Refinishing a stainless steel barrel?

[BHTGdogs]

How do I refinish stainless steel? If removed the rust but not sure where to go from here. Also I'm wanting to finish the stock with boiled Lin seed oil what's the best way to do this to get the best results?

[John Taylor]

Most stainless barrels are bead blasted to give a matt finish. There are also shops that can blue it but the last one I sent out for blue was ruined.

[BHTGdogs]

I've read more, I wasn't aware that there were different stainless steel. I'm not sure what exactly the gun had for a finish it was in rough shape. The gun is a Remington sport master model 512 .22 Any ideas?

[turtlezx]

If its stainless all the way thru sand it down and polish it----- satin to mirror finish------ close to chrome if you want

[rking22]

Suspect that is chrome plated. I am unaware of any Rem 512 in stainless. Strip it down and read up on rust bluing.

[country gent]

If a true stainless steel, refinishing isnt to hard and can be done with a sanding block and various grades of sand paper. I perfer a block with a medium hard rubber face. I make my own from hard wood. Make the block about 1 1/2-2 wide and 3' long or so. Measure barrel dia, add 2 times the thickness of the rubber to be used for pad. This is the dia you want to drill clamp 2 blocks together with a card board spacer and drill thru 3" length ( this gives 2 blocks ready) glue rubber pad to blocks with contact cement starting in center of radious and working to edges. Trim edges to block. The block can now be wrapped with a piece of emery cloth or sand paper and worked the length of the barrel cleaning and polishing the barrel. The medium hard backer helps keep stampings clean and sharp. A super fine polish to mirror bright isnt needed. Keeping the sanding finish in the same direction and consistant makes for a very eye pleasing finish. Polish lines in every direction arnt nearly as professional looking. Use water or a light oil on wet dry paper to maintain consistant finish. If its chrome you may only have .003-.005 on a side to work with and possibly a copper layer under it. Chrome is very hard ( 60-70 rockwell) it is also very thin. On chrome sandpaper may just brighten the surface until it breaks thru. On chrome a cleaner ( comet bon, ami, tooth paste, flitz, or shimichrome)on felt wrapped around the sanding block may be better. Touch a magnet to it if it sticks hard its probably chromed steel or bright steel. stainless has very low magnetivity and a magnet is barley attracted to it.

[bstone5]

Spin sanding the barrel will clean up the barrel but will also bring the barrel into balance.
All of the barrels That I install are spin sanded with a 2 inch belt sander.
The barrel will shot better if in dynamic balance. All button rifled barrels should be in balance.

[tja6435]

Scotch brite pad, grey, maroon, white and then polish if you want a smooth finish. I use the grey ones to touch up the GP100, Security/speed Six's, Mark II's. Puts it close to factory brushed stainless finish from Ruger

[BHTGdogs]

The magnet stuck pretty good. So chrome steel. The barrel is kind of weathered. So what's the best course with this new info. I really appreciate everyone's help.

[B R Shooter]

416 stainless steel is magnetic. Not all "stainless" is non-magnetic. Second, what in the world does spinning a barrel balance anything? What in the world does this do for accuracy?

As been said, you can sand/polish a stainless barrel as far as you want, from a matte to a mirror. Shiny barrels are pretty, but they seem to attract scratches, anything will mar the finish. I like mine a dull even matte. Scotchbright pads do a good job for this. They do a much more uniform finish than paper.

[country gent]

Work alot with the 300 and 400 grades of stainless when I was a tool maker in the food industry. while 416 is magnetic its not as trong an attraction as most tool steels or cold roll. You could spark test it on a grinder but thats subjective and leaves a mark. The brushed matte finishes tend to allow scratches and marks to blend in to the finish. I would make up the sanding block and try comet on a felt pad working along the length of the barrel and see what you get,

[deepwater]

Spinning the barrel gives a uniform polish and makes it easier. It would not affect accuracy.


deepwater

[Ballistics in Scotland]

That rifle was manufactured until the 1960s, but was introduced much earlier. I think, but do not know, that it is much more likely to be chromed or nickeled than stainless. If so, an appropriate metal polish is as good as you will get. Chrome polish can be pretty aggressive, since it is hard, and with nickel I would use a milder one, for brass or silver.

As has been said, the magnet test is inconclusive. I have just been separating zinc-plated and stainless screws with a magnet, but stainless for sharp knives is magnetic. Even if someone can test a modern stainless barrel for us (I've never much cared for that degree of modernity myself), this isn't a modern barrel, and may have been made of something quite different. You might notice the hardness of chromium if you scratch a concealed area, or you could file something like an underlug and see if the exposed metal looks grey-blue by comparison, or can be induced to rust. Chromium is very white, and nickel has a slight yellowish cast. But then so do my stainless screws in good light.

If you do have a stainless barrel with a satin finish, abrasive paper is likely to give a visibly directional or swirly finish. I would prefer a cloth or tissue pad with fine very carborundum, silicon carbide or aluminium oxide powder from a gem-polishing shop, or diamond paste. You can find these on eBay. Also if you use a scotchbrite wheel on rough objects till it has a lot of trailing fibres, just lightly touching the barrel to these as they are extended by centrifugal force will produce a pretty non-directional matt finish.

I agree that dynamic balance of a barrel is largely an article of faith, and on a .22 or achieved by sanding the barrel several orders of magnitude more so.

As to the stock, make sure you have removed all the original finish, which is most likely varnish. Sand it with successive grades of paper down to very fine. Then wet it, dry it rapidly in front of a heater until the fibres rise at the edges of the pores, and then sand it. Repeat the process until that no longer happens. For an inexpensive rifle it is then usually advisible to fill the pores. I would use varnish and talcum powder at a runny consistency. But wipe it off and sand lightly again when that is dry.

You will get lots of opinions on material and methods for stock finishing. I am content with boiled oil, but many people prefer a proprietary stock oil, which dries far faster. First you can add the boiled linseed oil, flooding it on for a few hours before wiping off. On new wood I would start with red oil, in which I have soaked alkanet root chips for several weeks, to give some colour. Repeated coats should be light and wiped off with something a shade harsh but not cutting, like burlap sacking, repeating when the last is dry but still a shade tacky..

Incidentally raw linseed oil dries very little, and boiling it won't help. It isn't the boiling that matters, but the chemical driers which are added. "Boiled" oil can be applied hot and thinned with turpentine for the first application, as it penetrates better. But you have to be sure it is a VERY safe heat source. Also dispose of used rags or tissues safely. Spontaneous combustion can occur if a lot of them are crushed up together so that heat builds up.

[BHTGdogs]

What's the best finish to use? I don't want varnish or that hard coating again

[rick/pa]

Years ago I was given a formula for a linseed oil finish that was similar to the old Wahkon Bay oil finish. It was compounded by a chemist and I have used it on several muzzleloaders. It is 1 1/2 oz boiled linseed oil, 1/2 oz turpentine, and 1/2 teaspoon of cider vinegar. Rub on several coats by hand as you would regular BLO. It dries hard and has a semi gloss finish. Try it on scrap first to see if you like it, if you desire.

[Alexn20]

If it is true Stainless I prefer media blasted finish. Fine media like baking soda turns out a really nice finish and you dont need to worry about removing too much material. just my 2cents.

[El Bango]

To blue true stainless it needs to be copper plated first and then blued but you will never have a polished finished product.

[pietro]

The magnet stuck pretty good. So chrome steel. The barrel is kind of weathered. So what's the best course with this new info. I really appreciate everyone's help.

A rifle with just the barrel chromed seems strange to me - is the receiver also chromed, and maybe also needing a refinish ?

The damaged/rusty chrome plating needs to be removed before any refinishing can be addressed.

The only two ways I know of to accomplish that it to either have an automotive re-plating company (that re-chromes auto bumpers) remove the chrome via electrolysis, or to grind/sand it off.

If you can find a re-chroming operation near you, that will take on your job, there may be an option for you to also have them re-chrome the rifle (unless you'd rather not have a chromed gun).


.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Any plating outfit that does "Passivation" can remove all the rust. The parts are suspended in a Nitric Acid solution and that removes the Iron Atoms from the surface which is what rusted in the first place. It exposes only the Nickel and Chrome Atoms which don't rust.

That's the short course on SS plating.

Randy

[John 242]

Most stainless barrels are bead blasted to give a matt finish. There are also shops that can blue it but the last one I sent out for blue was ruined.

What happened?
We blue 416R stainless barrels every once in a while. Never seen one ruined.
We use Brownells Oxynate 84 and have had good results, for the most part. We've had some stainless steel fail to blue, but no biggie. Nothing ruined.
A Kimber frame gave me hell, so I ended up painting it with Gunkote.

[BHTGdogs]

I just light sanded with very fine wet dry. Looks 100x better. If I got a chrome polish would that shine it up more? These 2 guns I've refinished have been a blast. I'm not afraid to by a cheap gun that works now just for the fun of the project!

[W.R.Buchanan]

I just light sanded with very fine wet dry. Looks 100x better. If I got a chrome polish would that shine it up more? These 2 guns I've refinished have been a blast. I'm not afraid to by a cheap gun that works now just for the fun of the project!

This is the way I see it too. A inexpensive gun can be a canvass and with some TLC become something that is much more desirable than it was before. With all the new Gun Paints out there this is nearly as easy as using Krylon to paint a bicycle.

Simple refinishing projects are ways to express yourself that many people just never get. It is a rewarding hobby and the only thing you have to choose is what you want to restore.

Guns, Reloading Equipment, cars tools machines whatever. I like making things new again, and especially if they weren't worn out, just neglected.

Randy