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Firearms Legal Protection

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  1. #1
    MGO Member Fuel Fire Desire's Avatar
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    Lead-away wipes....an unexpected oops...

    I’ve had the same package of Safariland lead-away wipes in my range bag for as long as I can remember...decades. I only used them to de-lead the forcing cones of my revolvers maybe once a year. I had some stubborn powder burns on the frame of an old 66-1 I have, and decided to try one of the cloths to clear it up. The carbon came right off, but did something unexpected.

    When I got the 66-1 many years ago, it had a mirror finish, albeit dinged up quite a bit. When I had a gunsmith go through it and fix a number of issues it had (end shake, out of time, among many other things), he also “restored” the finish to a “factory” satin. Not something I requested be done, and it came out more Ruger satin than Smith satin, but it didn’t bother me enough to complain since he did a lot of work for a very minimal price. The abrasive he used left tactile grooves on all surfaces.

    I was shocked to see that these de-leading wipes completely removed the small grooves cut by the abrasive, and produced an honest mirror shine in just a few minutes of rubbing. Definitely NOT what I was expecting, but a pleasant surprise, as I had thoughts of bringing a more bright finish back to it. BUT, it definitely caught my attention of how aggressive these wipes are, and how damaging this could be to a Ruger finish. There is a warning on the back about use on blued steel, but nothing about satin stainless.

    Great product, but by all means, use with caution. It’s almost too effective.






    The finish before using the cloth. Kind of hard to tell, but it’s more of a Ruger GP100/ SP101 satin....much more dull than a factory Smith.




    This was the result with just a couple minutes of rubbing. Even with light pressure the cloth turns black with removed material very quickly. I only worked on this side of The barrel so far, but will most likely finish the entire revolver in this way.


  2. #2
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    Edit: upon further review I see now that IS a stainless, it looked very blue/black to me initially.

  3. #3
    MGO Member Fuel Fire Desire's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JWWIII View Post
    Edit: upon further review I see now that IS a stainless, it looked very blue/black to me initially.
    Yep, 66-1. Stainless K-frame. After seeing what it’s done to the stainless, I doubt I’d ever try these on a blued gun.





    After an hour or two of rubbing it down in front of the TV, this is what was produced. Shocking, considering this was done with minimal effort using a product that doesn’t claim to be a stainless polishing agent. And remember, this started off looking like a scotch-brite matte finish.

    Last edited by Fuel Fire Desire; 09-14-2020 at 12:50 AM.

  4. #4
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    You cleaned it's pores. Now it doesn't look like a teenage boy.
    Very nice gun.

  5. #5
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    that sure did a nice job on the stainless finish..
    I used to use Mother's polish on my SS pistols..
    I have seen the same warning " do not use on a blued finish" on several different brands of lead removing cloth patches.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fuel Fire Desire View Post
    Yep, 66-1. Stainless K-frame. After seeing what it’s done to the stainless, I doubt I’d ever try these on a blued gun.





    After an hour or two of rubbing it down in front of the TV, this is what was produced. Shocking, considering this was done with minimal effort using a product that doesn’t claim to be a stainless polishing agent. And remember, this started off looking like a scotch-brite matte finish.

    I bought a 65-4 from Hemichallenger here years back. It was kinda rough. Sent it in to S&W for a yoke repair. S&W honors their warranty even when you tell them you aren't the original owner. I got it back and cleaned it up real nice with leadaway cloth. I did polish it with Flitz after that to really give it a nice shiny appearance. They are great on SS but they'll wipe blue away just as easy as they wipe buildup from your SS gun. Good product that does what it says.

  7. #7
    MGO Member Fuel Fire Desire's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JWWIII View Post
    I bought a 65-4 from Hemichallenger here years back. It was kinda rough. Sent it in to S&W for a yoke repair. S&W honors their warranty even when you tell them you aren't the original owner. I got it back and cleaned it up real nice with leadaway cloth. I did polish it with Flitz after that to really give it a nice shiny appearance. They are great on SS but they'll wipe blue away just as easy as they wipe buildup from your SS gun. Good product that does what it says.

    I was afraid to attempt to ship it in. It is clearly obvious someone bubba’d the side plate screws with a screwdriver WAY too big (circular idiot marks around the screws), and someone had the barrel off at some point in time for some reason. I ended up buying it in an unshootable condition for $150, and paid a smith $150 to shoot a parts cannon at it and peen the cylinder notches back into shape. Very obvious it’s been opened and abused by someone who didn’t know what they were doing, but after the repairs it’s a fantastic shooter. I can’t fathom finding a tight 66-1 for $300 anywhere, even 20 years ago when I got it.
    Last edited by Fuel Fire Desire; 09-14-2020 at 10:28 PM.

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