what the best bluing for rifle parts?

[mozeppa]

i bought a anschutz rifle in 1971 for rifle team in high school.


over the last 40 years i stripped it sanded it down to bare metal (didn't know what i was doing.)

now i want to blue it to a glass like deep blue shine.

how do i do it?

not interested in browning it, parkerize, cerokote...or spray paint!...................deep blue!

whats the best method?

[Hickok]

The very best is the "Hot blue" method. But for cold bluing I like Brownell's Oxpho blue. The nicer and shinier you buff the metal down the better the bluing looks. Can't beat a felt buffing wheel and a good buffing compound to really polish the metal. Just have to be careful and not round off any sharp edges or dimensions on the firearm.

[Kevinakaq]

Slow rust blue is one of the most durable blues and you can do it with few tools yourself. Need some solution (20 bucks), a tank long enough for the barrel, and some way to boil the water. Plenty of instructions on how to do it online.

[paul h]

Just like like painting, 90% of the work is prep. If you sanded off the old bluing, then you're going to need to give it a first class polish job to get a deep glass bluing.

Also like anything else, to get a world class job takes practice to gain the skills. Sending it to a pro to get it polished and blued is well worth the money.

[johnson1942]

read every thing you can find on all the castboolits areas of posting on rust blueing. it deep in color and lasts. i also would bead blast all the metal before you rust blue, makes a better job.

[Whiterabbit]

a deep blue, I'd polish as shiny as I could get it and take to an outfit to have hot blued. Look like a Weatherby rifle.

I prefer rust blue personally, but compared to hot blue, shiny it is not.

[plainsman456]

If you go the oxpho-blue warm up the parts up.

Not red hot,just warm and after bluing it will shine.It will last a long time.

[John Taylor]

I would send it to Doyle's gun shop and have it done right. He has been in business for over 40 years bluing guns. Run you about $100. meldoylesgunshop@hotmail.com

[waksupi]

I would send it to Doyle's gun shop and have it done right. He has been in business for over 40 years bluing guns. Run you about $100. meldoylesgunshop@hotmail.com


I've used Mel before, he does a nice job.

[swheeler]

Me too many times. He's just not on Monkey Hill Road any longer

[oldred]

Fallas you are just not going to get a deep shinny blue with either rust blue or any cold blue! Either process can be made to look really good in it's own way but will never be the deep shinny blue he has specifically stated he wants. Hot blue will do this but it's much to big of an investment in time and money just to do one rifle, find a good refinish outfit and have it done professionally. The advice to take it to a buffed finish is spot on BUT if you attempt to do this yourself to save money on that be warned that done improperly you can ruin your rifle's appearance, once corners are rounded off, lettering smeared and the crisp lines "softened" there simply is no practical way of repairing it. The metal will have been removed, it's gone and there's no putting it back!

This not to say you can't do this, likely you can, just that before you start you have to sure you already know exactly what you are doing, if you have never done this before then starting out on a nice rifle that you want make really nice is no place to learn!

[Geezer in NH]

Du-lite, do the prep and have a commercial bluer do it for you simplest and cheapest IMHO

[John 242]

...if you have never done this before then starting out on a nice rifle that you want make really nice is no place to learn!

I agree 100%.

My advice would be to save the cold blue for touch ups. I can't imagine, nor have I seen, any cold blues coming close to equaling a well done caustic job.

Rust bluing doesn't result in a deep, dark, high polished black finish; more of a satin gray/black. However, rust bluing requires very little investment in equipment and can give stellar results. There's a learning curve, but it's not too difficult.

You're a little far away, but we offer a 1 week refinishing class during our summer program here at Murray State College. We're located in southern Oklahoma and the class covers metal finishing and caustic bluing.

On a refinish job, regardless of the process used, metal prep is everything. What separates a good job from a bad one is the quality and care in the preparation of the metal. The bluing is easy in comparison.

[oldred]

Du-lite, do the prep and have a commercial bluer do it for you simplest and cheapest IMHO


The advice to do the prep to save on that may have the opposite effect, just as almost no reputable autobody shop will even do a "just spray the paint" paint job a refinisher is likely to feel the same way. The prep is 90% or more of what makes the difference between a good job and a "Bubba" job and whether it is auto paint or firearm blue people think only of the guy who sprayed the paint or did the blue, if the prep is sub-par the job will look bad and it will be a reflection on the refinisher not the owner/preper who bungled it!

Back when I still had my body shop there was hardly a day went by that someone would call and ask "how much for painting this or that if I do the body work", I wouldn't touch one of those jobs with the proverbial "ten foot pole" because that amateur body work would have been a reflection on me and not them! A refinisher basically signs his name to any job he does even if it's only the last step so most will take a dim view of owner prep if they will even accept the job at all and who could blame them? This is not to say the OP can't do an outstanding job BUT what I am saying is that a person needs to already fully understand the pitfalls of prepping a firearm BEFORE starting on it, after a mistake is made it's too late because that metal can't be put back on!

My advice is that if the OP wants to do this himself then great, most likely he can, but it's a learning experience that needs to be researched and practiced on "disposable" items before tackling an irreplaceable firearm! I have seen several firearms totally ruined by amateur preparation for bluing, most notably a Model 12 Trench Gun that started out very nice with only some of the blue missing, by the time the owner finished the old gun was a mess! He too wanted a nice glossy blue and he too was told it needed to have a bright buffed surface to accomplish this and that's what he did, when I saw the gun afterward it was a heartbreaker! Some of the corners were rounded and lettering was "smeared", the owner was aware that something just didn't look quite right but still didn't realize what he had done. Most of the time the damage is so subtle they don't even realize it's there until the blue is done, just like the fella with the model 12, but once those crisp corners, edges and lettering are "softened" it's beyond practical repair and even an innocent looking soft buffing wheel can do this, it does not have to be sandpaper! This is why I still say a nice rifle is no place to learn, all too often it becomes a case of learning the hard way!

[Geezer in NH]

As a retired FFL that did commercial bluing we blued many others work dunked in the tanks from gunsmiths , owners and manufactures. Dip for a price want the finish put on the metal add 300%.

We did not do body work or spray paint.

[oldred]

As a retired FFL that did commercial bluing we blued many others work dunked in the tanks from gunsmiths , owners and manufactures. Dip for a price want the finish put on the metal add 300%.

We did not do body work or spray paint.


I said "may" and I used the bodyshop example of how some professionals are not willing to accept sub-par work that will reflect on THEM not the person who actually did it. The fact that you did it only means that you or the shop you worked for didn't care, a lot of the places that value their reputations more than that and take pride in their work often frown on such jobs for the very reason I mentioned! Also if you have been doing this kind of work you must know what improper prep will result in and you also should know how easy it is to ruin the appearance of a nice gun by improperly polishing and buffing, you may have been willing to have your name attached to a shoddy prep job but a lot of folks won't, I certainly wouldn't!

That Trench Gun is a good example, I refused to do that one because there's no way I could know how good or bad his prep would be, as it turned out there's no way I would want anyone to think that I did that work but if I had of tanked that gun like he asked me to people that looked at would have thought that was MY work not his! When you drop that gun in the tank that job becomes YOURS no matter what it looks like when it comes out! A re-finisher basically signs his name to every job he does and his reputation means everything regardless if it's a finish on a car or a gun, in the end it's the same and people only see who applied the finish and not who did the prep. You might have been willing to accept the blame for other peoples mistakes but a lot of us aren't willing to do that,

When an owner of a gun tells someone else who re-blued it for him I certainly don't want my name attached to rounded off corners and smeared lettering and while you may not care a lot of others feel the same way I do!

[KCSO]

"glass like deep blue shine"

It needs to be polished by an EXPERT and then given a premium hot blue. If you haven't done a load of polishing you will not end up with what you want. Send it to a pro.

[oldred]

"glass like deep blue shine"

It needs to be polished by an EXPERT and then given a premium hot blue. If you haven't done a load of polishing you will not end up with what you want. Send it to a pro.


That just needs repeating!!!!!!

[Geezer in NH]

Our name on it? All we did was color it, Your polish is Your name.

Pay the money or ????????

Amateur's have no idea of the process and trade [neither do some manufacture's], keep your fantasies up to feel good.

All bluing does is color the metal to black or blue depending on the method and chemicals. The FINISH is on the preparer, the "bluing contractor does not care, it is money for the dip only.

Sorry but the real world is this way. Pay the bluing contractor for the finish and it is a different story, again add 300+% we do not stamp ANY work

Putting a great finish on an old trench gun? the finish will cost 5 times what the gun will be worth after.

Worn guns, bead blast and dip for protection they will never be what they were once no mater HOW much money you spend.

[oldred]

You know perfectly well what I'm saying, if the prep is poor the job is poor and when people look at it and the owner tells them who blued it that's all anyone sees -the guy who blued it! A bad job will always be on the shop and the guy who did the "Blue", you won't be there to say well he got what he paid for and he messed it up when someone is looking at a lousy job, the finisher always gets the "credit" good or bad! Obviously it makes no difference to you if people think you turn out shoddy work but most of us care a lot more about our reputations. If I had of tanked that Trench Gun for that guy do you think he would be telling everyone that he made that mess? Get real, we both know better than that, he would have just told them where he had it blued and anyone looking at would think it was my work, I have more pride in what I do than that but apparently you don't, that's your choice however.

Besides you are telling someone who is obviously still in the learning phase to go ahead and do prep on a rifle he quite obviously cares a great deal about, considering the skill level required to do this right that is a recipe for disaster but I think the point has been made both ways so it's his choice. You have made it clear that the finished quality is of little importance to you anyway.

[dubber123]

I own tanks, and have blued quite a few. I also have a buffing wheel, which I have never used. It would save a lot of time, but I am still afraid of messing one up. I hate blurry lettering and dished out screw holes. I have always done hand work for the prep. I don't really care for super glossy, so about 600 grit is as fine as I normally go. This may sound rough to some, but it pretty closely approximates S&W's level of blue. Many more have been done with 320 grit, and it makes a nice satin finish.

If the fellow mentioned above will do a nice job for $100, go for it, Thats a lot of work for the money. Have fun!