okay here goes....
i have a .32acp "ortgies" auto pistol, from the 1920's to the 1930's not sure just how old.
it seems to me that it was VERY well made. it's not particularly rare but is in nice condition.
and i want to re-blue it.
so i took it apart, cleaned it, used 320 grit on all surfaces followed by 600 grit.
i got out all the dings, nick and scratches from anything visible, and that is ...
trigger
grip safety
frame
slide
at first i remembered a similarly "old" pistol that i blued. it was a 1930's "STAR" auto in .38 acp
i cooked it in potassium nitrate salts for 2 hours and every piece turned out beautiful!
so i tried it again with this "ortgies" ....
at the end of the 2 hours it had a baked on scum that was hard to remove and it pitted minorly the surface.
it took twice as long to get it back to the condition that would allow bluing.
i noticed that the surfaces under very high magnification had a microporous surface that no amount of sanding, polishing would remove.
(is that a common occurrence among old guns?)
then i tried heating the pieces to warmer than touch (not hot) and applied cold blue.
it was a blotchy mess.
i removed the bluing and applied oxpho blue cold and while it looks a little better ....it's not perfect by any means.
is metal porosity common in handgun frames?
so how do i blue this old boy?
please after reading this ....don't reply "send it out to be done" by doing that it insults my intelligence and yours
as well as that would be the obvious answer....but financially not possible.