HELP! Bluing problem

[Mauser lover]

Alright, I think I did something really stupid. I tried to cold blue an entire barrel. I used Birchwood Casey Super Blue, and it looks great, in the garage where I did it. Well, that is great, I let is sit overnight, and took it outside in the morning, and it looks absolutely horrible under a bright light (the sun). It still looks great indoors, but when under a bright light you can see that the whole barrel has a greenish brown (rust colored brown) underneath the blue color. What do I do now? Do I strip it all off and rust blue it? Can it be salvaged? If I need to rust blue it, any hints and tricks will be appreciated.

 

[gamestalker]

Did you get it completely clean of all rust and old blue first? To get any blue job to come out right it's imparative to get the metal completely striped of the original blue and any rust present. I used steel wool, which took a good bit of time to get it completely striped, but the effort is well worth the results.

I used that Birchwood Casey blue a few years ago, and it looked exactly as you've described. But after I did a good oil wipe down, it came out looking quite nice.

Those home blueing kits are generally great for small touch up jobs, but nothing really works as good as a properly done hot blue system.
GS

 

[rcmodel]

Try Brownell's Oxpho-Blue over the mess you got now.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1072/Product/OXPHO-BLUE-reg-

rc

 

[Mauser lover]

Yes, I got it completely clear of old bluing. I used the Birchwood Casey blue/rust remover, and then used a wire wheel on a dremel to get the tougher stuff off, then I sanded it with 400 then 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

I have already oiled it down pretty heavily, it didn't help.....:banghead:

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

50 years ago I bought my first gun, a bolt action 12ga. Dad helped me refinish that old gun. We reblued it with cold blue and it actually turned out pretty nice. I think the steel has a lot to do with the job as well as getting the metal completely free of oil and rust. Funny thing, that gun smelled of the tru oil that we used on the wood for years afterwards. I can still smell that smell after all those years.

 

[stan rose]

I have to second the Oxpho-Blue from Brownells. I used Birchwood Casey a number of years ago on my grandfather's old Remington single shot .22 and it came out "not so good, not so bad", but I definitely was not happy with it. I re-stripped it and used Oxpho Blue and it came out great, I highly recommend this stuff because if I can get something to look good anyone can.

 

[Mauser lover]

The problem that I am seeing with all of the cold bluing solutions is that they provide no (or almost no) protection from rust, and they wear too easily. Unless Oxpho-blue is as good as a good slow rust blue, I just don't want to do it, since it will cost me about the same either way. Rust blue seems just (okay, almost just) as easy, and with a better chance of something turning out really really well.

I will be starting a thread on rust bluing, so if you have any tips/tricks/hints on rust bluing, you can post them there.

 

[stan rose]

The Remington that I did has seen very little use, but a butchered Enfield that I did has been used as a loaner rifle for the past three years and has held up quite well.

 

[stjack]

cold bluing issues

I've had pretty good luck with several brands of cold bluing solutions, however, they seem to be be VERY sensitive to prep and application. I de-grease with Autozone carb cleaner type solvents and immediately protect with Rem-Oil or other mineral oil type protectants to protect after bluing sessions. That said, carding with de-greased ultrafine steel wool seems to help with the initial application, with about 4 or 5 applications of severe elbow grease to even things out, has given me the best results.......granted, cold bluing at home doesn't yield professional results, but I've found that it will protect your home-brew projects if you are diligent about inspecting your treasures....and are willing to maintain your belongings rather than blame others for poor results.

 

[wv109323]

A tip I have found to help with the cold blue jobs is to heat the surface up. This is done after all the prep work. I take a propane torch and get the object up to 200 degrees and apply the cold blue. I apply several coats. It seems to help get a bluer result.

 

[Mauser lover]

Yeah... I heated it up in the oven to 200 F, it kind of sizzled, that is the only difference that I could tell.

 

[1948CJ2A]

I've used both the Birchwood & the Brownells brand cold blue. Both of them returned a less than stellar finished product even with all the prep work done correctly. Like another poster mentioned, they seem to be more prone to rust and blemishes when compared to a professional hot-blued application.

I found a shop about 10-15 miles away that will professionally hot blue a rifle for $60. That price is only for the bluing so you have to do all the prep work. I think they wanted closer to $200 if they were going to do the prep work. Turnaround time is 2 weeks. I'm getting ready to try them out for the first time. Fingers crossed.

 

[Mauser lover]

Before you spend all that money, maybe you should try slow rust bluing. It looks easy enough, and I am about to do my first gun with it. I started a thread about it, so if you want to look at it and use it for information, it might be helpful. You might change your mind about taking it to that shop. It probably won't be any cheaper, if you need to buy all the stuff that you need, but if you already have some sort of tank, and an extremely fine wire wheel, and shop around for the best price on bluing solutions, you might end up with a good finish that cost about half of what that shop is charging.

 

[1948CJ2A]

Well my very first bluing attempt back in 1994 was a hot blue application. It didn't turn out so well. Between that time and now I've tried cold bluing a few times as previously indicated. I wasn't happy with the end results either.

Sometimes when you DIY multiple times with undesirable results you're better off calling the professionals. Maybe you spend a few more bucks but in the end you get a better finished product. Besides, I think $60 for a professional complete reblue is well worth it.

 

[Mauser lover]

Have you checked out the slow rust bluing process? It seems to me that hot bluing is best left for the professionals, cold bluing is made especially to drum up business for the professionals that hot blue since everyone that tries to cold blue fails, and slow rust bluing is too time consuming for the pros, but is easy enough for the amateur who has already tried and failed (by design) to get a decent finish cold bluing.

 

[1948CJ2A]

Have you checked out the slow rust bluing process?

No I haven't. Don't know much about it. I saw another thread on here recently talking about that process. I think for my current project I'm going to stick with the professional hot bluing. I'm going for a high-polish vintage look (heck I had to look really hard to find a gloss finish scope to go with it!).