Our local library had their copy of Dunlap's book stolen just recently.
I need Dunlap's recipe for hot bluing and blacking, it is a good one and is simple. It uses Grant's stump remover and Drano "kitchen crystals" as the two ingredients for one version, the other uses ammonium fertilizer and Drano. The key ingredients are actually potassium nitrate and soda lye.
I made up some solution from memory and I'll be darned if I can get it to work! Usually to test it you drop in some nails and let it simmer for a fifteen minutes and you have the blackest, shiniest nails you ever did see. It is also a hard scratch-resistant bluing-blacking treatment, it withstands hard use just great. The down side is that it is not blue - it is as black as black can be. But it is EASY, - - - IF the recipe is handy! I do have a hunch that the stuff Drano sells nowadays is not lye because of the problem with droogies using it to make crack or some such mind-altering substance, and that is why my bluing solution no longer works.
rl316