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Gunsmithing or technical forum
I wanted to ask some questions about bluing and there didn't appear to be an appropriate forum for it. Maybe a gunsmithing forum would be useful?
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Gunsmithing or technical forum
Morning Ken
Dennis has a technical forum (edit) sorry it's under archery I guess I did not notice that when I used it. Me thinks a gunsmithing site would be in line also.
Reloading metallic stuff would be nice also.
I sent a note a while ago asking for a varmit section. Kinda hate to shoot vermin under field dogs.
Here is an excellent site I do not recall blueing specifically but there are some excellent links
http://www.6mmbr.com/index.html
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Thanks Harvey! I'm working on a project and have some spring steel that needs blueing. My cold blueing results with Birchwood-Casey blueing just doesn't turn out as well as hot blueing. I'm curious if anyone knows a way to get top notch results with cold blueing or if it's even possible. Alternately, is there a cheap way to do hot blueing? I could shop for a gunsmith to do it for me but I like to learn.
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Ken:
Cabela's sells a product called "Blue Wonder". It sells for $34.99. If you go to Cabelas.com and type in gun blueing under the product search you will find it. I've also seen another similar product at our local Gander Mountain store.
I've never had much luck with the Birchwood-Casey products. We've tried the "Cold" product to duplicate a "Hot" Black oxide finish on our machine tools and fixtures. It seems to take on soft steels but not heat treated like a spring or other hardened tool.
My local gunshop redid an old shotgun and made it black not blue. It looks pretty good.
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Thanks, yooper, I'll give it a try.
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As another thought. You may want to try a local steel heat treating facility that does the "Hot" black oxide finish. It will be black but could be brownish black if they don't change their chemicals often enough. You could also mail the part to me and I could have it done with one of our loads and I could mail it back to you.
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The parts I want blued are used for restoration of old pinball machines. The playfield ramps have spring steel entrances that were originally blued and that's the finish I'm trying to restore. The results with cold bluing so far have been splotchy and nowhere near as nice as original. Maybe it's worth it to just take them to a gunsmith and have them hot blued with the next batch they do. There are only 2-3 per machine and I don't have to do it very often. If they'd do it for ~$5 apiece it would be worth it.
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re: Cold Blue
Chemical bluing in hot tanks or cold solutions are generally done because it is cheap. The results are less impressive than the old ways of rust bluing.
Rust bluing can be done on your heat treated ramps and it should give you a more consistent coloring than chemical bluing. It will take longer, however. The cost depends on how much time you want to take with this project.
You can do rust bluing at home. Fundamentally it involves causing a clean iron based surface to develop an even red rust film; gently brushing off the film; rusting some more; until a solid even red coat is seen. The surface is then polished and the red color is converted to a blue by boiling in water. This coating looks like it is part of the metal and is the way many guns were blued until the 1950s or 1960s. If you are restoring old pin ball machines from the early 20th Century, then they were likely rust blued at the time.
Rust bluing has been replaced only because of cost. A quality rust blued finish is head and shoulders above a chemical blue. For spot bluing, I use a product from Brownell's called Oxpho-blue and it works about the best of any of the cold solutions.
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How do you determine Shotgun S
01-08-2018, 12:00 
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