Can you make a Colt navy 51 stainless?

[Native shooter]

Hello everyone, well i'm new here and think this is the right place too post this. I was looking into buying a Uberti Colt Navy London replica, and I really like how the Colt Navy looks stainless. So I was wondering can I remove the bluing on a London Navy and make it stainless, or should I have a professional gunsmith do it?

 

[DoubleDeuce 1]

If you can find a Stainless Colt 1851 Navy, why not buy it? The price you might be spending on the new London model, and having the bluing removed and polished etc, would probably come close to the purchase price of the Stainless Colt. You will still have to problems with rust and such on the London model. That will be a thing of the past with the Stainless, for the most part. It is easier to care for.

You could always use naval jelly or some other chemical like Birchwood Casey's Bluing and Rust remover to remove the bluing and polish the revolver yourself. Look at the Walker Club thread and go to the last page. There is an example or two of bluing removed and the steel polished. I think I would go for the Stainless...

 

[RON in PA]

Removing the bluing from a carbon steel gun will not make it stainless. Stainless steel is chemically different having a large chromium content. It might look like stainless steel, but it's not.

 

[Crawdad1]

Something like this?

http://www.pietta.us/products/Special/gallery/Special_02.html

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

An overnight soak in vinegar will remove most eyetie bluing finishes without harsh chemicals.

 

[Willie Sutton]

Stripping the blue off a carbon steel revolver does not a stainless one make.

In fact... it's makes an "very easy to stain" one out of it, one that will rust every fingerprint unless you're after it with oil constantly.


Willie

.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Hello everyone, well i'm new here and think this is the right place too post this. I was looking into buying a Uberti Colt Navy London replica, and I really like how the Colt Navy looks stainless. So I was wondering can I remove the bluing on a London Navy and make it stainless, or should I have a professional gunsmith do it?

No.

If you remove the bluing off your gun, which is simple to do with the right chemicals, you will have a gun that's referred to as "in the white" and it will have pretty much 0% protection from corrosion. Now if you keep it religiously oiled, you can avoid rusting issues and there are guns historically made "in the white" but it is not really advisable to go about doing this.

As others have said, your blued Navy is made of carbon steel that has been blued, not stainless steel. Stainless steel is an alloy of steel and typically corrosion resistant elements like chromium that allows the alloy to in turn resist corrosion much better than normal carbon steel.

In short, don't do it! You can however, have the bluing professionally stripped and then have the gun nickel plated. Give a satin finish to the nickel if it's to shiny, and there you go, a nice silvery finish for your revolver that is very corrosion resistant!

 

[BCRider]

A buddy bought a blued gun which had been stripped back to make it "in the white". Not sure why other than the steel had some funny patterns that makes me suspect that the previous owner tried to use something to clean the gun which stripped the blueing by accident so he finished it off.

Bottom line is that if you LIKE the silver bare metal look you can certainly buy products that strip the blue off. From there you COULD look at having it nickel plated or simply leave it as unfinished steel.

If you go the naked steel route wipe down the outside with a good gun oil. But continue to use the BP compatible Ballisol on the inside of the chambers, the cylinder arbor and on the face of the cylinder. The petroleum based gun oils can react with BP fouling to produce a nasty and hard to clean away tar when they mix. Ballistol won't do that.

Now if you really and truly want a stainless gun then there is one. Go shopping for a Ruger Old Army in stainless.

 

[bannockburn]

Hard chrome plating will also give you a matte silver appearance, looking much like stainless steel, while giving you excellent protection from corrosion and surface wear.

 

[Native shooter]

I like the Wild Bill Hickok one, but I don't like the pietta tail, I might look into getting it nickle plated or hard chromed. I like the silver look to it a lot more than the blue