You guys out there that have polished bolt carrier, Ive gotta question. Do you strip all of the blue off of the entire carrier or just the part that is seen? Does the blue protect the friction areas of the carrier?

It's totally up to you Blue. It looks better if you strip the whole carrier in my opinion. As for the bluing 'protecting' the carrier surface the answer is:

Yes.  Maybe not for friction, but for rust it does. While the bolt carrier is stainless for some reason they (AK & SKS carriers) are prone to rusting. If you upkeep your polish job, no problem. But if you plan on having a low maintenence weapon, keep the carrier as it is. Trust me.

When I did mine, I just did the upper half above the rail groove. Used rust and blue remover, followed by various grits of wet/dry paper, then a dremel & rouge.......worked great, looks great ( to me at least ). It's been a couple of months since I did it, and no corrosion issues at all.

I did the entire carrier on mine. Looks more even to me.

Quoted: ... While the bolt carrier is stainless for some reason they (AK & SKS carriers) are prone to rusting.

Which carriers are stainless? Mine are all carbon steel.

All bolt carriers are carbon steel. I questioned that a few years back and had to get back into metallurgy class. "In the white" looks like stainless but it is not. Madtechcool

That does look good Unka Boo! Im gonna try and get mine done tonight.

Has anyone else had rust issues with theirs?

Thanks!

Just keep it somewhat clean and oiled and you should be fine.

hmm What if you replaced it with a chromed one

Because polishing it cost next to nothing, and I can use the money for ammo instead......

Another newbie idiotic question...  Sorry, but I am soaking up any info I can get right now.

Why a polished bolt carrier?  Looks better, functions better, or both?  

Does anyone have a step-by-step guide to polishing the carrier they'd be willing to share should I be so inclined to tinker?

It's all for looks........a half-assed attempt to make it look like an early chromed carrier.
I saw one done a few months ago, thought it looked good, so bit the bullet and dove in.
   
Here's how I did it.....

1.   Take a few days and convince yourself you NEED to do this because it's friggen kewl....

2.   Grab some rust & blue remover, some various grits of wet/dry paper, and a dremel with a polishing wheel and some rouge or polishing compound.

3.    Pick how much of the carrier you want to strip. If you take out the recoil spring, and set the dust cover in place, slide the carrier back and forth-it'll give you an idea of how much is visible when assembled. I did just the top of the carrier from the grooves up.

4.    Grab a Q-tip and the rust& blue remover and go to town. Just be careful not to get it on stuff you don't want stripped...it works fast! Wear gloves too, that stuff is nasty. Once you let it do it's job, go over it with some steel wool to help get all of the bluing off. After this you're ready to sand.

5.    I used 150, 220, 300, and 400 grit in sequence useing WD-40 as a lube to knock down the rough spots......it really doesn't take that long, and helps immensely whith the next step.

6.    Grab the dremel and go to town, when you get the shine you want, clean it up and put a light coat of oil on it, reassemble and you're done! Easy......

I didnt even use a dremmel, just lots of careful hand work. i used a small bottle of bluse and finish remover and steel wole, it looks great!!! i wish i could post a picture because mine looks "perfict"
i took me about 25 -30 min to make it look good. also did those of you who ALREADY polished there bolt carrier also polish the charging handel or whatever????

Here is mine. I did it all by hand. 150 grit sand paper and 0000 steel wool. I removed the blue off of the entire carrier. I spent about 2 hours on this thing and my arms are some kinda sore. But it was fun. Im not 100% satisfied, there are still a couple of deep machining marks im going to work out later. I did take off a bunch of metal, that thing was in bad shape.

Now Im going to try to post my first pic.  Wish me luck.

http://us.f3.yahoofs.com/users/434023d8zce2a28ca/1541/__sr_/e60f.jpg?phipCQDB9Ir2Uymt

Whoo Hoooo!!!! I did it!!! (On the second try)

Dude........................BIG X

Quoted: Dude........................BIG X

Try it again. Its up for me.

For some reason, somtimes it comes up a big x, I just keep right clicking on it and hit the show picutre button. It usually shows up after 3-4 tries. I wonder why?

Or try this.

Link

Quoted: Quoted: Dude........................BIG X Try it again. Its up for me. For some reason, somtimes it comes up a big x, I just keep right clicking on it and hit the show picutre button. It usually shows up after 3-4 tries. I wonder why? Or try this. Link

Linky no worky

Ok now this will work!!

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/4166/wasr1tx.th.jpg

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/4166/wasr1tx.jpg

HOLY HUGE PICTURE BATMAN!!!!!!


At least it works.

Looks good!

I will say, the matte finish looks more like the hard chrome.....hmmmm maybe I'll have to dull mine up a bit....

I just had to get some more of those deep marks out of it. Here is another pic.

That's weird, I did just the opposite to my Mak90. I blued the bolt carrier.

Quoted: That's weird, I did just the opposite to my Mak90. I blued the bolt carrier. www.fullsizejeeps.com/jeeps/files/Misc-Pictures/newmak90.jpg

I did both, polish and blue.

Nice!

Cold or hot blue??

It's hot blue.

I got the major machine marks out witha Dremel and emery cloth, then buffed it on a Baldor buffer through grits 140, 240, 320, 500 and finally finished with the black wheel for a high shine. Then it was blued. It's as black as night.

Now that's a sweet looking polished blue job!