Polishing stainless (opinions?)

Hey guys... My lil bro bought my old Laseraim 45 and he was thinking of giving it a polish job. He liked the looks of the 45 I built and polished and wanted to do the same.The problem is, the laser aim has no manufacture markings on the frame except the serial number and the markings on the slide look to be some type of screen printing. So if he polishes the slide I'm sure the markings will come off.

The gun in question:

Toothpaste may work and not be too abrasive

Brasso will do it and will not be too abrasive. there are many polishes that will shine it up provided it was polished when new. Stainless gets dull because it oxidizes which believe it or not prevents it from rusting. It is that Dull milky white oxide layer that protects it. there are several metal polishes out there and I believe they are all about equal. but I would test them on a non conspicuous area to be certain that they won't blacken it.

a little more info....

The slide has a fine bead blasted finish and the frame had a rough sand blasted look. I did a brushed look on the frame sides and smoothed down the rest of the rough surfaces. it looks great the way it is...I think he wants a shiny mirror finish and to get that will takes hours of elbow grease or a good buffing wheel...no matter how it is done I don't think the factory screen printing on the slide will live through the process.

What I'm wondering is....is it a bad idea to remove the manufactures name and origin from the slide? Normally this info is on the frame and is engraved or stamped or etched in some way so it cannot be easily removed.

I COULD BE WRONG so take this for what its worth I believe the only thing that is mandatory is the SN to be legal. I believe that to polish off the factory screen will not make it illegal but sure would hurt its value. The SN should be stamped on the frame I believe again I could be wrong.

Yeah, the serial is stamped at the bottom of the grip on the frame. I have seen plenty of custom 1911 with unmarked slides...but there is always something on the frame besides the serial.

I know when building a gun from scratch it is supposed to be marked with the manufactures name and location....along with the serial number. but is not absolutely necessary if you are not a licensed manufacture and never sell it.

what I told him was....stuff eventually wears, and it wouldn't be hard to wear off the factory markings. But it will be hard to sell it down the road if it cannot be readily identified.

He is paranoid that it will be illegal if the lettering comes off...

The markings are lazer etched and would probably take a lot of polishing to completely remove . I had one that beat around in my console a few years and looked pretty shabby but cleaned up well . Haven't seen a Lazeraim in years . Nice !

he did a small test spot, and the lettering will come off with not much effort. I guess he did some digging around and found out they only made about 400 of that model. So he might leave it as it is.

I don't know anything about Lazeraim not heard of them till now, but my decision if it was me, 400 made, leave it alone.

I wasn't going to give an opinion on polishing anything as I don't want to feel responsible for someone messing up a fire arm finding out later that they should not have done it. However, reading that there might only have been 400 made, I would not dare do anything to it...

Just my 2, well maybe 1 cent worth lol...

If there's no collectors value and he wants a different uniform finish I would suggest a parkerized finish..........but that's just me. It would probably be easier than getting a mirrored finish.
Like you said Hawcer, lots of hours with a buffing wheel. If he's really, really, upset with it just have him send it to me.

The most important thing is.......How's it shoot?
If it's a shooter, then leave it as is and enjoy. JMO

You can't park stainless steel .

+1 on leaving it be looks good like it is i wouldnt mess with it just my 2 cents i dont like doing anything to a gun thats not reversable adding grips or lasers and stuff like that is fine you can always take them off but changing the finish could be a price buster!

I agree with Dart, I would leave it as it is. It looks just fine as far as the pic shows.