Removing Bluing

I have a '92 Winchester that was reblued. Excellent job overall, however some parts were blued that shouldn't have been. In particular, the bolt locking bars and the hammer.

Is there an easy way to remove the bluing?

 

The Birchwood Casey 3-pack Bluing kit includes a bottle of bluing remover. This can be found at nearly any gunshop, sporting goods store, or most Walmarts.

 

Naval jelly works too.

 

Vinegar and some 0000 steel wool.

 

Muriatic Acid does it quick, but you would have to polish the parts afterwards.

 

Evapo-Rust It's safe and easy. Pore some into a container. Put your parts in. Take them out an hour or to later and all the finish will be gone.
https://www.ebay.com/i/253414041200?chn=ps

 

I have used Evapo Rust and Brownell's Steel White to remove rust, but they sure take off the blue. It is just smooth iron oxide, after all.
Thing is, they did not leave nice clean bare metal you would want to put right back in the gun, they leave an uneven dingy gray surface. Figure on polishing. I was doing water damaged magazine bodies and didn't care about appearance I just wanted them usable.

 

NOTE: Evapo-Rust doesn’t taste good, keep mouth closed when using it.

 

You sound like someone who knows from experience

 

IIRC, the early hammers were color case hardened, the later ones were like the '94, bright on the sides and blued on the top.

Jim

 

It’s a good thing that it’s a safe product.

 

vinegar takes about 2 hours, leaves metal in the same condition it was before, but with no bluing. I use it to parkerize.

 

We have had plenty of good answers here. I'd use phosphoric acid, which more or less is naval jelly, after careful degreasing and cleaning. It is dirt that may produce a piebald effect. With the strong acids (and hydrochloric is less dangerous, concentration being equal, than nitric etc.), I would start with them so diluted as to do nothing visible, and increase by stages until it does.

I have seen it said that hydrochloric acid leaves steel very prone to after-rusting. But I have found it not to, if the parts are boiled in a couple of changes of clean water, then oiled. Phosphoric leaves a very fine pearly texture, which blues or case-hardens very well, and looks right on an old gun. If you want bright steel, see what steel wool will do - maybe all you need - or some kind of fine abrasive paste on an old toothbrush or pencil eraser. You can buy your choice of abrasive powders for gemstone polishing from a lapidary dealer, or syringes of diamond paste on eBay at a remarkably low price for diamonds. It may be cubic zirconia, but it works.