Maybe a lot of years of doing lapidary work on semi-precious stones like agate, Tiger Eye, and various other materials for making cabochon jewelry helped me avoid all the dreadful consequences of power polishing metal that everybody seems to fear like the boogeyman. Getting a mirror finish on gun parts with 555 polish before having another smith with a hot blue system dunk 'em is my way of getting a finish better than matte or semi-gloss. That has worked for me for over 30 years. I did invest the 30 bucks for a 6" carding wheel with .002" diameter wires- - - - -it paid for itself in labor time on the first job I used it on, and the rest of the time saved since then has been icing on the cake. One of my students found a 4X8 foot sheet of 16 gauge stainless steel lying in the street and gave it to me- - - - -it made four 6 X 6 X 36 inch boiling tanks for the cost of getting a welding shop to cut and bend the material and weld the ends on.
I brown with Laurel Mountain all the time- - - - -it works great! I've never tried it for bluing- - - - -Dicropan IM works too well for me to try anything else.
Jerry
