Cold Blue...will it last?

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44 Dave said:
I love "rescued guns". The price is usually right and I enjoy working on them as much as shooting them.
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Oh I could tell you some stories. I know a person who has a habit of taking guns apart, can't get them back together, puts them in a shoe box, puts the shoe box in the basement, or the bottom of a tote, and leaves them to rust for a couple of years. I've obtained several of those.

I did rescue a Colt 1911A1 once, the price was free. A friend's dad was a Marine in WWII, and a few days after taking an Island in the Pacific, he was relaxing and walking the beech at low tide and picked up two 1911's, one the Colt and one a Remington Rand. So my friend had them both, and I re-furbished and rescued the Remington for him. It was in pretty good shape to begin with. The Colt was really a mess, and deemed un-fixable. So for years I bugged him that he should give me the Colt, but he didn't want to do that...but bug someone long enough, and he finally did years later. With a big bench mounted wire wheel and a $100 parts kit, and a parkerization job, she lived to shoot again. And very reliable and accurate. I gave it to my son years ago. "Property of US Army" it says...but you know how them Marines "borrow" weapons and supplies sometimes. ;)
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Oh I could tell you some stories. I know a person who has a habit of taking guns apart, can't get them back together, puts them in a shoe box, puts the shoe box in the basement, or the bottom of a tote, and leaves them to rust for a couple of years. I've obtained several of those.

I did rescue a Colt 1911A1 once, the price was free. A friend's dad was a Marine in WWII, and a few days after taking an Island in the Pacific, he was relaxing and walking the beech at low tide and picked up two 1911's, one the Colt and one a Remington Rand. So my friend had them both, and I re-furbished and rescued the Remington for him. It was in pretty good shape to begin with. The Colt was really a mess, and deemed un-fixable. So for years I bugged him that he should give me the Colt, but he didn't want to do that...but bug someone long enough, and he finally did years later. With a big bench mounted wire wheel and a $100 parts kit, and a parkerization job, she lived to shoot again. And very reliable and accurate. I gave it to my son years ago. "Property of US Army" it says...but you know how them Marines "borrow" weapons and supplies sometimes. ;)
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Probably what happened to this one... revenge of the belt sander... CDEEC45D-9C6A-4458-AA6E-243BC9F5CED8.jpeg A18F3848-26AF-40C3-BAA0-0C5A0335A4FA.jpeg
 
Purposely "melted" finished. No sharp edges to snag or induce wear on surrounding clothing. Looks very well done.
 
Yes, snag-free, and well done...if you like that sort of thing. !! Guess I could get used to it. :) But, I find my full size, totally snagged out of the box 1911R1 draws just fine and fast from concealment without snagging on anything.
 
Send the poster named Michael Tinker Pierce am PM and ask what cold blue he uses on his project guns. He seems to get good results from what he is using. It looks like Oxpho Blue to me but not the same name.
 
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I Only use oxpho blue. It too will wear eventually but not as fast (and not as stinky) as birchwood blue. Without a proper heat bluing set up i would rather use plum brown on stuff.
 
Ugly Sauce said:
View attachment 988367This pic doesn't show it well, but I cold blued the barrel on the TC Hawken that I picked up on Ebay. I got the gun for free, but the barrel on it was trashed. The ebay barrel had been cold blued once upon a time, but it was mostly worn off and I was going to let it age naturally. I didn't like the dark shiney blue on the trashed barrel.

It was kind of "patchy" too, so I mixed some cold blue with a little water, and wiped her down. I like how it turned out, instead of a dark or black type of blue, it came out kind of a "smokey" grey after I put some Ballistol on it.

Now I was letting my Jeager barrel, which has always been "in the white", age to a dark grey, but I liked how the TC looked, so I went ahead and did it. She turned the same nice smokey dark grey. Looks nice.

But, I expect it to wear off fast where I carry the rifles, we'll see. I guess I can always touch it up after hunting seasons, or just leave the "carry wear" on the barrel. Or...??

By the way, the Plains Pistol just wanted to be in the picture for some reason. She was jealous.
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I've got a Cabelas kit gun that came with a white barrel and cold blue to apply, my wife gave it to me over 10 yrs ago and the barrel still looks nice, I've also used cold blue to touch some of my other B/P rifles and when done according to instructions, look good and last for yrs. DSCN1010.JPG
 
I like Plum Brown on my BP rifles also. I use the Birchwood/Casey brand and if you follow directions it seems to do a good job of browning a barrel. I have 3 guns I browned over 25 years ago that still look very good. One of those is my Cabelas Hawken in 45 caliber that I have shot close to a thousand shots from. Its my favorite BP rifle.
 
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