I have read that polishing and balancing stainless props can improve performance. I have a 496 Mag, Bravo III with satin finished props. I like to get them polished and balanced. Will I see any speed improvement?

Maybe a little--but not much. Balancing them will help prevent any vibration you might have. I had mine done and IMO it was worth the money.
Jay

Satin finish is faster by a very tiny(.2 mph or so) amount. Balancing may pick up some performance if they are out of spec by much.

My 260 Chap has a 496 MAG and a Bravo III. Bravo III props are notoriously out of balance from the factory. I sent mine to Brett at Bblades and had him balance them, polish them (for looks and ease of cleaning), and verify/true the pitch across all the blades. He also ever so slightly worked each blade edge. My cruise RPM dropped slightly and I picked up 50 RPM on the top end (which I needed) and 1 MPH at WOT. My goals were to make sure the props were properly balanced, make them look better, not lose efficiency at cruise, and gain a few RPM at WOT. Brett nailed my requests exactly. The extra MPH at WOT was just a bonus.

Thanks for the Info! My boat is a Chap 256. Can you give me more info. on the place that did yours?

Brett Anderson at BBlades. Does all of my prop work as well!!

BBlades

Dave

You are absolutely correct, Brett and BBlades are the place to go!

I don't know if the outcome would be the same as on a BB or SB but with my previous boat which had a 300x on it, I picked up 300 rpm after having the prop balanced.
It was a custom prop so maybe it was just so off to begin with. Nevertheless, I've bought brand new, non labbed finished props from Merc that needed balancing almost everytime.

got in touch with Brett. I think I'll give it a shot! Heck, it's cheap to gain an additional 2 mph at WOT!! Improved acceleration will be great too!