bluing stainless steel

[mister c]

can stainless 2pc scope mounts be blued (cold) ?.......mister c.

[Goatwhiskers]

I seriously doubt it. I once due to a brain fart tried to blue a barrel with Oxpho--one of the best IMHO--and only could get a light blueish color. Then discovered it was a stainless barrel. Stoopid! Had to talk the customer into some Dura-Kote. GW

[yotatrd4x4]

Yeah stainless won't take a blue no matter how hard you try it may get a faint blue/purple if it has the right alloy but you could just paint the scope bases black they really don't rub anything or get handled enough for the paint to wear off.

I learned long ago to always just use black scopes, mounts and rings as they look fine on a stainless gun but of you move them from gun to gun over time as I do a stainless scope or rings looks awful on a blued rifle but the stainless rifle looks well with blued or black rings and scopes

[frankenfab]

I believe it is the Kuhnhausen Ruger book that mentions bluing stainless steel. He says it will blue well, but I think he is only talking about 416.

[waksupi]

There is a company in Florida that blues stainless. It's kind of a muddy looking off color, but it is basically a blue color.

[MtGun44]

Short answer - it is STAINLESS, so basically, no. There are some plating processes that
can be done, but only paint works for the private individual without a big commercial
setup. There are some pretty good bake-on paints out there now, specifically for guns.

Bill

[Got-R-Did]

I use a product from Caswell to blacken the stainless steel alloy gas cylinder, lock, and lock screw when refurbishing M1 Garands. That might be an option.
I think I recall some of the early bbls for the .264 Win Mag were turned from stainless blanks and then "blued" or "blackened" to fit with the walnut and blue style of the day. The effort was to mitigate the propensity of the bbls to wear excessively due to the high intensity of the cartridge.
Got-R-Did.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, mister c. I have a 1940's era Winchester Mod. 70 brl. that was chambered in .220 Swift. This was made from stainless steel..Winchester blued these by first plating the bare steel with copper, than plating the copper with iron. The resulting blued surface is porus..looks like fine vapor-blasting.

[yondering]

Although bluing doesn't typically work on stainless, the Melonite process (nitro-carburizing, what Glock calls "Tennifer", etc) does work, and gives better barrel life than even hard chrome, without affecting accuracy. It's not usually that expensive either.

[Tokarev]

Pure phosphoric acid will kind of parkerize SS into what will look like zinc.

[Flinchrock]

Although bluing doesn't typically work on stainless, the Melonite process (nitro-carburizing, what Glock calls "Tennifer", etc) does work, and gives better barrel life than even hard chrome, without affecting accuracy. It's not usually that expensive either.

Good stuff!

[fireball168]

Trinidad State teaches their students to blue Stainless Steel, I didn't think it could be done either.

Their rates are good, especially for small parts like scope bases. Call them.

http://www.trinidadstate.edu/brownellstrinidadgunshop/index.php/services/price-list

[Blackwater]

Stainless can indeed be blued. Comp-N-Choke blues many of their stainless choke tubes. I can't recall the chemicals or the temps involved, but Brownell's used to carry a stainless bluing chemical, IIRC, that blues and looks very much like regular hot blues on carbon steels. However, the stainless blues don't tend to hold up quite as well as carbon steel bluing. If you know how old doubles and single barrel shotguns and lever guns that get carried a lot by a hand on and under the receiver, and how they get silvery progressively with time and use, you know pretty much how stainless bluing fades with time and use and hand contact or friction.

First thing I'd do if I wanted to blue stainless is call Brownell's and ask for someone in bluing.

[Michael J. Spangler]

i did some research on this a few years back. you can blue stainless. i believe the bluing salts were sold by brownells. i never tried it though.

[Mooseman]

You need Oxynate no.84 from Brownells to blue stainless and cast iron.
It is also used to re-blue Winchester 94's over ser.# 2,700,000.

Rich

[MtGun44]

The black finish on the Garand gas cyl is a high temp salt bath process. I can work
but is not a cold process, by any measure.

Bill

[John 242]

Trinidad State teaches their students to blue Stainless Steel, I didn't think it could be done either.

Their rates are good, especially for small parts like scope bases. Call them.

http://www.trinidadstate.edu/brownellstrinidadgunshop/index.php/services/price-list

Murray State Community College in Oklahoma also does stainless steel bluing.
If Trinidad can't help you, call 580-371-2371 ext. 236 for the gunsmithing department.

Brownells Oxynate 84 is used, as mentioned above. Not a cold blue and
not a simple home shop process.
If anyone is interested in reading up on the process, here are the instructions for Oxy 84 in a PDF format.
http://www.brownells.com/userdocs/learn/Inst-165%20Oxynate%20No.pdf

Addendum:
The Du Lite Company markets what they call Du-Lite 3-0 that is a hot caustic black oxide used to 'blue' stainless steel, cast iron, nickle alloys, M1 and M14 gas ports, Winchester Post '64 Model 94 receivers and MIM parts.
http://du-lite.com/

Neither the Brownells or the Du-lite process are 'cold' blues, but I figured I would post for those who didn't know that it is possible to 'blue' stainless steel.

[muskeg13]

cold blue? It can be done, but I don't know how durable it will be. I read the tip on another website about using Aluminum Black and figured why not give it a try. It worked much better than expected. I applied multiple coats (~15) at room temperature with 0000 steel wool.
130102 130103 130104

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I haven't used Oxynate 84, but the big question has to be if there are no snags, why aren't they all doing it? I suspect that it would be more vulnerable to scratches or wear than on carbon steel, and any discontinuity would certainly show up more.

Thin copper plating is easy for an amateur, and if you could build it up enough to be reasonably durable, I don't see why it couldn't be finished with the cold blues, which themselves deposit and blacken copper. Iron plating might be too difficult or poisonous for an amateur, I don't know. It should be easily blued or browned, for example with Birchwood Casey Plum Brown, which turns a warm black when boiled in clean water. This looks excellent on an old gun, but perhaps not on one where the other parts are glossy blue-black.

[Chill Wills]

A lot of SS barrels in the BPCR game are blued. There are a number of outfits that offer it. It is getting to be mainstream. I would call the look of it more black as it does have a different look when you get very close to it. Because of the traditional nature of BPCR rifles, "white" SS just looks bad and so those that care do something about it. I have seen good jobs and bad. I do not know the better outfits to have the work done because I am a CM kinda guy. I have not had the work done on my rifles.

One friend of mine had his done by the "cheapest guy" he found. The barrel did not get plugged and by what ever process that was used the inside finish of the well made barrel turned into a rough tube. My friend did not get any satisfaction from the provider.

So...... buyer beware.

[country gent]

The early winchester stainless steel barrels were steel plated sintered to allow the thin layer to be blued acceptably in that era. It was kind of a matte blue finish. Stainless will also parkerize fairly well. And alot of nickel plated pistols had a light copper plating first as the nickel adheared easier and better to it than the base steel. Some of the annodize coatings may also give very good results. Some of the annodized coatings create a very hard smooth surface when applied.

[rking22]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?258548-Ruger-quot-dark-quot-stainless-finish
Note post 2 and 5

I have not tried it yet, but Goodsteel's pics look very nice.