Thread: Cold Bluing.

My experience is the same. It's not as long lasting as a "proper" blue job done in a tank with the correct chemicals/heating etc. And likewise I flame blue screw heads.

I did a full muzzle loading rifle years ago which came in the white and looked quite good when blued. The finish quickly changed around the muzzle area where I constantly held it for loading back, to a grey colour.

I have use BC products a lot though for touch up and small parts. That is it's place in life for me. I prefer the paste over the liquid.

Also, some surfaces just won't take the treatment. I have an old Savage 32/20 with a steel butt plate and no matter what I did I couldn't get any sort of result. I also used the BC Blue remover to prep it. Did the same process with trigger guard and it came out good.

Mmmm... as mentioned have done several with the BC Superblue using my own method and been very pleased with results. No quick wear either. 22s mostly. There is of course blue thinning/wear with any system - normal pack wear, suppressor rub etc.

And certainly some metals can prove challenging. Had a brace of Winchester 94/22s few years back in 22LR and 22WMR - one of which needed a restore. Rifle woodwork came up well, but the Winny metal receiver was very difficult with the blue products 15 years ago. Eventually nailed it but really took time and experimentation. That rifle would certainly have been better with tank immersion method.

Originally Posted by blip

Still will rust like shit if you leave it untreated??

I haven't done a search as recomended above. But, the bluing is "the treatment" - it converts the surface of the steel to ferrite, which better holds oil. (As above cold "bluing" products are selenium dioxide and do not actually change the steel)

This is a set of pipes that were rusty as hell. They've had one trip through the elecrolysis-rust-boil process and have been out in the muggy for maybe two months, and not really showing any signs of wanting to develop red rust again. As above, some steels just don't wanna.
The finish isn't to my liking so they're probably going to be fume-blued from here. The other option is wiping on a super-saturated solution of salt in hydrogen peroxide (accelerated rust bluing - if you want the search term)

Interesting about the birchwood casey super blue, I had no luck getting it to blue a shotgun barrel I was trying to touch up.
It only made it marginally darker and was a lighter spot than the rest of the gun.
I tried acetone and all sorts of solvents to clean it too.

I bought some super blue a while back for a couple of small jobs. Touched up a mark on a barrel and and action. Did some other little do-dads like thread protectors. Barrel came out perfect, action wasn't too bad. Thread protectors were a pita.
All the chemical cold blues have different chemical properties and work on different things.
From a bit of internet research and a very limited ecoerience

Originally Posted by No.3

Meticulous surface prep - any areas that are different, corroded, old blue etc will take the cold blue in a different way. There are different types of cold blue chemicals and some will work where others dont... Worth keeping in the back of the mind on your 15th attempt at coating a stubborn spot.

+1 on surface prep, it will determine the outcome primarily.

Test process on a piece of scrap steel then you know what you're in for.
Clean with solvents and or wire brush, steel wool etc until clean, then begin the meticulous part.
Sand with wet+dry 600-1200 grit to remove any deep staining on the metal, then begin polishing.
If you have access to one, use a metal polisher wheel. Even the cheap drill chuck mounted setups. Buff until shiny, a mirror finish if possible. The smoother and shinier the metal surface, the better the bluing will look. Polishing will only be difficult in some nooks and crannies, and these areas will end up with a different bluing appearance than the more shiny areas though, so I guess you have to decide how far you are going.
I did an old single shot .22 for fun, and the whole process took me most of a day, but I was surprised with the result considering the fairly low cost.