Cost effective gun finishes

[Dustin]

I am trying to refinish the metal on my dads old coast to coast brand 22, i tried cold bluing and i couldnt get to stick. Any suggestions?

 

[jcwit]

What brand of cold blueing did you use? Some work very well, not as good as hot blue but pretty close.

 

[Dustin]

i tried birchwood casey

 

[Buck Snort]

I'd say hard chrome is the most "cost effective" gun coating.

 

[Beaux Nehr]

In my experience, you have to seriously degrease and work at it to make a cold blue stick evenly.

I've been wanting to try out Oxpho Blue as I hear it works a lot better than B/C

 

[bannockburn]

Have to agree with Buck Snort on hard chrome plating. When I had my guns refinished, hard chrome actually cost considerably less than having it reblued, with the added bonus of being an extremely tough surface treatment. My hard chromed guns still look as good as the day I got them back from being refinished.

 

[Buck Snort]

Have to agree with Buck Snort on hard chrome plating. When I had my guns refinished, hard chrome actually cost considerably less than having it reblued, with the added bonus of being an extremely tough surface treatment. My hard chromed guns still look as good as the day I got them back from being refinished.

And then there's the advantages of less cleaning being needed and less lubing.

 

[ScratchnDent]

i tried birchwood casey

I've had mixed results with that. It works well on some alloys and not on others.

 

[DougW]

Using cold blue, I have found that you have to remove any oil with alcohol (IPA 70% or higher) before starting, then apply blue, rinse with water, buff with 0000 steel wool, then repeat multiple times to get the desired effects.

-OR

Use Brownell's Alumahyde II. I find it works better and e=is easier to use for the long term.

 

[Greg Koziol]

DURAKOTE? supposed to be good. There's a bunch of good bake on finishes, theirs a lot of good ones on brownells.com and midwayusa.com