Roll marks removal or lightening

[hattrick]

After reading some other posts on removing roll marks I gave it a go. I have a duo-tone so the slide is stainless. I started with 100 grit sand paper on a flat surface and started sanding. First thing I noticed is that the engraving process leaves metal sticking up above the surface which is mostly what makes the lines appear dark and relatively wide. Once that part is removed the roll marks are much less prominant. I thought about stopping there as it was a lot more acceptable but kept going anyway. With a couple hours of work I had the marks on one side gone and mostly gone on the other side. Ran out of sandpaper! One thing I learned is that there is little use in using the sand paper for very long as it is quickly worn out. It's best to start with a new sheet as soon as you feel it is losing it's bite or your just wasteing effort. There was a couple small pinholes that were a bit deeper than the rest of the rollmark. Keep going until they are almost gone then switch to 150 grit and work through 220 , 400 and 600. Then buff with a polishing wheel to a high gloss. Looks good with the duotone finish! Sorry no pics. Not hard to do. Obviously on a blued gun reblueing would be required
There has been discussion on the legality but I think as the owner of the pistol there is no problem doing this. It is certainly legal to replace the slide. The importer is required to have the information on the pistol though. The law requires the serial number on the frame for a individual.
Hopefully the roll mark police won't show up for posting this!

[Lovemea1911]

I've been trying to find out if the slide is stainless all the way through. Is it. Don't forget that carbon steel looks like stainless when it is polished, and will rust in about three nano seconds.

[NewShockerGuy]

Originally Posted by LovemeanHK

I've been trying to find out if the slide is stainless all the way through. Is it. Don't forget that carbon steel looks like stainless when it is polished, and will rust in about three nano seconds.

I have actually found that if you polish the carbon steel to a mirror finish it doesn't rust fast at all, if any honestly, as long as properly cared for. I have polished a couple things that were just normal carbon steel and if it gets a gouge or a scratch then it does rust in that area rather quickly... however when you polish it to a mirror finish you are closing the pores of the metal or making them much smaller and there is not as great of a chance for rust..etc. OR it just takes a lot longer, but as long as one is caring for the item it's very minimal if any from what I have found. Givem I don't live in an area right by the ocean where there would be a higher salt content in the air so that might also affect it pretty quickly, a small very light coat of oil on the mirror polished item and you'd probably be fine.. safe queen guns, if you carried it all the time it would probably show more wear...etc.

-Nigel

[hattrick]

No rust so far. And there was no indication that there was any type of coating as I sanded. A fair amount of material is removed in removing the roll marks so I think I would have gone through any type of coating in the process.

[OJK]

If it was made in 1970 - you don't have rollmarks to worry you -