Bluing Removal - Safe, Quick, and Easy

[Phineas Bluster]

Deleted

[KCSO]

Toilet bowl cleaner works good too.

[williamwaco]

I use CLR on rusty molds. I bet it would do a good gob removing bluing.

[Love Life]

I tried a spot of naval jelly on a Norinco frame and the bluing remained. I will try the citric acid trick and THANK YOU!!

[bedbugbilly]

vinegar works well too . . . . full strength.

[plainsman456]

Or just have the fire dept. spray it with the foam additive they put in their water.

One dunk and no more blue.

[Beagle333]

Found out about vinegar accidentally. :| It sure does work well on bluing removal though.

[Whiterabbit]

muriatic is pretty cheap at home depot. it's in the garden section. 2 gallons lasts a lifetime. Just have to rinse REALLY well. And talk about speed, it's not 12 days or 12 minutes or even 12 seconds. That blue is just GONE!

[Hickok]

I see where you can pay extra for cap and ball revolvers that have an "antiqued" finish. Take a cotton ball and some vinegar and for next to nothing you can make them look they were carried from Ft Sumter to Appomattox Court House. The bluing wipes right off leaving a dull gray finish.

[M-Tecs]

Nice job!!!!!!!!!!

[Whiterabbit]

I see where you can pay extra for cap and ball revolvers that have an "antiqued" finish. Take a cotton ball and some vinegar and for next to nothing you can make them look they were carried from Ft Sumter to Appomattox Court House. The bluing wipes right off leaving a dull gray finish.

You can sneak up on that finish too by watering down your vinegar

[Bohica793]

Evaporust removes blue and rust nicely.

[buckwheatpaul]

Outstanding posts from you guys....thanks! Paul

[EMC45]

Gorgeous job on the shotgun!

[Der Gebirgsjager]

That shotgun looks great!

[toallmy]

Looks brand new .

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Muriatic acid simply is hydrochloric, just as spirits of salts is sulphuric, sold under less menacing-sounding names. Fairly dilute hydrochloric should be cheap and will remove bluing without excessive texturing of the surface, but I have seen it said that it may promote after-rusting. I doubt if that will be a problem if it is well washed in hot and clean water, and oiled if you plan keeping it unblued for a while. If you plan immediate rust-bluing, where is the harm in light rusting?

Naval jelly is phosphoric acid or phosphoric with additives of minimal importance. Phosphoric would be my choice for items without inaccessible crannies, or hydrochloric if there are. On my universal purveyor of the peculiar, eBay UK, you can get five litres of phosphoric acid for £13.85 and postage. That is 85% strength, which is slightly jelly-like, but it could be diluted. I can't see why availability or price would be very different on the US site. It leaves a very fine pearly texture which I have found blues well after rubbing down with fine steel wool, as it has the reputation of slight passivating against rust. Just a guess, but this might become worse if the solution has been excessively used, as it occurs by the formation and deposition of phosphates.

I wouldn't use sulphuric, although it is available anywhere people work with car batteries, and certainly not nitric acid, which is extremely likely to etch steel. Unless of course you want it etched, either for texture or to leave raised lettering, patterns etc., which it will do very effectively on steel. Enamel paint or Letraset transfer lettering will do this very nicely.

[oldred]

Muriatic acid simply is hydrochloric, just as spirits of salts is sulphuric, sold under less menacing-sounding names. Fairly dilute hydrochloric should be cheap and will remove bluing without excessive texturing of the surface, but I have seen it said that it may promote after-rusting. I doubt if that will be a problem if it is well washed in hot and clean water, and oiled if you plan keeping it unblued for a while. If you plan immediate rust-bluing, where is the harm in light rusting?


Actually it's a bad idea to even have Muriatic acid in the shop, never mind wiping it on gun steel! The reason is that just the fumes from the stuff will cause rusting of anything in the shop containing iron, tools, guns, machinery, etc. It can logically be argued that as long as the container is sealed tight nothing happens but using that stuff inside a shop for most any purpose is just asking for trouble. Now the problem with using it on gun steel, even in it's diluted form, is that it's still nasty stuff as far it's rust promoting nature and while it will indeed remove bluing and rust it also starts a chemical reaction with the iron surface that is not as easy to stop as some might think, it can and will come back to bite you later! Washing THOROUGHLY may, or may not, get it all out of every nook and cranny so it should be washed with a base solution such as backing soda and water but even neutralizing any remnants of the acid by doing that leaves the surface still highly prone to rusting, that chemical reaction is not all that easy to stop completely. Then there is the question of why use the stuff in the first place? Your suggestion of Phosphoric acid is a MUCH better choice, it will instantly remove the blue and the surface reaction will be just the opposite of the Muriatic acid and will become rust resistant instead of rust prone. This rust resistant surface is very easily removed and will completely disappear during normal surface prep and in no way will inhibit the rust or hot bluing process, any left in microscopic pits will serve only to retard rust instead of CAUSING it! The bottom line is there many dirt cheap and easily obtainable products out there that will remove bluing as completely and quickly as Muriatic acid but without that product's nasty and just plain evil nature, a person will do well to keep that stuff as far away from their guns as they can no matter what the dilution, with all the better choices available there's just no good reason to use it!

[andremajic]

Of late, I have been playing with Andy's Slow Rust Blue.

I started on a piece of scrap 3/8" square hot rolled steel. Draw filed it, applied Andy's solution per directions, boiled, and carded. After two more applications I had a nicely blued hunk of scrap iron.

The second project was a WWII vintage Risdon 1911 magazine that had the two forward spot welds on the floorplate let go. I removed the blue with white vinegar, soft soldered the floor plate back into position, and reblued the magazine body. Looks good, functions fine.

The latest project is a High Standard Model K2011 20 gauge pump. The shotgun is in good mechanical condition, it just could use a new blue job. Thinking back to what a slow boring process it was to remove the bluing from a magazine body using white vinegar, I started to look for other options. Of course there are the commercial rust removers such a Naval Jelly and acids such as muriatic, but I wanted something a bit safer and less expensive.

I had some citric acid (Lemi-Shine) on hand so I decided to give it a try. A solution of one tablespoon of citric acid per gallon of hot water was mixed up and poured into a capped length of four inch PVC pipe containing the barreled shotgun action. It took twelve minutes for the citric acid solution to completely remove all the old bluing, inside and out, from the shotgun receiver and barrel. There was no heavy ecthing, just a very light frosted appearance. The few remaining stubborn bits of bluing were wiped off with a paper towel. After a quick scuffing with a purple Scotch-Brite the barreled action was ready for the first application of Andy's Slow Rust Blue.

Citric acid. It ain't just for brass anymore...

PB

Looks beautiful. It gives me the warm and fuzzies when I see my product being used and hearing feedback.

I have about 2 cases left of the rust blue left, but I haven't made more, since I'm not actively selling on the forum anymore because I'm moving to a new state. PM me if you want a bottle.

Andy

[izzyjoe]

Great job on the High Standard, those are some of my favorite shotguns!

[Tokarev]

Vinegar and citric acid will not remove parkerizing though, which is phosphates and ortho-phosphoric acid is stronger than the organic acids.
Need muriatic acid for that.

[nekshot]

flux for soldering sure makes bluing disappear like magic, and I can verify that!

[nekshot]

I like the blue job and the gun! Is Andy's blue still available?

[KMac]

I like the blue job and the gun! Is Andy's blue still available?

"I have about 2 cases left of the rust blue left, but I haven't made more, since I'm not actively selling on the forum anymore because I'm moving to a new state. PM me if you want a bottle.

Andy"

Looks like he does. Reference post #21

[KMac]

nekshot,

I believe that Andy sold out of the last of his rust blue solution a while ago. You could send him a PM at andremajic to verify.

Andy's solution is easy to use and the results are very nice.

There are other sources of rust bluing solution that can be found at Midway and Brownell's. For my next project I am considering the Rust Blue American solution marketed by Rust Blue (http://www.rustblue.com/).

PB

Wow. I just looked at Andy's post and didn't notice it was last year. Sorry.

[Hannibal]

Evaporust removes blue and rust nicely.

I have used Evapo-rust on a few firearms in deplorable condition. Fastest way I know of to reveal exactly what you are dealing with, and no fumes or disposal problems. It does leave a thin film, but given the extensive pitting and damage I was dealing with, this was a very minor issue.

[William Yanda]

Nice job!!!!!!!!!!

Plus ONE!

[Shiloh]

Blood works to. Not really controlable though. Found out after I bloodied my palm on the slide on an old Sears Higgins shotgun decades ago.

Shiloh