[JohnPainter]

Since I’m being more careful with how much ammo I’m shooting these days, and have no other winter projects and I have some parts from my other Star... I’ve been able to cobble together most other parts to build a Star. So here it goes.

While the spare frame I have is in excellent shape, there is some pitting on the left side of the slide I picked up. Otherwise the slide is in excellent condition. I think I can take that pitting down with careful wet sanding, and eventually Duracoat the whole gun. But I would lose the Star logo. What do others think? Would you do anything differently?

 

[curly1]

It's a put together shooter, leave it and shoot it.

 

[Subgunner]

Yup, I agree. And I think it would be bad juju to take that Star logo off..

 

[ibmikey]

The Duracoat or Cerakote process does not cover the engraving if done properly. BHSS has a process for coating pitted parts you should give them a call, but only after you are convinced your “ put together” is functioning properly

 

[arquebus357]

The safety pocket appears to have a crack. It may be just the photograph. I would have no problem with you sanding off the Star logo. That's probably what I would do, but I'm a bubba !!!

 

[michaeln]

A finely debadged 1911'ish pistol could be cool but the star badging is itself very cool. Idk, If you refinished it w/o fully smoothing out the pitting, would you still lose the logo? Personally, I'd probably prefer to not lose the logo (i also like old things that look old, i might leave it as is) but I can also understand the creative urge of going for a pristine finish that unfortunately loses the Star branding in the process. I don't think you can go wrong really in whatever you decide is more important to you. I get that it's not just the end result that matters, it's the process too and sense of accomplishment. How's that for a clear answer, cheers

 

[JohnPainter]

It's a put together shooter, leave it and shoot it.

Not a bad idea and is one of my options I’m considering since the other side of the slide is perfect and doesn’t have the crest area milled - there no crest. Though for a gun that’s Frankensteined, under $200 its alluring to mess around with.

 

[JohnPainter]

The Duracoat or Cerakote process does not cover the engraving if done properly. BHSS has a process for coating pitted parts you should give them a call, but only after you are convinced your “ put together” is functioning properly

The engraving on left side is badly pitted, though all the rust is out, so the factory engraving is very weak. ☹

 

[JohnPainter]

A finely debadged 1911'ish pistol could be cool but the star badging is itself very cool. Idk, If you refinished it w/o fully smoothing out the pitting, would you still lose the logo? Personally, I'd probably prefer to not lose the logo (i also like old things that look old, i might leave it as is) but I can also understand the creative urge of going for a pristine finish that unfortunately loses the Star branding in the process. I don't think you can go wrong really in whatever you decide is more important to you. I get that it's not just the end result that matters, it's the process too and sense of accomplishment. How's that for a clear answer, cheers

I could remove pitting without touching actual Star, but the rest of the engraving is very faint due to pitting unless I angle it just right against the light. It’s a tough call. As a numismatist, I don’t like to mess with patina on metal, but there’s always lost causes that are just begging for it. I’ll have to wait and see how it functions and fires.

 

[JohnPainter]

Well, I split the difference. I was annoyed by the pitting on the slide and the spots where the bluing was already worn through or abased off enough that I decided to give it a good soak in Evapo-Rust. So I decided to smooth out the shallow pitting while trying to save the engraving and cold bluing. Later on I’ll decide after shooting a bit whether I will take it all down again for a DuraCoat. I have 8 coats of cold blue on it, and it is much less green than in these photos, but obviously not deep blue in the stock frame. For now it is fine, and with minor tweaking everything works smoothly.

 

[ibmikey]

John, I have an extra slide to give away but i remember it has a crack where the safety lever is. I will check it later today to see how bad it is. Does not cause any functioning problems and is a common problem not addressed by Star until close to end of production.

 

[JohnPainter]

John, I have an extra slide to give away but i remember it has a crack where the safety lever is. I will check it later today to see how bad it is. Does not cause any functioning problems and is a common problem not addressed by Star until close to end of production.

Thank you, out of curiosity do you, or anyone, know what grade (or equivalent) metal the Spanish used for these slides? Are these things milled out of 4150 or a Spanish equivalent? This slide (not the original mate to the frame) seems a lot harder than I would have thought.

 

[ibmikey]

John, If you see any use for this slide PM an address and I will send it. Finish has been removed chemically as there is no buffing evidence (Maybe bead blasting?)

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Johnpainter-
You need to flat-sand the slide. Do this by taping a full sheet of 320 grit wet-dry sandpaper to a clean, flat surface. Lay the slide on the paper and sand it. Then, go to 400 grit.
Unless you do this, the pitting will look drawn out, as in your picture.
And, cold blue will never give you a good finish, nor does it protect the slide from rust.

 

[arquebus357]

The slide and frame are different. When I rust blued mine the slide came out with far more shine than the frame. My slide had that that same crack and I silver brazed a reinforcement piece. Like this:

 

[Bill DeShivs]

I would just silver solder the crack.

 

[MGMike]

...
And, cold blue will never give you a good finish, nor does it protect the slide from rust.

Even worse, it stinks like rotten eggs. Just awful. It should be used only to hide the slightest scratches or on burred areas of screws. Anything more than that is fugly.

If one insists on building up guns from parts that are heavily pitted and for one reason or another are not, or cannot be, polished out to a clean pit-free surface, a good compromise is to bead-blast the whole gun and drop it in a bluing tank. No polishing.

If there's no disassembly, polishing or other prep involved (other than degreasing) some gunsmiths will reblue parts, charging only by the pound.

Unless it's really rare, a cracked slide should be scrapped. Especially when the repair adds material to the back side where, if it lets go, you get shrapnel in the face. BM slides are not rare or expensive and don't justify much time and labor to save. If you intend to shoot the gun, replace the slide with one that is sound.

M

 

[arquebus357]

^^^^^^^^^^^ You need to get you some Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. No smell whatsoever. Unless it's a modern coating system of some kind, there is no bluing that offers much rust protection. I prefer rust bluing but, again, I'm a bubba. I use Oxpho-Blue for things like touching up the rear sights of my S&W's and it works quite well for that. Of course, my Ruger's use aluminum rear sights so for them it's Birchwood Casey's Aluminum Black. Properly applied, this product also does well.

 

[MGMike]

^^^^^^^^^^^ You need to get you some Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. No smell whatsoever ...

I have used Brownell's Oxpho-Blue for many years, exclusively, for the very limited applications that I mentioned. But it too leaves a strong odor that you can't get rid of, and I can smell it on my hands after handling a gun that's seen excessive use of any cold blue.

M

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Oxpho Blue is cold blue.
Cold blue sucks.