How to Hot Blue

[tjhjunk]

Hi folks, I am at my dads place and we got to talking about hot blueing. Several years ago I made him some stainless steel vats for hot blueing, but we never took the time to find out the method. Would any of you folks know the reciepe and the correct temp. Thank you Tim

 

[eliphalet]

Call and get a brownell's catalog.

 

[Jim Watson]

I made him some stainless steel vats for hot blueing

Too bad, Brownells says not to blue in stainless steel containers, you can get some funny colors. Stainless is ok for degreasing, rinsing, and oil dip, but they specify mild steel - welded, not brazed - for the bluing salts.

Ken Mays uses - for pistols that will fit - an enamel pot so that there is no tank metal exposed.

Ken uses ammonium nitrate and lye, Chris uses sodium nitrate and lye. There are more complex formulae in the old gunsmithing books, some of them quite froggy with mercury and cyanate compounds.
You can buy commercial salts from Brownells or Dulite.


http://www.geocities.com/kemays/formula.htm
http://www.blindhogg.com/homemadesalts.html

 

[GRIZ22]

The only hot bluing I've ever done is using Herte's Hot Water Blue which is available from Brownell's. You get a true blue finish not the black oxidizing that's called blue.

 

[Big Az Al]

Hot bluing

Outside of some real high end stuff that some Colts may have had half a century or more ago! and that was oven baked, I have been told.

All other bluing is and was blackoxide!

We have a steel tank set up that rocks!

I know a couple of smiths that turn small parts black in (gasp) stainless pots, on (gasp) a regular stove! I have used when overwhelmed by work that needed to go out yesterday a stainless tank because that was the only spare we could match to our one extra burner. the biggest variants in color I see are because the Batch was started either to hot or to cold, with the usual pulled out to soon thrown in, but heck pulled out to soon! wash it off and put it back in the tank and let work a little longer! as for might and maybe, black is where it is at! If you are getting a complete buetiful black, there is about a 100% chance that you are not using any book! I say this because our local book worns thru in the towel years ago!

As for materials, Brownells Oxinate 7 works pretty good.

 

[Jim K]

The old Colts (and S&W's) used something called Carbona (or Carbonia) blue, and yes, it used an oven. In fact, it was part of the heat treatment and could not be duplicated, so guns sent to the factory to be refinished usually were just hot tank blued. With a good polish, it is often difficult to tell the difference.

One restorer's site says that the old finish can be duplicated by just heating the metal to 600 degrees. He is wrong, and I would not send him any work. That kind of heat bluing may look good for a while, but will not last and may even ruin the gun by overheating the metal.

The best I have seen on Carbona/Carbonia bluing is here:

http://www.ronsgunshop.com/carbonia.html

Jim

 

[tjhjunk]

Thanks

Thanks fellas, Sorry it took me a while to thank ya'll for the info as I asked the question from my dads and when I got home my internet was down:cuss Anyway I printed the info for him and I'm sure he will get busy Will let ya'll know how it turns out.
Tim

 

[dfariswheel]

If you call or email Brownell's they'll send you FREE information on how to hot salts blue, and on what equipment you need.