Taking The Shine Off Stainless.

M

murphy

Guest
A lot of rifles with aftermarket stainless steel barrels have this god aweful shiny finish. Now I like a shiny finish on blued chrome moly barrels so it may seem strange that shiny stainless ones annoy me. Is there a chemical avaliable that will dull them down, or is it a difficult job to give them a brushed chrome finish like some shotgun recievers? Maybe I should just go out and buy a Ruger as I like the "Target Grey" finish?:cool: All answers would be very much appreciated.
 
stainless finish

murphy: Most of my replacement s/s barrels have a glass beaded finish, no shine, but rather a dull light silver shade. Very durable and maintanence free.
 
A good bede blast

would be just about what you need to do.. Glass bede blasting will give you a nice uniform matt finish on stainless.. Be sure that the blaster has not been used to blast plain carbon steel as it will cause rust to start on your stainless barrel. I clean out and refresh the bedes on my blast box when doing any stainless steel.
Alternativly you could try an acid etch bath. This will dull down a polished stainless finish. Would need a tank to fit the barrell and some nitric/hydrofluoric acid. Definatly don't want to get this stuff in the bore as it may damage the bore finish..
Far too messy and dangerous though IMHO.

Cheers
Leeroy
 
easy

Get you some Scotch Bright. Spray the barrel with WD-40, rub the Scotch Bright up and down the length of the barrel as fast as you can, in long sweeping motions. It will take the shine off, and leave a slick matte finish.........jackie
 
A vapor blast or sand blast nozzle is inexpensive. These cheap setups do not allow a good way to reuse the glass beads or sand but they are cheap. The difference in vapor blasting and sand blasting is just a matter of definition. Most times vapor blasting uses water and compressed air while the normally used sand blast term just used sand and compressed air (or glass beads). (I probably should just call this particle blasting)
 
another thought

first i believe bead or sand blasting leaves the more desireable finish. however if one doesnt have access to a blaster. jackies method is a good low budget alternative. also if one has a wire brush on one end of a grinder they can brush in a matte finish too. Fred
 
Scotch Brite pad on a hand sander. works even better in a lathe or barrel spinner.

Chuck.
 
Fireball Fred said:
first i believe bead or sand blasting leaves the more desireable finish. however if one doesnt have access to a blaster. jackies method is a good low budget alternative. also if one has a wire brush on one end of a grinder they can brush in a matte finish too. Fred
Click to expand...

I guess that depends on what you consider desirable. Personally, I love the Scotchbrite finishes since they are so easily touched up. Bead blast is so delicate and the only way to restore it is to blast again. Hard to do if you don't have a blaster.
 
How do you plug the bore when bead blasting to avoid damaging the chamber or crown. I assume blasting would be done after chambering and crowning, maybe I'm wrong though?

Thanks,
Med.
 
To Jacki Schmidt and others.

Yet again you have responded to my enquiry in such a forthright manner. Thanks very much.:D
 
Another way

Remove the action and barrel from the stock. Wrap plastic wrap around the action and plug the bore with a sharpened stick. Go to a 7-11 and buy 3 frozen microwave burritos and 2 six packs of the cheapest malt liquor you can find in the cooler. Chug the malt liquor and eat the burritos cold. Vomit if possible afterward. Do not brush your teeth and pass out for at least 8 hours. Stagger up, breath, hack, blow snot on and dry heave all over the barrel. If this doesn't do it try the inevitable accompanying bursts of fetid flatus. After this I guarantee nothing will be shiny either for the barrel or for you. Tim
 
Tim Oltersdorf said:
Remove the action and barrel from the stock. Wrap plastic wrap around the action and plug the bore with a sharpened stick. Go to a 7-11 and buy 3 frozen microwave burritos and 2 six packs of the cheapest malt liquor you can find in the cooler. Chug the malt liquor and eat the burritos cold. Vomit if possible afterward. Do not brush your teeth and pass out for at least 8 hours. Stagger up, breath, hack, blow snot on and dry heave all over the barrel. If this doesn't do it try the inevitable accompanying bursts of fetid flatus. After this I guarantee nothing will be shiny either for the barrel or for you. Tim
Click to expand...

The brown finish on the old "Brown Bess" flintlocks was achieved by wrapping the shiny barrel/action in a blanket, then several soldiers would stand around it and urinate upon it. A few days later, the newly browned barrel/action was unwrapped and oiled.

Would not want to be the unwrapper guy, that must have been reserved for guys who got caught goofing off in formation, etc..
 
Tim Oltersdorf said:
Remove the action and barrel from the stock. Wrap plastic wrap around the action and plug the bore with a sharpened stick. Go to a 7-11 and buy 3 frozen microwave burritos and 2 six packs of the cheapest malt liquor you can find in the cooler. Chug the malt liquor and eat the burritos cold. Vomit if possible afterward. Do not brush your teeth and pass out for at least 8 hours. Stagger up, breath, hack, blow snot on and dry heave all over the barrel. If this doesn't do it try the inevitable accompanying bursts of fetid flatus. After this I guarantee nothing will be shiny either for the barrel or for you. Tim
Click to expand...

I like Tim's idea much better than my "tape" solution.
 
If you're going to blast it............

get a small piece of wood, even plywood sheeting that's clean, about 8X5X1/2, and lay it on the floor of your cabinet. Use the wood as a place to "rest" the work. You can place the muzzle on its side, on the wood, while holding onto the receiver and making long passes down the barrel with the nozzle about 3-4 inches away from the barrel, rotating the receiver and carefully watching that you don't allow the muzzle to drop off the wood. As you move to the end of the barrel, slant the nozzle toward the direction of travel rather than perpendicular, and this will prevent the nozzle from blasting across the crown. When you're finished, take the workpiece somwhere where you can direct a small nozzle of 60-80psi air into the tiny crevices(don't blast beads higher than 60-65psi, it destroys them too quickly), down the chamber and around the rear of the thread extension, and where the barrel bumps the receiver ring on the outside. Then, follow this up with carb cleaner, or an air-fed recipricator, if you have access to one, clean the locking lug area, then you're ready to go. If you handle the barrel w/rings or other jewelry on, it can leave a tell-tale shiny mark, like a pencil line on an old-fashioned blackboard. In that case, get a small piece of wood, even plywood sheeting......:D;)
 
s.s barrel finish

if you would like to make that barrel a true non reflective finish there is another way . sand blast it then have your gunsmith reblue it . yeah i know it is stainless and after you reblue it it will be what i call smoked finish . not white not black just smoke . www.therifler.com
 
There's still a tiny bit of shine to my SS barrel, but I sure like the looks of what my gunsmith did on my barrel. I don't know the exact details of how he does this, but I think he mentioned having the barrel chucked up in the lathe and then he uses an orbital sander and runs it up and down the length of the barrel.

Barrel_end_flutes--small.jpg
 
When Nev Madden first made barrels here in Australia, he would finish them by cutting a v-e-r-y fine thread with a very sharp tool. It still came out a tad rough & feathered, but as well as cutting the shine, it went close to giving the barrel twice the surface area of a fine finished one which maybe helped cooling.

The only downside was that in those pre-tungsten days, that sort of cut tended to leave a fair bit of tool steel behind which eventually gave the barrel a spotty surface.
 
Gents,

I've always wondered how a knurled barrel would look. It certainly would be dull, and I imagine quite durable given the right knurl. Be a bit of a pain in the arse to accomplish, though.

Justin
 
Glass bead the parts you want to dull. Set the air pressure around 40lbs to start with. Increase pressure in small increments until you get the desired finish your after.

Use caution when increasing the psi because it can be too much of a good thing. It will certainly dull the finish but going too aggressive makes the surface a fingerprint and dirt magnet.

Fine glass bead media works well. I realize this may be a bit much for a guy at home so you might try locating a "job shop" type machine shop or a trophy shop that does glass etching/lettering. Hit em up over lunch hour and cough up a 12 pack or a few bucks and someone will more than likely be helpful.

Mask anything/everything you don't want those beads to go using a quality automotive type masking tape. The 3M green stuff works really well.


Good luck.

C
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top