Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Recommendation for Rust Bluing and Price Range?

Point taken, but my point is that occasional home hobbyist rust bluing (say, a couple a year, max) poses no more of a health risk given modest precautions than cleaning the bathroom and kitchen weekly with the common bleaches and cleansers that are prevalent in our households. I fear the pollution I breathe from the rush hour traffic jams every morning more than I do the effects of a couple of rust bluing projects. On the other hand if I were engaged in doing it for a living I would certainly take all necessary precautions to ameliorate the effects of a steady consumption of the chemicals present.

That's as good a way as any I suppose. I use steel wool pushed/finagled into tight corners with thin bladed screwdrivers, slivers of wood, or anything else laying around on my cluttered bench. I'll give the hemostats (what we used to call "roach clips" ) a try.

Instead of de-greasing steel wool (a necessity), try out some oil-free steel wool. I buy mine from a woodworking supply house. It's Liberon brand (Google it). Comes in a sleeve that holds about 20 feet of it. A bit pricier than hardware store-grade steel wool, but is super nice to work with. I use it as a matter of course for everything in the laboratory workshop.

Used Charles Danner twice, very nice man to talk to, and does beautiful work. Cant go wrong with him, and has a quick turn around time.

It is a lot like body work. What you put into prep work (Polishing) is pretty much what you end up with. Pilkingtons is more for the experienced user. The prep work must be good+ and really clean. It does not seem to have the penetration (In a short time) on cased steels that Brownell's does.

Steven60;
As you may have noted by many of the posts already, there are differing methods of rust bluing. With the understanding that I'm not a working gunsmith, just a serious student of firearms, I'll throw out the following thoughts for your consideration.

I was taught how to do it 25 years ago, the way the chap who taught me had learned. Is it the right way? Well I suppose if the results are acceptable to the gun's owner then at least it is ONE right way.

One thing I'd like to add is that if you are going to use a home mixed acid formula, you need to do so in heavy glass containers.

It's been awhile since I mixed my last batch, but as I recall the reaction was a wee bit exothermic.

As well, when I add the nails to the acid, an orange gas comes off of the resulting solution and that orange gas does a body no good whatsoever....

Please learn from my mistakes there and mix it is a very well ventilated area.

A carbon filter mask, rubber gloves and safety glasses would be a nice minimum of personal safety gear in my view.

I've never plugged a bore and have never had an issue with any contamination in it. As I understand it, boiling stops the oxidization process and as noted, everything dries very quickly coming out of the hot water.

As well, I've never blued the inside surfaces of any receiver, though it would be conceivable to do so I suspect. I've done plenty of bolts, however I've always kept the oxidizing solution away from the critical locking lug surfaces.

When I started out I used steel wool, but eventually ended up with a soft wire wheel from Brownell's which makes it much easier.

One thing I've found quite useful is that I've played with my acid solution so it achieved the amount of oxidization that I'm aiming for in 24 hours, so then I can work at it every evening.

If the solution is too concentrated, it will result in too much rusting in short order and the pits may become deeper than you really want. Hopefully that makes sense?

Oh, it usually takes between 6-8 rust/buff/boil repetitions to do most barreled actions for me. Once the initial prep is done - ie. the barreled action is stripped to the white, then it's usually about a half hour per repetition or maybe a little more or less depending on the action I'm working with.

Lastly, depending on the steel in the barrel and the action, the resulting finish may not be exactly the same as it won't oxidize and discolor in an identical manner.

For example, here is my old Ruger 77 that I did years back and you can sort of see that the investment cast action didn't color the same way that the comparatively soft Parker Hale barrel did. As well, one can see that whatever steel the barrel band was made from it didn't match either one.


The resulting finish however has been exceedingly tough and has withstood many, many trips afield here in the BC mountains.

Hopefully that was some use to you. Good luck whichever way you decide.

Regards,
Dwayne

The above poster makes an excellent point regarding not blueing the inside surfaces of an action. When I worked at Browning Arms Co.'s gunsmithing shop, the inside surfaces of actions were always polished bright after rebluing. Removing the blueing makes the mating parts slide much more smoothly. The bolt ways inside of Mauser and Sako actions were polished as well as the inside of Superposed and Citori shotguns having the receiver internal surfaces and barrel lugs polished. Muzzles were polished just because it was a Browning trademark of sorts, like the gold plated triggers.

Thanks again! I'll be using a commercial product for the bluing and the safety/PP gear as noted. Definitely a face shield for the wire brushing so's I don't wind up looking like a porcupine!

I had Duracoated one rifle with their "Blued" color and it looks nice - except that it looks like paint! So it's in for a trip to get that stuff blasted off when I get ready to rust blue it.

best,

Steve