Andy's Rust Blue thread WIP

[andremajic]

Here we have an AR-15 Barrel which has been prepped by taking off the old paint on the barrel and doing a crosshatch pattern with a machinist file. It's hard to see in the pic, but it looks like the scraping you see on cast iron machinery. I want this to have a matte finish when it's done.

The gas port has been taped over so that there will be less rusting around where the gas block is fit, and some oversize dowels have been crammed in the chamber and muzzle to help handle it without getting oils from my hands on it.

It's hard to see because the picture was taken at the end of the day, but the barrel has already been given a couple coats of rust blue, followed by a heating.

This is what it looks like after sitting in the bathroom for 24 hours

There is a thin layer of rust.

I left a 5 gallon bucket to collect the precipitation outdoors. I heated up the water to a rolling boil, then poured it into my capped piece of PVC with the rusted barrel inside and let it sit 30 minutes.

After carding off the loose black oxide and reapplying some rust blue, I set it in a corner of the bathroom for another 24 hours. Notice the strip that isn't rusted where the black electrical tape was?

You don't have to plug your barrel, I just did it for ease of handling, and to keep the oils of my hand off it. I took the tape off to give it a chance to rust as well, even though the gas block will be covering up this portion of the barrel.

After another 24 hours there is a little more rust, but it's harder to see in the pics:


Here it is after a boil and carding:

Nice.

I like the color right now, it's a dark gunmetal grey color, but I'm going to make it blacker. Time to give it another coat and another rust for 24 hours.

Update: OK, it's day 3 and there is an extremely light coat of rust left on the barrel after 24 hours. It's almost like a dusting of it that you have to look hard in this picture to see.


Here it is after boiling and carding.


And here it is after a nice thick coating of rem-oil. This is a thirsty finish. I've had to do 2 coats already, and it's sucked up into the pores after sitting a couple minutes.


I'm happy with the color and finish of this barrel, so after 3 coats it's done and ready to re-install.

Here's a pic of the upper receiver assembled.


Andy

[SSGOldfart]

Andy if your pm mail box is full your out going Pm's won't work either???????

[andremajic]

Andy if your pm mail box is full your out going Pm's won't work either???????

I did a bunch of cleaning in my inbox. I have under 20 messages in there now. I

think it had to do with sending multiple PMs at the same time. Never used that function before.

Andy

[wwmartin]

I'll give it a try. Put me on the list.
Bill

[pworley1]

Very impressive work.

[adrians]

Got my bottle today,,, Thanks Andy.

[andremajic]

S&W uses up to 32 different contour/shape wheels to polish one revolver. and a very experienced guy at the buffing wheel. Unless you want to ruin a bunch of firearms, don't ever use power buffers to do your finish. You've been warned!

Next project in this thread is going to be a S&W 5 screw revolver that has a less than attractive finish. Because of all the nooks and crannies, curves and flats, this might take a while to prep with sandpaper. I'll post pics when it's ready to start. You can use something like naval jelly or vinegar to strip what's left of your bluing off, but I prefer to keep it on. It helps keep track of areas that aren't touched yet.

This is what it looks like so far. Lots of work to go, and you'll notice a lot of pitting that I may or may not be able to eliminate. The main thing is to go slow, and use hard backing materials that match the contours. That way your edges stay sharp, you won't get a wavy finish.
Go slow. Your prep work will directly affect your final finish.


Do this work in direct sunlight if at all possible, or really bright lights. If you aren't using enough light, you will miss a lot of imperfections.

Polish with the side-plate attached. A common amateurs mistake is to polish them separately, and then when it's reassembled, there is a noticeable seam that runs around the plate where the two parts don't match up. Do the same with the crane installed in the receiver when you polish that side, and the front seam between the frame and the crane.

Andy

[mckenziedrums]

Now this one I'm watching like a hawk... My first attempt will be a rough Marlin .35 rem I got and then probably an Enfield... once I feel I'm comfortable with the process I'll bring out the Manurhin revolver but I can't mess that one up!

[Fla9-40]

Sorry had to delete first post....
================================================== =
I just this week completed my first project with Andy's Rust Blue. This is an old 22lr revolver that my dad had for as long as I can remember (I'm 59) and I got it when he past away in '97.

I can NEVER remember him cleaning, much less shooting this thing. Here are a few before and after pics. Camera work is not to good with my cell phone, I apologize up front.

Before:









After some prep work...




After First coat...



After Four Coats...

[Fla9-40]

Some more of the finished product....

[andremajic]

Excellent work! It only took a tiny bit of that solution to blue the pistol, didn't it?

[Fla9-40]

Thanks! It was lots easier then I thought!

Yes sir, very little at all!

Thanks again Andy!

[andremajic]

Here's the progress on the M&P 1905 five screw S&W.

The tricky part is sanding out the pitting, without lowering the roll stamped lettering. This can be accomplished mainly by leaving the lettering alone and going around the periphery of it and eliminating as many pits as possible with a backed sanding block. There is a bit of artistic touch that can be used to hide imperfections, such as using a different grit of finish to distract the eye. If you have lots of pitting that cannot be eliminated, you don't want to bring the gun to a high polish, because the pits would stand out like a sore thumb.

Keep your sanding directions in the same direction as the factory finish. If you have to remove a lot of material, you could change the direction to keep the finish even, then go back to the original direction again. This will help with any "rocking" on flats that you might be doing unconsciously, which can lead to an uneven finish.

You can do the "shoe shine" with sandpaper on the barrel, but be aware that this can easily lead to waves and an uneven end result. If you do the "shoe shine" method of sanding, do a little sanding lengthwise on the barrel like "draw filing" to even it out. Make sure that at the end, all the directions of the sanding are pointing the same direction, if at all possible.

The S&W logo is especially shallow, try to leave it alone as much as you can.

For all the nooks and crannies that you can't possibly touch except with short stroking, especially concave curves, there is a product called cratex abrasive that is a rubberized abrasive in different grits. They come in all sorts of different shapes, grits and sizes and can help a lot. I still wouldn't recommend using them with a dremel. Polish by hand. Slow and steady wins the race, eh?


A little progress with 350 grit and a backing block. Don't rush the job.

Andy

[mckenziedrums]

So Andy... I'm going to get around to trying this myself but... any photos of what it looks like on a highly polished part? I'm talking sanding it up to 2k grit and hitting it with the buffing wheel prior to bluing... I'd imagine you'd end up with a nice shiny blue when you're done though I'm not sure how much the 0000 steel wool would knock back. Guessing denim or 2k paper would be better for that.

[waksupi]

So Andy... I'm going to get around to trying this myself but... any photos of what it looks like on a highly polished part? I'm talking sanding it up to 2k grit and hitting it with the buffing wheel prior to bluing... I'd imagine you'd end up with a nice shiny blue when you're done though I'm not sure how much the 0000 steel wool would knock back. Guessing denim or 2k paper would be better for that.

That is too fine. You need to leave tooth to the steel. 320 is about the cut off for a quality bluing job. The best finish towards shiny will be accomplished by finishing between coats and at the end with a stainless carding/polishing wheel from Brownells.

[mckenziedrums]

That is too fine. You need to leave tooth to the steel. 320 is about the cut off for a quality bluing job. The best finish towards shiny will be accomplished by finishing between coats and at the end with a stainless carding/polishing wheel from Brownells.

Got it... final polish at the end. I do a lot of finishing work but never played with bluing before. My assumption, apparently incorrect, was that since this is a chemical finish that provides its own bite you'd want the high polish prior to applying it and it would etch itself in. I'll certainly have to play around a bit. Spraying a finish and getting a mirror gloss I can do but this will be a new medium for me entirely.

[andremajic]

waksupi is correct. 350 is about the limit of what you want to polish, otherwise you're wasting time. You can use a brown paper grocery bag or those rough brown paper towels to polish between coats. They are the equivalent of 1-2000 grit sandpaper.

I would not recommend using a buffing wheel or anything powered. It's too easy to dish out your flat surfaces using powered abrasives.

There is another technique I've been playing around with for small parts. Get a super fine polish on a screw head by spinning it in a drill chuck with sandpaper. Then heat it up fast with a propane torch just hot enough to make it sizzle, then dunk the entire head into a small glass container holding the rust bluing solution. Repeat this about 20-30 times. You can get a beautiful blue/black on those parts without letting it rust overnight, but I don't have the technique down well enough to recommend it yet.

Feel free to experiment with small stuff like screw heads, if you like.
(This is not flame bluing, just in case you were thinking that.)

If you were to do an entire gun that way, it would probably involve heating it up in an oven, then taking it out and swabbing it really fast with a sopping wet sponge or cotton swab. Another drawback this technique would have is you'd go thru a bottle really fast as it would evaporate a lot of your solution doing it this way.

[andremajic]

So Andy... I'm going to get around to trying this myself but... any photos of what it looks like on a highly polished part? I'm talking sanding it up to 2k grit and hitting it with the buffing wheel prior to bluing... I'd imagine you'd end up with a nice shiny blue when you're done though I'm not sure how much the 0000 steel wool would knock back. Guessing denim or 2k paper would be better for that.

I'll take a pic of the prepped revolvers side plate when it's ready.

What you want is a hazy reflective surface. You should be able to see basic stuff being reflected back, but it shouldn't look like your bathroom mirror.

[mckenziedrums]

Understood... not much different than prep work I do for other finishes that I spray on then. Anything smoother than 320-400 is just wasted effort and more headache than it's worth. I wouldn't use powered tools for anything other than buffing. I'm picking up my project rifle this evening that will be the first actual firearm I test this out on. Full realize a rifle is a lot more area to prep but less fine details than a revolver and if I screw it up I'll paint the sucker and sell it as a hunting rifle. Thanks for all the information!

[andremajic]

Here's an updated pic of the revolver: (Might need to dust out the computer case soon!)


You see how it's reflective, but not like a mirror? This is the type of finish you should be getting. I still have a lot of little inclusions and pits to eliminate but it's coming along nicely!

Don't rush your job. Everything worth doing is worth taking the time to do well. You'll spend double the time fixing a job that you rush through and do half-assed and have to stare at your work every time you take it to the range. Enough said.

Andy