Thread: Home ‘bluing’

Originally Posted by garyp

I do all my bluing in a vertical 15 cm diameter steel tube with a big steel plate welded to the base. The tube is put onto a single gas burner to boil away gently. I can easily do 3 or 4 guns at a time. Takes me about 2 hours with repeated 10 minute boilings, wipe on bluing solution and gentle carding with soft steel wool followed at the end by hard rubbing with wool soaked in engine oil. Left overnight then wiped down with old rags. The deep blue satin finish is fantastic. The solution is Clyde Bakers formula so being a chemistry teacher it is easy to make up .

I would be interested to hear more about this. I did a quick search for the formula you mentioned, but what exactly are you using? Are these chemicals reasonably easy for someone not in the chemisty/industrial circles to get hold of? and most importantly how hazardous is the stuff? Is it something you would recommend someone who failed chemistry in high school to mess with?
Im guessing your using the wipe on bluing solution to promote "rust" very quickly and then boiling it in water to convert to ferric oxide which you then card and repeat?

I have been doing a bit of reading into this and it seems a common modern rust blue solution is hydrogen peroxide saturated with salt.
You apply this liquid to the cleaned part, it causes red rust to appear very quickly, you rinse the part with water then boil in water for a few min. Remove, card off the black fluff and go again. Does anyone have any experience with a mix like this? Any idea as to the strength of hydrogen peroxide to use?

I ended up using CRC Black Zinc, I masked the breech end up to the front of the rear sight mount as it was sort of OK.

The rest of the barrel had been roughly sanded as mentioned and I sanded it to a brushed appearance so as it was bare metal I decided to use the above paint.

Sprayed it during a hot time of day and warmed the can and barrel first.

It turned out a nice even matte finish that doesn’t look out of place.

How long it will last remains to be seen…

If anyone wants bits blued I can do them in a few weeks when I do a number of guns, only stipulation is that they are already polished/sanded of any previous bluing, that is bare steel surface. Cost will be munimal.

Originally Posted by mimms2

While -paint- on -firearms- personally gives me the shits (i don't much care for -black- or -plastic- either...I am starting to come around on this -scope- fad though)

heating the rattle can, and the bbl, and assuming you mist coated it first, should give you a pretty acceptable paint finish. And it's your thing so as long as you're happy we're all happy.

Lol!
Yeah mist coated the barrel first, left it for 1/2 hour in the sun the lightly coated it twice more with one hour gaps, I never let it get to a ‘wet’ stage as I wanted no hint of gloss.
It’s a really acceptable sort of satin finish with minute texture.

Obviously not as good as blueing but hey, it’s a budget build done during lockdown.

I did the same with my old shotty but used heat proof satin engine paint - seems to be a bit more resilient than normal spray paint .

Originally Posted by mimms2

Bloody animals, the pair of ya!

so you jokers are saying...blueing does nothing to help prevent rust????
interesting...very interesting

THANKYOU for taking time to type that.....so keep them guns oiled,is as relevant today as it was 200 years ago..... strangely enough when I took scope out of rings tonight,there was rust inside rings and light coat on top....both got oily rag treatment before scope went back in...and outside got another whipe before going back in cupboard/safe....blood has always been one of the worst for stripping blue/causing rust.

Originally Posted by SixtyTen

I have been doing a bit of reading into this and it seems a common modern rust blue solution is hydrogen peroxide saturated with salt.
You apply this liquid to the cleaned part, it causes red rust to appear very quickly, you rinse the part with water then boil in water for a few min. Remove, card off the black fluff and go again. Does anyone have any experience with a mix like this? Any idea as to the strength of hydrogen peroxide to use?

Depending on what you are bluing you may have an issue with hydrogen embrittlement doing hydrogen peroxide flash rust bluing on hardened or high stress metals. Won't hurt mild steels, but things like hardened parts or springs might become brittle. Just something to be aware of in relation to an otherwise excellent method for bluing parts.

A good basic video on the process, and mention of embrittlement



Somewhere in the depths of the internet is a video of a guy who caused embrittlement in flat springs to show what happens, but no idea where it is.

Originally Posted by caberslash

Bubba's Cerakote:

Attachment 177644

Camouflage colour in one can?? Sounds as viable as tartan paint.

Originally Posted by 6x47

Camouflage colour in one can?? Sounds as viable as tartan paint.

Likewise barber pole paint, one of the things that new apprentices used to be sent to the store to get, back in the day.

Originally Posted by SixtyTen

I have used duracoat on a few rifles now. Easy enough to apply with a spray gun and seems to be holding up fine. It tool a long time to cure properly completely and stop out-gassing (as in my gunsafe smelt like duracoat for about a month)

I have also had good luck with cold blue if the process is followed correctly. Most important thing is to have the steel squeaky clean before starting.

Jumping in on an old thread as I'll be trying this soon on a small part that needs re-bluing. How long was long for it to fully cure?

Originally Posted by dnsn

Jumping in on an old thread as I'll be trying this soon on a small part that needs re-bluing. How long was long for it to fully cure?

From memory, touch dry within a couple of hours depending on ambient temp, can be reassembled after 24h and completely cured after about a month (again depends on ambient temp. Personally I would leave it after spraying for at least 3 or 4 days before reassembling as I managed to put a couple of marks in an action when reassembling a rifle after 1 day. If that time is not practical, just be really careful.