Touch-up Bluing Troubles

[jakemo]

I have a friend that had a pipe break in his house and long story short, had a lot of rust damage to some of his guns. I've agreed to try to help him touch up some of the bluing. I've watched a couple of videos and have bought a couple products but still not satisfied with results. One of the rifles is a Henry 44-40 with octagon barrel and really deep, beautiful bluing (or at least is used to be). After several applications of 44-40, it is not nearly dark enough. Any thoughts, better products. I've removed all the rust, degreased with alcohol, and heated areas with a heat gun before applying touch up. Still not getting the results that I'd hoped for.

[Winger Ed.]

Cold blue is OK for small parts.
For large things-- there's a reason why none of the arms makers use it.

The only way I've found to duplicate a good hot blue finish is to send it out and have it hot blued again.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Ed is exactly right. Cold blue is o.k. for spots, but not very good on large areas. Also, most cold blues have an acidic base, whereas most factory blues were accomplished with hot alkali salts, and where the two meet you will usually get a discolored area. The best general cold blue that I have found is the Brownell's product, Oxpho Blue. I reserve 44/40 cold blue for small areas such as screw heads. I have seen, and even done, a couple of passable jobs using Oxpho for an entire barrel, but it's not the quality of a hot blue.

[LAGS]

I took rifles that got minor Rust damage and degreased them with Acetone , then Boiled them in Distilled water.
It turned the rust spots Black like Slow Rust Bluing would.
It took two or three boilings and degreasing.
Then the ones that had severe damage got touched up with Cold Bluing.

[Winger Ed.]

The best general cold blue that I have found is the Brownell's product, Oxpho Blue. I have seen, and even done, a couple of passable jobs using Oxpho for an entire barrel, but it's not the quality of a hot blue.

When I built up the Rem700 I destroyed accidently- I got a short chambered Shilean barrel 'in the white' put on it.
I don't know how many hours I spent and used 3 little bottles of Oxpho cold blue on it.

It isn't bad, but up against the factory blued receiver the barrel says 'look at me--- I was cold blued'.