Reblued Ruger Blackhawk

[jalex1941]

Well, I decided to blue the revolver I know that some of you like to keep the scratches but this revolver just had to be reblued because of all the rust and pitting. I sanded out all the pitting and polished the metal to a mirror finish took me around 13 hours total, put on 8 coats of bluing.

What do you guys think ?

 

[LAGS]

@ Jalex1941
I take it you did a Cold Blue on this gun.
What product did you use.
This is typical for most Cold Blues, when you try to re- blue a whole gun.
You will never get the finish smooth and uniform , but it is giving some rust protection now.
Good work, and it is nice to see that you are trying to maintain you firearms yourself.

 

[jalex1941]

I used oxpho-blue from Brownells.

 

[LAGS]

@ Jalex1941
That is pretty good stuff, and One of the best.
But the problem comes when you cold blue a gun.
The finish is so thin and doesn't penetrate the metal very far, so where ever you rub or polish, becomes thinner and lighter.
But the hard to reach spots stay all nice and Blued.
Just the nature of the beast.
And it is comlpicated further by the same thing when you polish the gun.
What you can easily reach gets a better polish, and also the guns are made from different metals for all the parts.
The Barrel is not the same metal as the frame or the grip.

 

[Kernel]

Like it. Classic old school. That looks like an old Busnell scope cira 1970. One of the first ligit handgun hunting scopes. What did they call it? Bantam or Phantom, or something. Is the tube steel? The mount and scope are one unit?

 

[silicosys4]

My experiences with cold bluing we're not nearly as successful, the cylinder of the charter arms pug I blued turned a nice uniform charcoal grey, while the frame is thin, patchy, and already fading. For cold bluing and not the greatest pic, that looks like a great job

 

[bannockburn]

I have never had much success with cold bluing either. Mixed results with a replica Colt Model 1861 revolver kit that I assembled years ago. Parts of it would be all right but there was always a few spots where it just wouldn't take evenly. Ended up having the bluing done by a local gunsmith. Had better luck with a Hawken rifle kit. Even though the cold blue on the barrel appeared uneven in some places it did end up with a kind of aged looking finish that seemed to suit it just fine.

 

[texagun]

I used oxpho-blue from Brownells.

Liquid or paste? I've heard the paste works better but I've only used the liquid for touch-up.

 

[captain awesome]

Hard to tell because the photo is so dark but on my phone it looks nice.