Cold Blue an entire rifle

[largom]

Cheese, Looks great! One of my greatest joy's is taking an old neglected firearm and giving it new life.

Larry

[357maximum]

Came out looking nice........I am glad the triggerguard worked for you.

[johnlaw484]

I have reblued several complete guns using Mark Lee #1 and then using Oxpho Blue over the top. It gives a beautiful finish that rivals any hot I've ever seen. Both products are from Brownell's.

[Iowa Fox]

I think we all get those given to us for free projects. I've had pretty good luck with Vans, I warmed the metal first then applied with an old toothbrush. Good enough for me.

[82nd airborne]

I cold blued a sporterized 96 mauser 9 years ago, now the bolt handle and other places that recieve contact are shiny metal again, time to redo it. it did look good when it was done tho!

[sheepdog]

when I cold blue I bake the parts in the oven and boil the blue and apply hot with salt added. Works great, gets much dark and sticks better.

[shotman]

sheep dog Is right heat metal hair drier works if you dont have a big oven
the salt needs non Iodize and not much Brownell has a good one and get the SS wool too

[jburris2001]

I reblued an old winchester 12 guage with birchwood casey blue kit, it turned a black chrome looking. Not blue by aany means

[Just1Mor]

Just remember to degrease the steel wool. I tried Purma Blue and was getting terrible streaks and finally figured out why, IDIOT. So i set up hot blue instead and if you have a little smarts you can do a nice job very easy. Hard work is the metal work, I had to strike the barrel and then sand, final polish degrease like hell and blue.

Note: Simple hot blue solutions dont like copper so scrub the bore like you never have. Thats what went wrong my first time, not too long ago.

[Bret4207]

Those wishing to get a good cold blue job are encouraged to read all the Brownells "Gunsmiths Kinks" books. Pretty much everything is covered in there. You HAVE to remove any and all traces of grease or oil, even a fingerprint will mar the job. Warming helps and so does multiple applications polished down.

You can get a decent job with cold blue, it just takes time.

[Big Dave]

Fifty odd years ago I helped my dad with some cold blue jobs. He used Minute Man cold blue, Have not seen it since i don't know when, Anyway we heated the metal by running hot water over it till it dried almost instantly then swabbed on the bluing and left it set for about half an hour. Looked really ugly by then. Wash off with more hot water and finish with oil rub down. Made a really nice home done blue job. Still have a sporterized Krag done this way and it still looks pretty good.

[Stevejet]

The only suggestion I can offer, after reading all the good information above is, after surface preparation of the barrel and receiver (bead blast or Naval Jelly stripping) the metal parts be handled with latex gloves (pretty cheap precaution) and the metal be swabbed with nail polish remover (acetone) prior to blueing application. Then, be sure to observe to blueing solution "dwell time" before rinsing with water. The manufacturer does know best. Works for me!

[mac1911]

I have used Oxpho-blue from brownells. I have only done some pretty sad looking 22s.
All I can say is I think a lot of people give up before it really starts to work.

I would plug the barrels with cork or rubber stoppers. I built a small tray from rain gutters and used end caps on each end. I would toss just enough oxphoblue in to cover what ever part I was working on. let it sit for a bit then rub rub rub. When I felt nothing was going on or it was blotchy I would hit with some fine sreal wool, dunk and repeat,dunk and repeat dunk;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;. It takes a while to get a decent finish. All the guns I did looked 100% better even the worst cold blue jobs.

[waksupi]

I have used Oxpho-blue from brownells. I have only done some pretty sad looking 22s.
All I can say is I think a lot of people give up before it really starts to work.

I would plug the barrels with cork or rubber stoppers. I built a small tray from rain gutters and used end caps on each end. I would toss just enough oxphoblue in to cover what ever part I was working on. let it sit for a bit then rub rub rub. When I felt nothing was going on or it was blotchy I would hit with some fine sreal wool, dunk and repeat,dunk and repeat dunk;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;. It takes a while to get a decent finish. All the guns I did looked 100% better even the worst cold blue jobs.

Full immersion is the best with Oxphoblue. Leave in for 30 seconds, rinse, buff with paper towel, and repeat as necessary. Rinse, final buff with 0000 steel wool, and oil. Leaving it over 30 seconds per dip, will give cloudy, or blotchy results.

[Molly]

FWIW, I found a cheap and easy refinish when I picked up a Stevens SBS (12x12) that was mechanically sound, but it had barrels that were badly pitted outside. I cleaned the loose rust off with a brush and Naval Jelly, and saw that the pitting was deep, and it was going to be a real job to refinish it the 'right' way. I thought "Well, it's never going to be a presentation grade piece anyhow, it's going to live behind the seat. All I need to do is keep it from rusting."

So I got a can of spray black, flat gloss paint at Home Depot, and hung the barrels in the air with a bit of wire, so it could swing and rotate freely. Then I gave it several mist coats as they twisted. I didn't put it on heavy, just enough to give it a black coat without running. I used multiple coats instead of trying to get it done in one pass. The result looked surprisingly good. I couldn't see the pits unless I searched hard for them. I decided it looked nice enough to go to a little more trouble, so after the black paint had dried a couple of days, I recoated it with some flat clear polyurethane aerosol from the same place. Again, multiple thin coats did a very nice job. You want to put on just barely enough to make a continuous film. After it had dried overnight, it looked darn good. I got busy and just left it drying for a few more days, and when I went back, the polyurethane had hardened like mad! It couldn't be scratched with a fingernail. My fingernail just slid over it like it would a hot blued gun. Yeah, you could still find the pitting if you looked close, but you had to look pretty darn close. From a few feet away, it looked like a new gun! My stepson decided he just HAD to have it, and it's still doing fine, several years later.

I didn't set out to make a new type of finish, but for refinishing a 'beater' when you don't have hot tanks, this is really worth a try. And if you don't like the result, you can strip it off with some paint stripper or sandpaper, and redo it some other way. One nice thing is that the type of metal underneath doesn't affect the color. (BG) If I ever do it again, I'll use a little bit of body filler to fill in the deep pits, and smooth it out with fine sandpaper before coating. It should make a finish that looks and almost wears like hot blue.

[powhs]

I had bad luck with cold blue rusting so I use flat or matt black spray paint. Let the gun set in the sun and get warm then paint. Its fast/easy and looks good. Will last for years.

[buckweet]

boy am i glad i found this thread .. good info ..
bought a used Winchester 30/30 .. needs to be blued .
i thinks I'll try it.

[flounderman]

Use the Mark Lee rust blue and you will never use anything else again. It can be completed in a couple of hours and looks professional. All you need is a single boiling tank.

[oldred]

Use the Mark Lee rust blue and you will never use anything else again. It can be completed in a couple of hours and looks professional. All you need is a single boiling tank.

+1 on the Mark Lee!!!!

The "Express Blue" type rust bluing is so easy it just doesn't make a lot of sense to do a temporary blue that won't look very good in the first place (compared to a real blue) and will wear quickly. This rust blue not only looks like a high end professional blue it's about the toughest wearing blue/black finish a gun can have.

[Clark]

I watched my father do a cold blue 51 years ago.

Cold blue is never going to be quite as good as the real thing, but the results can vary from 5% as good to 95% as good.
I used to be on a kick that Dicropan was darker, but Oxpho blue lasted
longer, so I would put Dicropan on first and get it down in the micro
valleys, and then run Oxpho on the micro ridges.

That trick makes dark and long lasting cold blue, but it only works on
steels that take both cold blues well.

If you can find this stuff, get some, and you will broaden what you can
do besides Oxpho and Dicropan.

http://www.g96.com/products/gun-blue-creme/#


You will need:
1) Towels
2) Paper towels
3) Kleenex
4) Hot running water
5) 3 dedicated tooth brushes
6) Motor oil
7) Oxpho blue: liquid works better, cream is easier to use
8) Some other darker cold blue
9) Liquid detergent, like SIMPLE GREEN

G96 gun blue cream.
Get the part hot and soapy, and scrub it with a tooth brush.
Rinse and dry without getting finger prints on it or letting it cool down.
Scrub on the dark cold blue with a tooth brush for a minute.
Get the part hot and soapy, and scrub it with a tooth brush.
Rinse and dry without getting finger prints on it or letting it cool down.
Scrub on the Oxpho cold blue with a tooth brush for a minute.
Apply oil lightly without rubbing off the Oxpho blue.
Leave overnight.
Get the part hot and soapy, and scrub it with a tooth brush.
Rinse and dry.
Rub oil on it.
Wipe off excess oil.

Repeat until dark and durable enough.

For whole barrels, spin them in the lathe to rub in the Oxpho.

With barrels, put a rubber stopper in the muzzle and breech to keep
liquids out.

Hair dryer or heat gun can warm parts.