Although this is 'Mag specific, most of this applies to polishing just about anything. This was originally posted at the Tinker's Guild Forum. For polishing supplies, try Caswell.

Polishing the flat-grey AutoMag and MiniMag bodies is some of the most difficult polishing possible.

And I mean that sincerely.

The stock 'Mag body is sandblasted after it's assembled, to clean off the flux and discoloration from when it's furnace-brazed. Because of this, the surface is pitted and rough.

If you simply went at it with a buffing wheel, you'd wind up with a kinda-shiny but still rough body.

To get a good shine, a true "mirror"- or nearly so- finish, you have to sand the body down to the "bottom" of those pits and roughness, before you can even begin to try to polish it.

Which leads us to the worst part- the 'Mag body is heat-treated 400-series stainless steel. It's pretty hard (far harder than brass or aluminum) and stainless has the annoying tendency to "work harden" as it's... well, worked. Like being ground or filed or sanded.

Meaning it takes a LOT of work, either power tools or elbow grease, just to get the thing smooth enough to start polishing it.

Once you've worn out both elbows and a box full of sandpaper, then do the whole 320/600/1000/1500-grit series (which takes literally about four times longer at each step than brass or aluminum would.)

And, once you finally have it smooth and clean at the 1500 grit stage, THEN break out the buffing wheel and some emory. Then move to rouge with a clean wheel and top it off with some Flitz on a clean, soft cloth.

Last one I did, using a D/A air sander and a 3/4-hp buffer with two wheels, and consuming probably twenty sheets of various grit sandpapers, took me about two days.

But it was an absolute mirror at the end.

Doc.