Polishing Savage Matt Stainless Furniture

On my stainless savage, the barrel and action are fairly shiny, while the trigger guard, floorplate, bolt handle, rear baffle etc. are all matt stainless castings.

Ouch!

The checkering on the bolt handle was a little rough on my palm. It had made my palm sore after a morning's shooting.- Picking the rifle up from the rack later on, I noticed this strange light brown substance in-between the diamonds of the checkering. - That was my palm!

So I decided to combine polishing up the bolt and baffle with making the checkering a bit less aggressive.

What I found out:

It turns out that the matt finish covers up a world of imperfections on the bolt handle etc. including casting marks. Running a bit of #400 grit wetordry paper ( wet ) over the bolt brought all of these imperfections to light - so it was time to drag out the files and get it all smooth on the visible parts.

The files remove the rough matt finish better than sandpaper does, with a half-round needle-file taking care of the inside curves and fillets and a larger flat file handling the outside curves on the bolt and baffle.

Then I sanded the file-marks smooth with #400 grit until the part was shiny - then I gave it a "brushed" finish to more closely match the action with a piece of 3-M Scotch-Brite.

That did it.

The trick is to get the part all polished up and shiny before you brush the stainless with the Scotch-Brite. - If you skip the polishing, it won't come out nearly so purdy.

On the checkering - I just pretended it wasn't there, and it got sandpapered and Scotch-Brited along with the rest of the bolt handle. The checkering is still sharp - but maybe now it will not grind my palm away so bad.

I'll try to get a pic lined up soon. - I think the rifle looks much better now, but I am seeing where I need to go back and give it one more go-round.

- Typical of any kind of polishing job.

Next, I'll go after the trigger-guard, and parts but not all of the floorplate.

So the verdict is:

Sure you can smooth those matt stainless steel castings up - but count on doing some file work on the casting before you get started on the sanding, polishing and brushing process.

I won't recommend this to a beginner, or the faint of heart unless you have spare parts on hand in case you do not like the new look.

I decided to take the plunge because the alternative was to buy the big round bolt handle with no checkering. - So my bolt handle was expendable in any case.

Now I don't have to buy another bolt handle, and I like the new look.

I've polished many, so I feel your pain. The quickest way is to start with 150 grit to remove all the casting marks and blemishes. Always use something to back your sand paper with, a sponge or even a popsickle stick to keep the lines straight and uniform. Then go to 320 grit till the sanding lines of the 150 is gone. Then go to 400 , 600 and 800. It will get progressively faster and shinier. After that, if you so chose , you can go to a cloth wheel and compound for a mirror finish.
If you have the luxury of power tools, a belt sander and a die grinder with cartridge rolls and a small flapper wheel will cut the time in half.
Parts like the trigger guard have a small radius and must be done by hand to really come out well.
The tactical bolt handle we sell comes to us as a raw casting, and must be prepped on a belt sander and a flapper wheel before we vibratory polish in a tumbler.

I got a few pictures lined up. ( Click the image to see it larger )

Here I am just getting started, getting rid of the casting marks. You can see where I had done some polishing on the base of bolt handle previously, to smooth up the action cycling a little.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...h_IMG_2020.jpg

Here's a couple of views after I stopped working on it. ( Still needs a bit )

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...h_IMG_2024.jpg

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...h_IMG_2023.jpg

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...h_IMG_2022.jpg

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...h_IMG_2021.jpg

Here's the rifle before I started on the bolt furniture. - From the Savage custom shop. 24" barrel .243 Win.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...h_IMG_1313.jpg

It has a different scope now. 40mmm instead of 50mmm, slammed down with the lowest rings Leupold makes.

My son says that now that I have it all nice and shiny, I ought to bead-blast the whole thing from stem to stern. - I think I'll hold off on that though, I like the way it looks right now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sharpshooter

I've polished many, so I feel your pain. The quickest way is to start with 150 grit to remove all the casting marks and blemishes. Always use something to back your sand paper with, a sponge or even a popsickle stick to keep the lines straight and uniform. Then go to 320 grit till the sanding lines of the 150 is gone. Then go to 400 , 600 and 800. It will get progressively faster and shinier. After that, if you so chose , you can go to a cloth wheel and compound for a mirror finish.
If you have the luxury of power tools, a belt sander and a die grinder with cartridge rolls and a small flapper wheel will cut the time in half.
Parts like the trigger guard have a small radius and must be done by hand to really come out well.
The tactical bolt handle we sell comes to us as a raw casting, and must be prepped on a belt sander and a flapper wheel before we vibratory polish in a tumbler.

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I just wanted to approximate the finish on the receiver, and the 400 grit followed by Scotch-Gard did fairly well. - There was no way that I could replicate the slightly wavy look of the receiver ( upon close inspection ) which I take to be tool marks, certainly brushed but not apparently ground or buffed.

As rough as I am with my equipment at times, a brushed finish is probably all for the best - unless I take my son's advice and bead-blast all of the metal.

The bead-blasted look is nice. - The Browning A-bolt stainless stalker is my favorite example - but I would be concerned about the rifle no longer looking quite Savage enough if I did that to it.

Somebody would accuse me of being a Remington wanna-bee, and I don't want that.