Bluing Dies

[GregLaROCHE]

Does anyone blue their dies to protect them from rust? Can you use heat bluing with a torch on them or will it effect their tempering?

Thanks

[UKShootist]

What an interesting question. I hope we get some good answers.

[Walkingwolf]

Heat bluing would damage the dies metallurgy, how much so I do not know. Personally I do not worry about minor rust on the outside of dies, brush it off with a brass, or stainless brush, lube, and keep using.

[rancher1913]

blueing could also shrink the insides, maybe not enough to worry with but it could. if you live someplace that is that bad on metal get some fogging oil and spray a coat on them and store in a ziplock bag. you will need to clean the fogging oil off before use but it protects almost as good as cosmoline.

[William Yanda]

Blueing is rust, black rather than red. I suspect the rust protective function is the post blueing oiling. Why not skip the blueing? Well, I admit that a nicely blued object does have an attraction.

[Petrol & Powder]

Oil them before storing them.

Bluing would not be the route I would take.

[salpal48]

That is a Good question. In the past , I do have a Set of Texan dies that the Die Body was blued . while the balance was steel.

[Pavogrande]

I have several brands of dies that are black oxide -- none blued --

[country gent]

The heat required to color them would also be enough to anneal them some also, probably not enough to hurt but on case hardened it might get thru. Hot bluing or rust bluing can affect the surface finish on metals also. Cold bluing would work but may affect surface finish. Another issue is the coloring may make it harder to read the fine ID stampings on the die. As stated above a light coat of oil and zip lock bag. The sizing lube usually does good job preserving the working surfaces

[troyboy]

I cold blued a bunch of my Lee dies. Used Vans. Worked fine.

[jimkim]

My advice buy or barter for a cheap set. Beadblast the exterior. You'll need to protect the cavity with something, so some experimentation will need to be done. Keep your temp between 285° and 300° F. The bead blasted surface should come out a matt black. I'm pretty sure you can find some videos on this.

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[Peregrine]

As you'll likely know, blued steel can still rust although no doubt it would help quite a bit. I'd think if anything getting nitrided would be a great option, not only would they be significantly more corrosion resistance they'd also be significantly hardened, that would be an advantage. I'm not sure if the steel dies are made of is the right composition for it to work (very likely yes) or if it'll be expensive enough to have it done that it's not really worth the benefit (likely yes).

I've had my dies rust despite believing I had kept the adequately clean and protected, I hate it.
What do y'all do to prevent that?

[squidtamer]

I've cold blued some back when I used to load outside at the range during load workup. It works, but it's not perfect. But then I switched to just spraying them with Boshield.

[gumbo333]

I have dies I bought new over 45 years ago, haven't noticed rust as a problem at all. I have dies I bought or traded that were used hard that look evan older, but not rusty. Is rust really much of a problem? Tiny bit of Imperial wax once every 5 or 9 years.

[Bazoo]

My dies rust on the outside if I dont keep a coat of oil on them. They'll rust mostly on the knurled part, and I wire brush them whenever I see it, spray them remoil and wipe it off and put them back in the box. I try to keep a desiccant pack or the anti rusting disc in the boxes with them.

I generally dont clean the sizing die after use so the lube will protect its insides. I dont see that the insides rust nearly as much or easily as the outsides.

I dont think bluing would do much good, many a blued gun barrel has rusted. If I got to wipe off the die to keep it from rusting, dont make no difference if its blued or not. I imagine that the bluing would wear off the threads fairly quickly from turning the die in and out.

[CamoWhamo]

Here in Australia there's a gentleman that offers die Cerracoating and that works great for protecting the external surfaces.

[Bazoo]

Here in Australia there's a gentleman that offers die Cerracoating and that works great for protecting the external surfaces.

Howdy, do they cerracoat the threads too? Wouldn't it add too much thickness so they were tight to screw in ?

[Handloader109]

Boshield works well to slow down rust. Cerkote would be an alternative and shouldn't bother the threads is done correctly


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[BigAlofPa.]

I put a light coat of remoil on mine. Works well.

[drfroglegs]

You should try Birchwood Casey Barricade. It's almost a miracle worker.

I live in humid eastern NC and it all but eliminates rust on my dies.

If you have rust just dip the dies in Evaporust, rinse them really well with water, spray them off with some carb cleaner to make sure there is absolutely no water, then coat the entire die in the Barricade. Let it sit for a little while then wipe off the excess.

I don't get any rust on my dies since I have coated them with Barricade. Occasionally when the dies get dirty or build up some lube inside ill fully clean them and barricade them again. Works really well for me.