Need advice on a Remington Model 24 Bluing

[retread]

166759166760166761166762166763166764I was given a Remington Model 24 yesterday. It is mechanically sound and has a nice shiny bore and functions perfectly. However it was stored in a gun case for a number of years. The bluing is terrible and has some pitting both on the barrel and receiver. My brother has an original Browning that Remington copied for the M24. I really liked that little rifle and think I will enjoy this one also. I am not concerned about keeping it "original", I would rather have something I can take out and have fun with the grandkids but I do not want to hang my head when someone sees it's condition. I would like to have it reblued but hesitate trying to do it myself. What would the ball park cost be for a professional job?

[John Taylor]

Send it to Doyle's gun shop for blue. He will bead blast it and the blue will look like it has a matt finish. This will hide most of the pitting. http://fflgundealers.net/mel-doyles-gun-shop.html

[rking22]

Your M24 is actually the original, Browning produced their version first in the 1950s! Fine little rifles, like most all of JMB's designs. Enjoy your treasure!
I don't have a guess on a professional job, but someone will be along shortly ,I'm sure. I rust blued a Browning from 1959 (was in much the same condition as you describe) and it came out quite nice. It did take me a coupla years to get up the nerve to begin draw filing on a belgium browning! Not a complex operation but one requiring patience and attention to detail, and TIME.

[John 242]

Really it depends on what you want done and how bad the rifle is.
Light pitting and shallow scratches are easy enough to take care of, depending on location, but any handwork increases the cost.

John Taylor mentioned a blast and blue job- We do a lot of those, mostly on abused farm guns. I suggest a blast and blue to a customer when the gun is heavily pitted and/or the customer is unwilling to pay for a polish job. Generally speaking, I charge $80 for a 120-grit blast and caustic blue job UNLESS it's some kind of problem gun with a cast receiver.

For a 400-grit polish and caustic blue, you're looking at more time and more labor. About $120 is what I charge, but again, it depends on how bad the gun is. Depending on depth and location of the pits (pitting in engraving or lettering, on corners, etc.), we may not remove it.
Some guns are so bad (deep pitting) that a 400-grit polish isn't really and option.
This isn't a Doug Turnbull restoration, just a simple hand and power polish and caustic blue. Same caveat with cast receivers.

Rust bluing, either slow, fast or fume is more expensive. it's also more labor intensive. Again, pits that can be removed, will be removed, depending on their location and how deep they are. You'd be looking at somewhere around $180. The nice thing about rust blue finishes is that they look period correct for older guns and the slightly matte texture makes light pitting not as noticeable (in my opinion). I would recommend this finish for your rifle, basically because I really like the looks of it on a gun of that vintage.

You're going to find that prices will vary across the country.

[44man]

I used to polish guns to get blued by Cleveland Black Oxide. They had huge books for every make gun and the steel used so the blue chemicals could be changed. A gunsmith will use brownell's chemicals today and they do a good job. But hard steel will come out purple.
Browning's can be a bugger. Browning guns not protected can rust faster too. No chemical will work on every gun, not even rust blue. Case hardened will be different as will steel with a lot of nickle.
Blue is Rust and steel that resists rust will never be the same. Try to blue stainless!
Browning's can take bluing much better then WW guns. They also rust to pits faster.
A gunsmith needs to know steels and is why I never got into blueing while watching steel in tanks boil for hours with no change.
I would get a gun blued for $16 back then but they knew what tank for each steel.
The work was in my polish and I could get S&W bright blue. But the secret was what the gun was blued with.
Bead blasting can hide pits and look nice. My gunsmith friend had a browning auto 5 in that was taken duck hunting and put in a padded case wet. The case was soldered to the gun. The only solution was to bead blast a fine gun.

[44man]

Handwork is not done much now but is how I did it. A gunsmith will have grinders with all grits on polishing wheels. The smoother you want will add cost. But that is not HAND WORK, just more time.
I used files and sand paper. To remove scratches from one grit to another was hours and hours when a wheel will do it in minutes. I spun barrels in wood lathes for hours.
Hand work today is a fortune.
Wood is the same, scratch with 150 and remove it with 400---ARE YOU CRAZY? Go to 1200 grit on wood, blow more smoke where the sun don't shine.

[rking22]

After looking at your pics, that is a nice condition rifle and deserve a "restoration". Some collectors will wince but a nice rust blue on that gun will be well worth it! Send it to John242 with 180 or so$ , you will be glad you did. I agree with him, a good rust blue finish just looks "right" on those vintage guns, where many hot tank blue jobs look kinda "wrong", like John Wayne in hi heels :)

[flounderman]

Get a bottle of mark lee rust blue and do it yourself. It requires one tank of hot water. Somebody said they used a pvc pipe and cap and poured boiling water in it, standing on end. You can get a good blue for 20.00 or less.

[justashooter]

FYI I sold a minty 24 in 22lr for $600 several years ago. the 22 short only guns do not go that high, nor do lower condx guns. a re-blue would make yours more marketable, and would improve the value by nearly the cost if the job were skillfully done.

[44man]

Get a bottle of mark lee rust blue and do it yourself. It requires one tank of hot water. Somebody said they used a pvc pipe and cap and poured boiling water in it, standing on end. You can get a good blue for 20.00 or less.
Must be the old US barrel Blue. It was a wonder and matched factory. But the gun needs some work to get rid of the bad spots and can be done by hand. It really is not that bad.
You see, it is FEAR to touch a gun.

[John 242]

A gunsmith will use brownell's chemicals today and they do a good job. But hard steel will come out purple... No chemical will work on every gun, not even rust blue. Case hardened will be different as will steel with a lot of nickle.
...Try to blue stainless!

We run Dulite Steelkote salts and we get very good results on most steels, but not all.
Every once in a while a mystery metal receiver or gun part will turn a purple hue or brown-orange. Mostly this happens with cast receivers, but hardened parts are problematic as well. Sometimes simply "shocking" the part in cold water every 5 minutes or so will get the part to fully darken. Like 44man said, every part is different.

As a back up we have Oxynate 84 salts for stainless steels or problem metals. 84 will blacken many 400 series stainless steels, but not all of them. 84 works best with a 120-grit aluminum oxide blasted finish and we often have to "pickle" the part in murratic acid to jump start the blackening. Combined with shocking, pickling often will get a part to blacken.

I like to rust blue headache guns, such as the Post 64 Model 94 (Until they switched to 4140'ish steels), guns with cast receivers and double barrel shotguns. I can usually get good results on these types of guns, maybe 95% of the time. I would guess that's probably fairly typical, but I could be wrong. Rust blues also hide TIG welds better than caustic salts.
Rust bluing is a very attractive finish and looks great on any gun, but it seems especially appropriate on an early 20th century firearm of quality. Nothing "wrong" with caustic bluing, but I really like rust blue finishes.

As an absolute last resort, we paint. We mostly stick with the KG Gun Kote line of products (available at Brownells) although we have done Cerakote, Durakote and others. I mentions this not because I am a big fan of the paints, but because some guns are so bad that painting them becomes a great option. If blasted correctly and painted, the rust won't come back (in my experience). Plus, the paint also hides deep pitting better than the various blue finishes.

As a side note, I would like to start color case hardening, but honestly I don't have to the time to experiment and perfect it.

[John 242]

Handwork is not done much now but is how I did it. A gunsmith will have grinders with all grits on polishing wheels. The smoother you want will add cost. But that is not HAND WORK, just more time.

Buffers and belt sanders are great tools, but they can be used to inflict great evil upon a poor unsuspecting gun. People seem to have the impression that hand polishing is hard and buffing is easy. In my experience, that's not the case.

Filing and sanding can do the same damage that a buffer can do, but a buffer does it quicker. It takes only a few seconds for a slack jaw to wreck a gun on a buffer, but give the same slack jaw a 6-inch mill bastard file and he can destroy a gun just as effectively, just not as fast.

Good hand polish work is expensive and there are definitely customers out there that want and are willing to pay for that sort of job. We should always aspire to do the best work we can do, but not everyone is willing to pay for top end work and unfortunately I don't have that clientele, yet.

[Jeff Michel]

If you have a person local to you with a bluing setup. Do the polishing yourself and have the operator run them through his tanks. With you doing all the work, you will probably get a pretty good price. I run parts for local machinists through my tanks pretty often with no other work other than cleaning prior and oiling afterwards. As pointed out earlier, the best results will be with emery cloth of various grits and make sure the emery cloth is supported. You are striving to keep flat surfaces flat and corners sharp. I gave up on power buffers a long time ago. The steel in a Remington .22 should take black oxide like nobody's business. You generally don't run into problems unless your doing Model 12 and 42 Winchesters and cast shotgun receivers and they can be blued by temperature control, but that takes considerable practice

[44man]

Buffers and belt sanders are great tools, but they can be used to inflict great evil upon a poor unsuspecting gun. People seem to have the impression that hand polishing is hard and buffing is easy. In my experience, that's not the case.

Filing and sanding can do the same damage that a buffer can do, but a buffer does it quicker. It takes only a few seconds for a slack jaw to wreck a gun on a buffer, but give the same slack jaw a 6-inch mill bastard file and he can destroy a gun just as effectively, just not as fast.

Good hand polish work is expensive and there are definitely customers out there that want and are willing to pay for that sort of job. We should always aspire to do the best work we can do, but not everyone is willing to pay for top end work and unfortunately I don't have that clientele, yet.
Darn right, seen too many buffed to ruin. It still takes a craftsman. Wallow out screw holes and remove markings or sharp edges. Machines do not forgive.

[justashooter]

agreed that chrome moly and other alloyed steels may purple at traditional temperatures. one cure for this is to blue at +15* over traditional temps.

[Geezer in NH]

Note it will never be like original no matter how much you spend. Give it a coat of Oxpho blue to protect it more and shoot the **** out of it.

Factory polish was about 240 grit and modern salts most likely will never match the original.

Dulite is the salts of pro's not Brownells, that stuff will never match any guns done in the last 30 years IMHO.