So /diy/, I'm working on some old gun stuff and I want to try and touch up the metal on it and try and make it somewhat pretty. I have a variety of tools at my disposal, namely a beefy dremel that I am currently intending to do most of this with.
How would /diy/ go about making old steel pretty again? So far I've tried steel brush (For removing 60 years of rust+grease off the top) -> Aluminum Oxide grinding wheel (To smooth out deep scratches) -> Felt wheel + red polishing compound and the end result was pic related. Not really sure what I can expect or how I can improve though, aside from picking up a dremel polishing kit tomorrow so I've got more polishing compounds than just the red kind
Pic isn't of the important bits itself, it's essentially a trash piece I had to cut an important one out of so I'm using it for practice
Same way you polish anything. Start at low grit, work your way up, making sure to completely eliminate all the scarthces from the grit below. For steel 200-800, followed by a buffing wheel with compound, will give you a mirror shine. Expect to spend many hours. There are no shortcuts.
>>967685
This may be a shock, but I've never properly polished anything before so this is new to me. I will take what you said in mind, but I at least have some leeway as I'm not exactly going for a mirror finish, rather try and take care of scratches/pitting before parkerizing or blueing the steel
what kind of old gun stuff?
if it is of any value, you never want to change the finish
>>967667
how I usually clean metal is I use a stainless-steel wire wheel on a dremel at low-end speed. It takes a while but doesn't leave the metal surface rough. You polish with metal polishing compound, but I rarely ever do that with anything.
I prefer the stainless dremel wire brushes since they are a little bit tougher than the carbon-steel wire brushes.
Also you need to wear a full face shield when using the dremel wire brushes, since the wires do break off and fly outwards.
>>967717
This guy speaks the truth.
Post a pic or two OP. /k/ is also a busier board, and loads of help.
Do NOT fuck with any serial number, markings, embossing.....
>>967717
>>967745
It's a demilled Sten, receiver was already torch cut (One of the pieces is the original pic, the chunk that had the front barrel bushing installed)
The original spec for these was to leave them in the white, so the only 'finish' I'm removing is a combo of rust, grease, and globs of cosmoline for some reason
Didn't except /diy/ to be interested in the specifics
>>967847
it's just that some people don't realize that collectables, weapons especially, drastically reduce in value when people try to make them "pretty" again...even cleaning something with metal polish can eviscerate it's potential worth
of course, if it's not anything valuable enough to be worth preserving to sell later, feel free to do whatever you wish
>>967847
>Didn't except /diy/ to be interested in the specifics
I've seen horror threads on /k/ where people have destroyed priceless family heirlooms/war history pieces simply by "polishing up with a dremel"
I cried inside, and I don't want to see another.
>>967860
>>967861
Fair enough, I've got a penchant for gunsmithing on old, busted shit that has very little value anyways
Like pic related, the pistol on the right spent an unknown amount of time at the bottom of a lake before my grandfather got it ~40 years ago. Finish was gone, thing was gummed up with rust, and he didn't want to bother spending money/time fixing it.
I got it all disassembled, removed the rust, and after failing to cold blue it got it professionally duracoated, and it now functions for the first time in at least half a century.
One on the left had a broken firing pin, and since replacement parts are practically impossible to find, I got a dremel and fashioned a new one out of a drill bit shaft. It functions, but it's got some other problem where it fucks up brass bad (The front, it's not firing out of battery at least) and can't feed for shit, still trying to figure that one out.
>>967667
>How would /diy/ go about making old steel pretty again?
Easymodo: wire wheel on a grinder followed by cold bluing
Mediummodo: wire wheel on a dremel followed by cold bluing
Hardmodo: lots and lots of progressive hand sanding followed by parkerizing
I'm personally restoring an old carpenter's axe (I even had to put a new edge on the fucking thing because of how rusted it was) at the moment and debating whether to just seal the matte patina it has with beeswax or scrub it to a nice shine before doing the same.
Update after spending a bit with a stainless steel brush instead of a carbon one
Top layer of polished metal is from grind->brush->polish, bottom layer is from stainless steel brush->polish. Not sure what kind of changes I can expect to make in the metal, spent several minutes making passes on that 1 place until I got sick of fogging my glasses up due to the dust mask I picked up.
>>968059
Another pic, what the inside looks like + one of the important bits I haven't started polishing yet
Another pic because I found it entertaining, even with the rivets knocked out the rust was strong enough to hold the front bushing pretty well, took a lot of elbow grease to break it off
>>967875
crazy
did it still have a serial? did you try to find where it came from?
>>969061
They both have serials, but it was from a time before there was any kind of standard or good records of serial numbers, on top of being produced by small Spanish machine shops.
I do know both were issued in WW1 because they have the French armory marks on the bottom (They were the sidearm of choice for the French army), and both of them escaped the post-war modifications that all the returned ones went through (Rivet in the slide, to prevent unholstering the gun engaging the safety), so they were likely either brought home by the people they were issued to or taken home as war trophies
The bottom of a lake story is less interesting than one might expect though, a guy my grandfather knew was fishing one day and he tipped his boat over, losing his tackle box with the gun in it (Tackle box guns are common here, cottonmouths are some nasty fuckers). Some unspecified time later the lake he lost it in was drained for digging a channel, so he took that chance to go out there and find the shit he lost. He sold that gun to my grandfather for $20 40 years ago, and it's just been hanging around being a rusty paperweight until I got my hands on it
>>969076
lol
that's a pretty cool story and a nice memento
