polishing a blued surface

[worldwidechance]

I met a guy today who polished a blued gun with 3000 grit sand paper, then used simichrome and ended up with a dark chrome finish. I was only able to talk to him briefly and wasnt able to get more details on his process. I am really impressed with the finish and want to try something like it. Any ideas on replicating this?

I have a few concerns about rust and longevity

What do you think?

 

[dfariswheel]

What he did was to abrade the blued finish and thin it down to the point where it's almost bare metal.
It'll rust like crazy the first time he fails to keep the gun lubed up with something to prevent rusting.

Basically, this is like sanding "almost" all the paint off a car. It alters the appearance, but removes all the protection.

 

[worldwidechance]

Is there an easy way to keep the finish and add protection?

 

[rcmodel]

My gosh, I sometimes fail to understand the idiotic things people can do to good guns to ruin them!!
Sanding or polishing bluing with anything even slightly abrasive is just removing it down to bare steel.

Is there an easy way to keep the finish and add protection? Johnson's Paste Floor Wax.

See this:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=4110525&postcount=7

rc

 

[JohnKSa]

Some people use wax on blued gus to provide some additional protection against moisture.

 

[MrDig]

Now that he has that highly polished surface he should reblue it. Highly Polished metal blues beautifully. You rarely see it done except on very expensive guns theses days.

 

[brickeyee]

ended up with a dark chrome finish.

No, he ended up with a thinner blued finish prone to rust like bare steel.

Chromium (the plating in a "chrome finish") is an element.