I recently bought a Hungarian AP-63 pistol from SOG (.32 ACP). The frame is supposedly an aluminum-titanium alloy and the black factory paint was chipping and worn in several places. I couldn't easily sand off the paint around/behind the trigger and I didn't want to detail strip the weapon with no assembly instructions so today I bought a $20 sand/media blast gun from Harbor Freight and a 4 pound box of baking soda for $2. I tested it out on a junk blued part and found that it didn't hurt blued steel. It easily stripped the old paint and in a few minutes, the frame had a nice, light matte finish and no sanding marks. I blew out the residual baking soda with clean air, reassembled the pistol, and it looks much better now. I wanted to share in case anyone else had a similar project and was on the fence about using gentle media to blast with.
*NOTE: any of the small spots where it looks like blueing is worn, that's from the sandpaper I started with, not the baking soda blasting.
*NOTE: any of the small spots where it looks like blueing is worn, that's from the sandpaper I started with, not the baking soda blasting.