Brushed finish on Stainless
 

Hello I have a CZ75 in polished stainless and im going to redo it to a brushed finish. I've researched far and wide and found that scotch brite pads are the best way to do this by hand.
I would like to know how a gunsmith or the factory applies a brushed or satin finish to firearms. I've seen scotch brite flap wheels or maybe they use buffing wheels and an aggressive buffing compound. I want it to look good and I have buffing wheels does anyone know any good products to use any help would be appreciated thanks.

welcome to ftf. I recommend trying it on some scrap polished stainless first.

Well I figured I could just call a gun company and find out so I called ruger because I love the brushed look on their pistols. They told me they use a buffing wheel with a rouge paste on it, which is what I was thinking. Now all I need to know is which product to use with my buffing wheel. Any suggestions? I have every color of rouge but not sure which colors are finest to coarsest never used the stuff.

IIRC the "polished" finish was hard to find on the CZ75b; if it still is, i'm not sure i would do this mod on one.

Maybe you could get one of those inexpensive Heritage Rough Rider revolvers to guinea pig on.

If I was going to attempt something like that I would start out with a matte finished Stainless CZ-75B, not a polished Stainless one. It takes a lot of work to polish Stainless Steel to that high lustre of a finish. Why devalue it? It would be better to used a matte Stainless Model. They are cheaper, and you'll get the desired look easier. It just seems almost sacrilegious to do that to a polished Stainless Steel gun. And use Red Scotchbrite Pads.

The polished and matte models are the same price, they are still in prodection but both are sold out except a few here and there. I love this gun and would never sell it, I liked the polished more than matte but would be even happier with brushed finish. If I don't do that great a job I could send it off and have someone else brush over what I did.
I found a product called satin-glo a greasless buffing compound which is made for brushed finishes now all I need to figure is what grit size to buy off midway.

I would be interested in seeing "before" and "after" pics.

Not trying to talk you out of anything,but please consider.......

Polishing/finishing firearms has to rate as one of the highest skillset jobs still around.If you think about manufacturing,and how most things are done by robotics....Anywhere that finishing is still being done by hand,it takes a steep learning curve to develop the "touch".

We're a pretty hooked up fabrication shop....do ALOT of "finishing",on metal,composites,and wood.Yet,I still have certain reservations when it comes to fiearm finish work.Its not something to play around with.

I'd compare it with compounding or buffing out paint on a car.There are strict guidlines/protocol WRT the techniques involved.This is pro-work....$$ variable sp buffers,high$$ compounds....not w/end warrior.IOWs put a buffer in the hands of a rookie and see what happens.

Do a ton of research.....and do LOTS of practice pcs.Good luck

I remember seeing an interview with the late Bill Ruger some years back. He was talking about the firearms business in general. He said at the time Ruger was offering polished Stainless Steel finishes for the first time. He went on to explain how all of this polishing work had to be done strictly by hand, because there was no process in existence to automate it. Try taking all of the tool marks out of a piece of steel sometime with a buffing wheel. It is no easy task. I've been in the machining and manufacturing trades all of my life, and I can't see how they are able to do it for the price they charge.

I found a scotch brite wheel and put it on my grinder probably way too fast but practiced on some polished stainless pneumatic tools, very hard to keep lines parallel and consistant looking. I figure having a buffing wheel and compound would be similiar.
However much easier with a small section of pad by hand. More work but results are consistant and look great. I started on the pistol and so far looks great. The tricky part is where different angles come together like the trigger area. I'm using the green scotch brite, I bought some maroon napa no name brand but can't hardly tell any difference between the green maybe the no name isn't trying to match the scotch brite grit size, the real scotch brite green bites a lot better, going to have to try to find some real scotch brite maroon to see if I like that better. Only place that had real scotch brite was walmart-green, and lowes had green and dark gray. The auto part stores so far-zilch, yet to check advanced auto and o' reilys. Will post pictures when I'm done.