Polishing Round FaceLock

[George F.]

Okay I give all you guys out there who have polished a round face lock have  my utmost respect. What a pain. Any secrets anybody wants to share to speed this up besides persistence.   ...Geo.

[P.Bigham]

 I have a small hand held belt sander that  has a speed control on It. this speeds things up alot. As long as youre careful. I believe it is made by Makita. Takes 90% of the rough castings off fast. I bought It to remove forge scaling off Butt Plates and Trigger Gaurds, Files tend to dance off that for a while before biting. PB

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I can't see a fast or easy way George.  What's your hurry, by the way?  When it's done well, it is very satisfying.

[George F.]

THAT'S TRUE...BUT HUH IT'S STILL A PAIN, EXTREMELY SLOW GOING.

[lew wetzel]

i am doing mine right now.just took it apart this morning.i use a dremel and cut strips of emory cloth and pull them back and forth on the real tight spots like the frizzen and cock.and i use at least 3 different grits and then i chuck up a polishing wheel in my little drill press and hit all the parts with this.

[Stophel]

Dremel tool?  Belt sander?

Files, baby.
 

[Z. Buck]

i use files and high quality emery boards of the sort you can steal from your wife but i recommend you buy your own at walmart, they cost about a buck and they dont wear out all that fast , way more period correct looking finish than a dremel polishing wheel, at least as far as i can tell, others opinions may vary, but i dont like the way power polishing looks

[AndyThomas]

I'm with Chris and Zack on this one. Power tools, at least when I'm the one operating them, seem to take material off where I don't want it off. Files and sandpaper are slower, but surer.

Andy

[Dphariss]

Okay I give all you guys out there who have polished a round face lock have  my utmost respect. What a pain. Any secrets anybody wants to share to speed this up besides persistence.   ...Geo.

I use wet or dry double stick taped to 1/4" plexiglas. 120 or 150 is about a coarse as I ever start out with. After 400-600, if you go that far, 0000 steel wool and chrome polish will take out the marks left by the paper and even out the finish. I seldom do 600 grit unless for color casehardening.
Putting duct tape on wet or dry gives a flexible backing that allows rounded surfaces to be done by pulling a strip back and forth.
If its too rough for paper I file generally.
Power tools often cause extra work on complex surfaces though I do have a 1" wide belt sander I use but it depends on the job. A slight boo-boo with a power tool can take a lot of work or even welding or a new part to fix. So my rule of thumb is hand work unless a lot of metal has to be moved or its a small flat area that is hard to screw up.

I think the HC way to polish in leather belts with abrasive.
Dan

[David Rase]

Stones and lots of honing oil.  The more metal work I do the more I appreciate stoning.  It only takes a small handful of them.  Cheaper then sand paper and you get a lot sharper corners.
DMR

[California Kid]

Dave, what size stones do you find useful? I want to buy a set that comes with 5 grits from MSC or Enco.
1/4" x 1/4" or 1/4" x 1/8" or what. They come in several different size stones. I know from experience they break easily if your not careful or don't use with a light touch, but work great to keep sharp corners and square edges- Thanks - Kid

[westbj2]

Buy a set of Gesswien stones, get a quart of keroscene for lubrication and you will never go back to abrasive paper for finishing.
Jim Westberg

[don getz]

Jim......who sells those stones?  Brownells, Manhattan Supply, or some other supplier?.....Don

[George F.]

Buy a set of Gesswien stones, get a quart of keroscene for lubrication and you will never go back to abrasive paper for finishing.
Jim Westberg

Okay Jim you have my attention now. Where can I purchase one of those stone sets .
 I have been going  at it with files, needle files, sanding sticks and just sand paper,  I made the mistake of ordering a English Chambers lock, and with that tiny lip that surrounds the plate has proved a real pain. Working my way through the sanding grits right now. I found that sanding with the next finer grit across the proceeding rougher grit removes the courser lines quicker then remove those . Any way gives me something to do  while the finish drys. I want to do the steel parts with that patina-ed super blue.  I can't see using power tools on this because of the lip around the plate wouldn't allow me to contour sand the plate to the edge. Thanks for the tips.    ...Geo.

[Black Hand]

Putting duct tape on wet or dry gives a flexible backing that allows rounded surfaces to be done by pulling a strip back and forth.

That is a great tip!!!!  I'll have to remember that one......

[flehto]

I go w/ the Gesswein stones and mineral spirits...the coarser grits because they break down and are self cleaning remove metal very quickly. The finish w/ the finer grits doesn't  need much polishing. I use mine on both steel and brass. Originally used them when polishing plastic molds....Fred

[Stophel]

I think historically, most locks would be filed and that's it (on every single old gun I have gotten to see so far, all the metal is covered in file marks).  On nicer guns that they bothered to really polish, I would say that they would file, then stone, or use powdered abrasive on a pad.     Even high end European guns are often not polished all that finely.  But sometimes you will see something that shines like a mirror...

[T*O*F]

Even high end European guns are often not polished all that finely.  But sometimes you will see something that shines like a mirror...

Those guns are not polished, they are burnished.  That's why you see many of the old guns with "bright" parts that aren't rusted.

Burnishing will also remove file marks.

[George F.]

Well I finished... Took two whole days of files, sanding sticks and rubber backed paper down to 600 grit, but it's done. The lip on that Chambers English lock make it a real pain. Thanks for the tips. ...Geo.

[westbj2]

Here is a link for the Gesswein stones:
www.gesswein.com/catalog/catalog.cfm?cat=1&sub=27&subsub=3&catalog=2&CFID=1938509&CFTOKEN=78096990
In 20 years I am still on my second set of these stones and have bits and pieces of the first set still in my box.  The 96 pc set will give you all the grits and composits (some are shape taking and others maintain their shape).  If you order them individually, I would tend toward the finer grits for finishing, eg.  400 and  perhaps up to 1200 or finer.
The coarser grits are very aggressive but can really save time.  In general you will find that these stones leave a slightly rougher finish than paper of the same grit.  I see that they now have additional variations (silicon, etc) that I am not familiar with.   Might be best to call there and ask a Tech. which would be the best for finishing work in your application.
Find something like an empty peanut butter jar with a closeable lid.  Fill it with Keoscene and store the stones in that.  This keeps the stones impregnated with lubricant.  Using them too dry wears the stones and makes them cut rough.  Keroscene smells bad enough after several hours at the bench, not sure I could stand mineral spirits that long.
Jim Westberg