Polishing a Stainless Steel Firearm - Value of
Your comments would be appreciated....On an older (1970's) stainless steel S & W, would a professionally done polishing in which the appearance becomes a bright satin as opposed to the original stainless steel finish generally increase or decrease the value of the firearm. The polishing would be done to generally clean-up various light to moderate scratches on the firearm. Thanks - Stadium
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Too many variables, mainly what it looks like now, what it looks like when refinished, & the skill of the person doing the job. Most likely it would not increase enough to offset what you paid for the refinishing job, at best.
There are a couple of other things that make this difficult. Your gun likely was polished with different abrasive wheels on different parts of the gun, & the barrel/top strap were probably bead blasted. I don't know of anyone claiming to be able to duplicate this, outside the S&W factory. And, you'd really have to strip the gun, including barrel removal.
Other options are: a high polish, done by hand with various grades of steel wool, or have the entire gun bead blasted.
Neal
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Neal...thanks much for taking the time to respond to my "polishing" question. Your comments are appreciated. Your attached photo certainly showed the different appearance/finish on the S & W stainless steel cylinder. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Stadium
Your comments would be appreciated....On an older (1970's) stainless steel S & W, would a professionally done polishing in which the appearance becomes a bright satin as opposed to the original stainless steel finish generally increase or decrease the value of the firearm. The polishing would be done to generally clean-up various light to moderate scratches on the firearm. Thanks - Stadium
This is tough to answer, and I agree with Nmyers.
Assuming this is a "shooter" and not a collector's piece, if the gun looks absolutely terrible, then polishing it up will increase its resale value.
But the cost of having this done professionally will probably exceed the increase in value you get from doing it. In other words, from a purely dollar standpoint, its likely not going to be worth doing it. It may still be worth it if you plan to keep the gun and will enjoy it more if it looks nicer, though.
If you're just dealing with a few scratches, there may be ways of taking those out without going through a pro. . .though if that's the issue, you're probably not going to significantly increase the value of the gun by polishing them out.0 -
Beantownshootah...yes indeed the firearm is for shooting as opposed to collecting...thanks for your post as well. 0 -
From my personal experience: polishing stainless guns using FLITZ (or equivalent) paste polish works wonders. The more times you repeat the polishing technique, the "brighter" the finish will be, assuming you want a mirror finish rather than a satin or matte finish. 0 -
A skillful 20 minutes careful buffing can do wonders for a scratched finish. I bought one pretty much as described and buffed it as a shooter. I was. couple days later, offered $100 more than I paid & eventually sold it to that person. The problem for the average owner may be finding someone who wants the job and can do it well. 0 -
Mag32 & Rhmc24...good food for thought... Much appreciated...Stadium 0 -
Polishing is ok, bead blasting is best but takes for time and special equipment. 0
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