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-----Restoring Stainless Steel Rifle
Q. I have a pre-60's Winchester Model 77 that has a stainless steel chamber and barrel, that I am currently trying to restore. It had a large amount of fine rust/oxidation built up, and I used a soft impregnated buffing wheel to remove the oxidation, but now I have buff marks. Is there anything I can do to polish this item so that I get a natural sheen back to the finish?
Jerry Abbott- Brush Prairie, Washington
2003
A. Get a new buffing (cloth) wheel and some polishing rouge made for stainless. It's likely that some of the particles of the corrosion you removed that have a hardness more than the base steel are stuck in the used wheel making scratches in the metal. A clean buffing wheel, good rouge and patience (not force) are the best way to shine up a "scuffed-up" automatic barrel to like or better than new condition.
P.S. Its also a fantastic final step to sharpen your knives.
Mike Cudahy- WPB, Florida
2003
A. Hi Jerry. Polishing and buffing is one of those things that almost never can be done in one step, and even two steps is usually not enough. The thing is, you usually have to remove a lot of material, which precludes you from using a really fine buffing material because it would take months; but if you use a coarse buff, the finish won't be smooth. So it needs to be done in steps. Multiple steps is commonplace, not an error.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
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