As the subject says… What’s the best way to go about this? My project is an old revolver that someone has tried to refinish by clamping it in a non-padded vise and then scrubbing it vigorously with what appears to be a very coarse sandpaper. The previous "refinisher" obviously gave up after this, so now I have to fix the mess. I have used emery cloth and wet-or-dry paper to get rid of most of the damage, but there are areas left that I can’t polish very much without destroying the roll stamps.

I have tried the wand copper kit with together with some careful block sanding and it seems like it will work, even if it’s a pretty tedious process. I do have the time and patience to do it, but I don’t know what to do after everything is nice and smooth. Can I leave it with only the scratches filled and bare steel around them, or do I have to copper plate the whole gun to get a nice finish?

Another question is if I have to nickel plate before I continue patching and filling with copper. I’m at work right now so I can’t check, but I believe that the Caswell manual recommends nickel plating (strike coat?) before copper plating, so is that the case with the brush-on copper plating as well?

Any advice on the steps involved will be greatly appreciated!