good.

[340pd]

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[DJK11]

Yep those shiny *** slides look great at night when the pistol is presented. Any light at all reflecting off the shiny slide blinds the bad guy. Very effective. Another advantage is no flash light needed.

[dao]

DAO, IT"S A WORD BUT JUST NOT LIKE YOU THINK.
Noun[edit]

Polishness (uncountable)

1. The quality or state of being Polish.

LOL, thank you Sir. My goal is usually to learn something new every day. Duly noted

The Tisas has become my learnin' gun. I've used it to figure out how to fit parts, polish (as in shiny, not sausage) stainless, and generally admire different combinations of grips. I've yet to carry it and it's only seen range use. In other words it's never more than a few inches away from a cloth to wipe it down with

[jeepster09]

I have found for me, using auto wax on a polished gun helped keep down the finger prints.

[Bawanna]

I have found for me, using auto wax on a polished gun helped keep down the finger prints.

I do the auto wax thing also. Use it on knives and swords etc mostly. Had the same can of wax for probably 30 plus years or more.

[dao]

That's a nice tip and trick, thanks!