Matching the satin (bead blast?) finish in stainless rifle barrel

I am fitting a stainless steel muzzle brake on a stainless barrel that has a rather bright blasted finish. I have tried beads, (two different sizes, one very fine and another somewhat coarser) aluminum oxide, soda, super fine sand, and all I get is varying shades of gray. Yes, it is blasted and NOT cerakote or some other finish.

My question, how do they get the bright, silvery, matte finish?

In the overall scheme of things, I really don't care about the finish per se, except in the context that I would like the brake to match the barrel as much as possible. I suppose I could just blast the barrel with whatever and make it all match that way but it would be quite a bit of extra work so I would like to just do the brake, if possible.

IIRC steel beads leave a much brighter finish then glass beads.

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Originally Posted by jim147

IIRC steel beads leave a much brighter finish then glass beads.

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Steel on stainless will also impinge into the stainless and rust! Welding stainless pipe, anytime anything carbon touches the stainless, it will rust later, never fails.

I got that silvery sating finish out of using glass beads, I can't tell you the size but they were fine.

I had the same problem, but got decent results working the blasted surfaces lightly over with a not-too-rough Scotch-brite polishing sponge/pad.

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I've given shiny stainless guns a satin finish via hitting it with a Scotchbrite pad.

Try beads varying the pressure/distance on a scrap piece. Blasting will work harden the surface.

Just guessing, but chances are your barrel and the muzzle break are made up out of two different types of stainless steel. Maybe that could account for the difference in how your blasting with various media is coming out. Frank

You might try polishing a piece of scrap bright before and then blasting starting bright it may stay brighter. Fine ceramic beads may have a polishing effect also.

Using sand paper or a grinding polishing wheel that has been used on steel will also "contaminate" the steel causing rust.

A wire wheel such as is mounted on a bench grinder will work. You have to get one that is fairly course and periodically stop and see where you're at and how it matches with the finish you're trying to duplicate.

DG

Stainless steel wire wheel.

I have used 1000 or 1500 grit emery paper to get a somewhat shiny finish. I put muzzle brakes on a couple of stainless rifles and just blasted the entire gun and muzzle brake together.