I have a rifle marked STA BARBARA PRODUCTS INC. WETH. CT SPORTSMAN - CALIBER 243. The bluing has a kind of crazing appearance. Does anyone know what caused this? It looks to be a defect in the bluing.






Otherwise it's a good looking rifle.

Looks to me like whoever polished it before bluing had NO CLUE what they were doing..

But - hey, I might be wrong..

Redneck, you hit the nail square on the head.

Please explain. I can't feel these.

Could it be a failed copy of this?

Hey, that is the new style / fashion that is very tough to duplicat.

I had some barrels come out like that once-the preservative I put on the metal after polishing failed and I got a bunch of white spots in the blued surface - I had to do it all over again. Mel

It appears that one of the tanks in the bluing process, the Oakite cleaner, hot or cold water rinse was contaminated and the metal was not absolutely clean before being immersed in the bluing salts. Also could be that as stated above the post-polish protectant failed to do its job. When it comes to bluing no matter what type the old slogan "cleanliness is next to godliness" applies universally. The final result of any bluing process is directly related to the preparation, unclean metal in results in an unsatisfactory final blue job.

Is it worth fixing?

By a GS that expects to be paid? It would not be to me.

Rattle can from Ace? Yeah, maybe.

I have fixed a couple that looked very similar on the cheap with Oxpho-Blue from Brownell's. Pour lots of boiling water on the metal and swab the blue on. Let it stand for a while and polish with 0000 steel wool. A few trips around made the metal look better than decent.

I really like those Mausers...

SD, Did you do this right over the existing bluing?

Thanks

Edit: I just read the instructions and see that it goes on over existing bluing, etc. What does pouring the hot water do for the process and at what interval should it be done?

It gets it hot and keeps it hot. It does a better job when hot. The Oxpho-Blue is about the best cold blue I have found and I wish it was available from somewhere other than Brownell's...

Keep it as hot as you can stand...

Oxpho-Blue is available in Cabela's stores.

Send it to me..For $175 we will properly polish and hot blue.

Lefty C