Polishing a Colt SAA for refinish

[Roscoe Coles]

I have a 1956 SAA with almost no finish that I am going to have engraved, and maybe gold inlaid.  In preparation for that, I want to get rid of the very few small dings and slight discoloration on the gun, which will involve some sanding.  In addition, after the gun is engraved, it will need to be sanded to get rid of the burrs raised by the engraving.  The gun will be color cased and blued, not nickeled. 

I want the gun to be consistent with the finish applied by colt which starts with the right level of polish.  When you look at original colts, they are not mirror finished and I don't want to over-do the polish.  If anyone has done this job, I would appreciate any information on how to match the factory finish before blueing and color case.

[Kent Shootwell]

When I do a SSA I first do a complete disassembly then anneal the frame and hammer. A finial finish to 400 grit done carefully with backing and no buffing gets it to look like this after case and blue.

[Roscoe Coles]

Thanks for the information.  Luckily, 2nd gen guns don't have color cased hammers and this gun appears to have come entirely blue.  The finish inside the window and frame is all blue with no traces of color case anywhere.  good advice about backing sand paper.  I gut small, flat pieces of wood of the appropriate shape and size for the task and glue sandpaper to one side of them to insure that I sand only one surface and don't round the work on the edges. 

Yours looks pretty good.  I will take mine to 400 grit and see how that looks.  I will get another chance if I want to go finer after the engraving is completed.  I don't like the look of guns that have been buffed to death.  I have seen dished screw holes, rounded edges etc.  from folks (including Colt back in the UAW days) who didn't know how to polish properly.

[Fox Creek Kid]

When I do a SSA I first do a complete disassembly then anneal the frame and hammer...

  You know, the factory hardens this and by annealing you are removing some of that. I would never do that.

[Sagebrush Burns]

Before I did any surface work on that SAA I'd have an in-depth discussion with the engraver.  Often these folks want to do the surface prep themselves to insure it is done to their particular standards.  Maybe you have the skills, tools and experience, but it is awfully easy to screw up the works by over-doing that kind of surface work.

[Virginia Gentleman]

I agree, that on a case hardened part that is to be engraved, the part needs to be annealed and then recased, then gently polished if bluing or another finish is to be done.  Some guns may have had their frames cased over the years more than once so a little annealing will not hurt it.  The original Second Generation guns had hot salts blued parts and a case hardened frame with a blued and in the white on the sides hammer.  400 t0 600 grit is the maximum I would polish these parts if they are to be hot salt blued as they were done by Colt in the 2nd Generation guns.