Some of the guns that I have restored/reblued

Hey Tincan. Love your results and admire your skill.

I see you did a Colt New Service. What do you think of my dad's. Would this be a viable project?

TINCANBANDIT

You indeed do some very nice restorations, both with steel and with wood. I had an HK P9 that had the bluing turn to a plum color so I wrote to HK to ask them about it. They replied that sometimes it could be the strength of the bluing solution and or any changes in it's formula, differences in the composition of the metal itself, or even slight variations in the metal's heat treatment; or any combination of these or possibly all three of the reasons given.

I miss the old bluing kits from M Wards--about $10
Sanded down the metal
Boiled in a small tank in salt water
Hung up the part & swabbed a clear cold liquid on part
Gave a fine blue/black finish
I was told the government made them take it off market
Too dangerous for us peons

Your tip about distilled water is right-on target. I once used my well water which appears to be super clear. Well it really has iron in it, SO,,,,,my blue job came out as a red tint.

wow, love the work you did reviving these guns. They look great!

I picked up a neglected P226, in very similar condition to the Ruger Mk II you redid... lots of surface rust and pitting on the slide, but internals in good condition. Functions great as a shooter. My preference in finish is blued, to the point that I would keep it as it is (but with the rust neutralized) before I would have it painted.

Question- how essential is the slide metal for safety... can this be sanded down to a point of removing most of the pits, without making the gun unsafe? My uninformed idea is it can be, but I'm no expert. The pitting and etching seem to be about the same depth as the rollmarks. I THINK I could clean the left side up and still have Sig Sauer faintly visible, and most of the other pitting is along the curved edges on the top (actual flat part of the top looks pretty good). The serrations look worse than they are, doesn't look like I lose much depth, just really blotchy.

would you think this could be saved/restored pretty easily?

Well done - hat's off

Love to see nice craftsmanship!

TINCANBANDIT said:

I think you can save that slide, the pits are not that deep. Also if you bead blast it first, it will help hide a lot of the pitting.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I will look at options to rescue this, then.

A friend has a Uberti 1858 New Army that he wants to have the frame color case hardened ( or colored like CCH) and the rest re-blued with a new front sight affixed. Is this something you can do?

Very nice!

Wow!