Re-bluing at home?

Both stories are most unfortunate, and learning to be safe can come from others and remind us even if they weren't well thought out.

While we should know that aluminum is not to go in a caustic solution, leaving the mag assembled is foolish as it will have to be disassembled to properly rinse and dry anyway.

Even dove tail sights should be removed so solution isn't left trapped and will leach out later and mess up the job.

Sorry, but heating alcohol is about the most foolish thing I've heard of late and add smoking to the example and what else could happen, but disaster. Sad.

LOG

i just walked upstairs after doing a cold blu with an old 22, it was my first and it turned out pretty nicely, itll go good with its stock that i just redid too... ill post pics

41022collector said:

One thing I forgot to mention earlier was to make sure you remove all the old bluing first before bluing and polishing. I remove old bluing with a simple bath of Drano drain cleaner, it works better, faster and cleaner than the so called de-bluing agents. I give it a couple baths of that and a hot water rinse a few times then let dry completly from the heat from the water bath, then I do my polishing tricks.... one good thing is, after it, I can toss the drano down the drain w/o making epa choke on a tater tot. Mike

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Couple things to grasp here and of value. Say a gun, a 1911 has say a scratch, a long one from the slide stop, but the blue looks good otherwise. The scratch can be smoothed out and the frame blued and there is no reason to remove the good bluing and it will be undetectable when it comes out. Or if you've fitted a high rise beaver tail GS no reason to strip the frame. So there's an understanding once something is blued and taken out of the tank and put back in it will not blue deeper or strip, but any bare metal will be blued.

Drano is a caustic soda not unlike bluing solution and both are oxidizers that's how the bluing solution works it converts the iron by oxidation to a form of iron that is black. Okay. To remove the conversion oxide a de-oxidizer is the most efficient means of doing so and that would be a dilute acid. Muratic at 50% dilution will strip hot blue in 15 seconds. Don't use Drano.

The 50% Muratic (Pool Acid from Home Depot diluted with water) is also the correct solution to activate Stainless Steel prior to a hot black oxide conversion, it is a different caustic solution, but similar, and can be tricky the first time on untried material as timing is critical with SS.

A little more about the 50% Muratic, this is mandatory to have on hand as it is how you neutralize the caustic solution and then neutralize with soda and check the PH, and dispose according to your local ordinances.

LOG

Safety wise...if working with Muriatic or 50/50 Solutions...do it outdoors, stand upwind of it...and have no less than a Gallon Bucket of heavily saurated Baking Soda and Water close at hand in case any accidents, splashes or spills....as the Baking Soda-Water solution neutralizes the Acid...though it takes a lot of it to do so.


Muriatic is 'fierce' stuff!

I am sure we all have our methods. Drano has worked for me for 23 years. I like to stick with what I know works well for me. I de-blue a piece simply because my polish jobs are very mirror bright (when that is what the customer wants) and any old blue will make a mis-matched color or a mottled look when in the sun or decent light, the differences are noticable. On semi gloss, brushed blended, beaded or matt finishes it is not all that important.

Most .45 slides / frames (save the Charles Dailey and customs) are not gloss, they are brushed or blended so yeah, not all that important to match the bluing exactly. The receivers of like a model 1100 or and older rem 11 howver need a total blue strip as well as the barrel, nothing looks worse than a reblue with mismatched blue results barrel to receiver or each side of the receiver. Same with S&W and Colts wheel guns, nothing looks worse than a side plate that has been redone and the rest of the piece is black or vice versa. Bluing the whole piece w/o de-bluing truly shows a less than professional job.

I do agree full disassembly of all parts pieces is needed to do a proper bluing job.

Yeah sadly, the cigg and the warmed alcohol and anywhere near the burners for the bluing and rinse tanks. Plus the tanks should have been secured to the bulkhead, not just standing alone unsecured. He should have been in the Darwin Awards, I just feel bad for the wife and kids over a stupid $100 savings. .

Hope all have a safe and Happy 4th of July....

Regards,
Mike

Yes, I follow the bluing chemical manufactures recommendations as experimenting with alternate products can be foolhardy. Hubbard-Hall is a leader in metal conversion chemistry and supplies many gun manufactures with their products. http://www.hubbardhall.com/

LOG

log man said:

Sure, I didn't like cold blue results in the long run and liked the idea of being able to hot blue when and what I wanted so built a hot tank used a turkey roast burner and bought the chemical from Hubberd-Hall, Black Magic, and have blued dozens.

LOG

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I called them yesterday and got the run-around on their Black Magic Infusion.
I asked about the cost, minimum quantity, mix ratio and whether it was sold
as a liquid or salts. She didn't know anything. N-o-t-h-i-n-g.

Can you tell me what you bought from them (quantity and cost, etc.)? Thanks.

Highway Magician said:

I called them yesterday and got the run-around on their Black Magic Infusion.
I asked about the cost, minimum quantity, mix ratio and whether it was sold
as a liquid or salts. She didn't know anything. N-o-t-h-i-n-g.

Can you tell me what you bought from them (quantity and cost, etc.)? Thanks.

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Talk to a customer service rep. they can give you much better information. I have bought both the Black Magic Infusion (10gal.) and Black Magic SSL (5gal.) Shipping is high and doubles the out the door price for me in SoCal .

LOG