how to strip and rust blue an action - nooks and crevices

[Whiterabbit]

it's actually a barreled action.

So, I'm prepping a rifle for rust blue. I am excited! Will have the materials here in a couple weeks. So I have a barrel in the white, and an action previously blued. No problem, I can strip blue with muriatic and polish up. I can do this one of two ways:

1: saturate with acid, get the whole action to bare metal. blue the whole shebang.
2: use a wipe barely saturated with the acid, and ONLY strip the blue from the action exterior, and areas seen when assembled. Leave hard-to-reach places blue.

So, with #2, I think the job will be much easier, and a poorly matching finish will never be seen since anything that can be seen after assembly gets stripped. But still, it's a repair job at best. but with #1, the action is really an intricate piece of work around the tang. I'm not sure it will be straight forward to conservatively apply blue solution to the small crevices and card later. Looks difficult to impossible. I think id have to saturate, which would get blue into the pin holes which would be entirely un cardable. That sounds like a non starter.

So what do I do? total strip out? dunk in muriatic to de-blue? or do I only partially strip, stripping only exterior surfaces, and the nooks that are visible when assembled?

What do I do here?

[wch]

I would use the muriatic acid treatment but a lot depends on how much time you have on your hands.

[Whiterabbit]

infinite time. I work as long as it takes to get the desired results. It's a learning process. So you are saying you would what, strip everything, or only part of the action?

[Whiterabbit]

OK, so the jury is out on muriatic vs naval jelly. Naval jelly is about the same as birchwood casey blue remover, so they should be pretty interchangeable. The internet warns of hydrogen embrittlement, but with any acid, hard data is hard to find.

Regardless of the method chosen to do the stripping I'd still like advice on how far to go. This action is pretty intricate compared to some bolt rifle pics ive seen.

Here's a pic of the bottom side:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=95581&d=1391501719

you can see how it might get tough to strip and blue (card) all the surfaces. Or would it?

[wch]

Meant to say "strip all".

[Whiterabbit]

so you would strip it all. does the carding brush get inside all the spaces of the action? how do you blue in the really tight areas, spring holes, etc.

[williamwaco]

I have never tried it on a gun but CLR strips a blued bullet mold right down to the metal with virtually zero work in seconds.

[waksupi]

Rust bluing should actually work just fine without removing the old bluing.

[Whiterabbit]

oh really? that would make my life much, much easier. Not even the outside of the action? no worries about color mismatch, anything like this? I'm not trying to make a rink-a-dink junk rifle, I'd like this to be a nice rifle when it's all done.

[johnson1942]

the mark lee for me was fool proof. i even had a finger print on the barrelof my last one and after about the 3rd or fourth application it went away. i did about 10 coats without carding, then left it in the oven at 300 degrees for about 1/2 hour. then it went in to a 3 inch pipe filled with boiling water and came out perfect. my machinest friend said that the 300 degrees wont hurt springs or the steel so thats the temp i use. at 200 degrees i couldnt get the results i wanted.

[Whiterabbit]

well, I cant put my barrel in a furnace, I don't have anything that big. so it's the slow way of carding between coats, for me. But I did get the Mark Lee express blue.

[gnoahhh]

The last one I rust blued was a M1899 Savage lever action takedown receiver, and it posed the same problems you alluded to. The interior was so far gone that I had no choice but to re-blue it along with the exterior. I solved the problem by bead blasting the whole thing inside and out, and hand polished the exterior to 600x afterward, leaving the interior 'bead blast finished'. Carding the nooks and crannies of the interior was a PIA, but I did it with de-greased 0000 steel wool- mostly twirled onto the end of a stick like a giant Q-tip to get into the tight places. A lot of work, but it turned out nicely.

[Whiterabbit]

cool. And what about threaded holes? did you blue in there, or skip it?

you know, actually, I can probably fill threaded holes with modeling clay then dunk strip (total acid exposure time ~5 seconds). That should get most surfaces, but not the too-difficult-to-reach ones. Then blue as you say. carding with steel woll over a popscicle stick perhaps, or just a round one if I need.

[musty nugget]

i've used evapo-rust, fast, safe, only removes rust and bluing.

[moose0011]

so you are wanting to rust blue that CZ550 is that correct? as someone else said above you can rust blue over a hot caustic blue. I would leave that inside protection there and use the navel jelly on the barrel and the outside of the reciever. That is how I would do it. Do you use a carding wheel or sheep wool by hand for carding? and do you try to do a slow rust blue or a one day rust blue?

[Whiterabbit]

yes, a CZ550. It was sent to pacnor for a barrel so it's the action/barrel that I'll blue all in one shot. What happens when you try to rust blue over hot blue? I assume the rust blue does not penetrate the hot blue, and those areas remain unchanged?

For the major carding I have a hand brush from brownells coming. I also have 0000 steel wool I can degrease.

[moose0011]

when you say try to blue all in shot, you mean boil it once, apply your solution, let it react then card it off and done only once? not doing it over and over until it gets darker?

[Whiterabbit]

by one shot I mean the barrel and action are already together and headspaced, so it will be blued together. I don't care if I have to blue this 40 times to get the color and depth to make it look fantastic.

[moose0011]

OK I was like ummm I hope this guy realizes that it will take more than one go at it lol. as far as doing them together that is how I would do it too. I would polish up to 320 grit and get all you stratches going the same way so it looks the best. the hardest part especially if your doint it by hand is the joint from the bullet shank to the reciever. that is the spot that always got me lol. I would get a couple carding wheels, couple washers nuts some allthread and a drill press if you catch my drift as well for carding.. I don't know if you only plan on doing this one time though either. if so go get you some sheep wool from like lowes. sorry if this sounds scatered out I am doing other stuff. also I would leave the inside of the reciever and all the pin holes unstripped and just do the exterior. make sure to take out your sear and sear spring as well as the ejector, ejector ball and spring. as well as the spring for the bolt release.. you don't want them to fall out and then have to replace them..

[Whiterabbit]

good eye. The sear will be no problem to remove, now that the pac-nor tech broke the spring leg and bent the angle. Much easier to take out when the sear isn't under any spring force!