how do I hot blue a pistol barrel

[ra_balke]

I have a 3 in heavy barrel caliber 38, in the white.
Barrel only. I want to hot blue it.
I am not a gun blue guy except for cold blue a few times.

Can anyone tell me what I could get from Brownells for a reasonable fast hot blue finish to match my Smith Wesson revolver ?

What parts I need to buy.

A quick run down on how to do it.

Thanks

[MtGun44]

Take it to a gunsmith. No such thing as a 'reasonable fast hot blue'.

Hot blue is a significant expense and the chemicals are fairly nasty. If not done right
you can get ugly mottling, purple cast or odd blues. You need special tanks, tank heaters,
lots of chemicals, special cleaning dips, post blue wash, etc. Most of the chemicals are
toxic and very corrosive.

This is why there is cold blue.

[nascarkent]

If you do a search you may find what your looking for. Here is a link to one ,a couple of pages back. There are more if you look.http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=16347

[NSP64]

I misred I thought you said glue

I had to find out what you were doing hot gluing the barrel for.

[DeadEyeSam]

you can try Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. it's a cold blue but i've always had good luck with it. Brownell's website has great instructions for it.

[Char-Gar]

It isn't worth the hastle and expense to blue just one 3" barrel. Mail it to Accuracy Plating and Weaponry or some other reliable firm. The cost will be slight and because you are not shipping the pistols, first class postage will get er done.

[John Taylor]

I thought I would jump in here with some info. You can send a complete pistol to a licensed gunsmith, just not through USPS. Dealers can send pistols to other dealers or gov. agency like police through the mail. UPS wants pistol to be shipped overnight ( I use UPS). Not sure about FedEx. I am finding that a lot of places are telling gun owners they can't ship guns. Even had the post office tell one guy he could not ship a BB gun. On USPS web sight it states you can ship long guns as long as they meet the BATF requirements for ownership. When shipping a gun, the part with the S/N is the firearm, anything ells is just parts. You don't need to tell the shipper it is gun related, I tell them it is machined parts. You will probably find Doyle's gun shop( 208-686-1006 ) to be the best price. He has his blue tanks going three times a week.

[rondog]

IF you want it to look right, IF you want it to look good, and IF you want to be pleased with the results, forget the DIY stuff and take/send it to a pro. Better yet, contact S&W and have them do it. Or the Colt Custom Shop. Pricey, yes. But you'll get the best results. Call 'em and ask if they'll do a S&W, won't hurt to ask. There's dozens of other pros out there that do this every day.

Here's a Colt WWI repro that a guy sent to the Colt Custom Shop for polishing and hot blue. Think you could match this? Sorry, I just hate the thought of a S&W revolver getting a Bubba blue job. Some things we can DIY, some things we'd best not try.



I had my RIA 1911 blued at a local shop, they did a great job but my photos don't show it very well. I really need to take some new photos of it. Cost me $250, but I feel it was worth it. I sure as hell couldn't have gotten results like this, and I'd be stuck with a hot bluing setup I'd probably never use again.

[S.R.Custom]

You could send it to us here at Salmon River Custom. The attached pic is of a barrel we did for a guy's Ruger Security Six as part of a larger blue batch. As a single part in a larger batch, the price was cheap.

The photography shows a blue tint, but the bluing was a spot-on match for the Ruger he was putting it on.

[Shooter6br]

I plan to refinish a Llama 9mm military which my dad bought many years ago It was pitted as the story goes from salt water hitting it in shipment. My Dad got it cheap. I may use Midways cerramic coating spray or bake on flat black Parkerizing is a possible.I found a formula in an old Roy Dunlap gunsmithing book (1950's) It uses lye, ammomium nitrate, and water.It is more a blacking solution used on German Military arms prior to 1942.Maybe a winter time project