The S & W 1911 slide

[glockcrazyjerry]

I am not sure how true this is but I read that if you use a Jewlery cleaning cloth that you can remove the black laser etching form the older smith slides with the big logo ? Is this true ? Has anyone done this ? It will not remove the etching but the black inside of it so its just looks like a very light roll mark that you can hardly see. I would like to try this but do not want to ruin the finish.

 

[Murphster]

It's called a Miracle Cloth. Here's a thread from the Smith & Wesson 1911 Forum that deals with it. About 11 replies down, there's a photo of a gun that had this done. You have to register on the forum to view attached photo's, however. From what I've read on that forum (no first-hand experience and I do have a S&W 1911 with the big billboard on the side) it removed the black and left what appears to be just a very faint rollmark that you have to look for to notice. No nasty side effects that I read about.

http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=104710&highlight=miracle+cloth

 

[glockcrazyjerry]

Thanks. The person just emailed me a pic of it and its just what I am looking to do. I like the finish and all of that but Im not to fond of the writing all over the slide. Someone also suggested Lewis LEad remover or any type of lead removing cloth. I just wish I could go to the store to buy this thing instead of having to wait for it to come in the mail to try it out .......

 

[Steelharp]

FWIW, this is from an old post on the 1911 Forum, when someone wanted to mirror shine the flats on a stainless Kimber... I saved it in case I wanted to try it sometime. I never did, so I can't say how this would work...
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Polishing the Flats

Get some sand paper and emory paper. Local hardware store, auto parts store or Wally World. You will need a grit starting at about 250, then 400, 600, 800, 1000 and 2000, if you want for a real nice finish.

Get a piece of glass. I got one about one foot square and 1/4 inch thick. This is so you can tape the sand paper down to it.

Tape the 250 paper to the glass. Place it on a flat supported surface. Work the slide back and forth on the paper. Not round and round. Then move to the next finer paper and repeat. When you get through with the 1000 grit paper, you should have a mirror finish, almost. (Added this from a follow-up post) Go to 2000 grit sandpaper and use Flitz to get the final polish.

Polishing the flats is something you could do for yourself with little trouble. Use crokus cloth wrapped around a flat block. Start with a medium to medium fine and end with a very fine grit. Finish up by using an eraser and then some red rouge on a cloth.

Make sure you clean everything well with a good degreaser after you're done.
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