Slow Rust Bluing question

[Whiterabbit]

Ah! Now that is indeed night and day.

I can't help but notice the revolver has a very nice 'sheen' to it. VERY nice. I'd be pleased as punch.

What grit did you final sand your parts with, if you don't mind my asking, and what did you use for your final carding? I suspect the answer lies somewhere within . . . .

320, but the 320 are "samples" from 3M, they kinda feel a smidge rougher than 320. I would file where needed, remove the file marks with 220 (next time I will try 180, but may still settle on 220), then remove the 220 marks with 320.

The first one and a half carding cycles was done with a wire brush by hand, but after I lightly removed half of the material from the second boil I switched to degreased 0000 steel wool.

The sheen is because I finished the parts with boiled linseed oil. The oil is only about a day old there, so it might not have fully dried yet. But it definitely makes things a little "sheenier" than "dry".

I attribute the results to two changes I made. pre-treating the metal to remove all contaminates (unlike oxpho apparently, my stuff IS hyper sensitive to contamination), and making sure the boil water was as contaminate free as possible. I'm pretty confident that contaminated water is what contributed most to the insert above not being a nice dark blue.

[Hannibal]

Thank you for the information. Much to think about in this thread, and many possibilities.

[The Virginian]

I wish you success with you blue jobs, but Brownells sells the liquid also so make sure you order the Oxpho Cream. Regardless of why, the oxidation/reaction or whatever you want to call it, appears to continue and this is why I believe a light rust tends to develop the next day. When I first applied heavy grease it was my intention to protect the metal from that light rust. The next day when I went to put things back together at first I thought I was imagining the darker color, but that is what happens. If you just wipe off the grease leaving a lite coat, no rust. I haven't tried soda to neutralize, but the idea sounds solid. I think we all are looking for an easy way to protect and beautify our firearms without breaking the bank; this works for me.

With respect, we know about cold blues and the fact of the matter is they are not anywhere near as good as rust bluing or hot salt bluing. Oxpho blue cream is good for touch ups, but it does not penetrate the metal surface and is copper selinium based that causes a thin oxidation process with a slight plating of a copper oxide to give the appearance of a blue black. Cold blue guns have a garlicy smell to them because of this acid/cold rust oxidation which will not only not wear as well as a rust blue finish, but does not have the satin glow and beauty of a real slow rust blue finish. No comparison in looks by miles... Rust bluing is a totally different and a much harder wearing finish process that is used on fine rifles and shotguns, Lugers and Winchester rifles of old. Cold bluing also has a strange feel to the metal unlike the hard and smooth finish of rust, Belgian or hot salt blue. The original question was about rust bluing and not hot bluing or cold bluing.

[The Virginian]

For curing after the last carding of a rust blue on about the 7-8th cycle or turn, I wipe the part with acetone to clean any microscopic leftover black oxide and then coat it with a 50/50 mix of mineral spirits and linseed oil, set the parts to cure for 2-3 days and then wipe it off with mineral spirits with a final coat of water displacing oil or if you would rather use regular gun oil, that works too.