Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Blued Stainless Barrel

Is there anyone that blues stainless steel?
I have a stainless barrel that has what is called a
Spider Web finish by some. It’s actually where the plastic netting is left on the barrel and then bead blasted over. It leaves a fish net type finish on the barrel.
I think it would look excellent if it could be blued.

The Remington 700 BDL had a model with a blued stainless barrel. IIRC, it had to be copper plated or something similar to take the finish. It was a intensive process and was soon discontinued. Modern techniques are maybe easier and better, I don't know.

You can't blue the barrel with the plastic netting on to get the same results of bead blasting it, I blue stainless

Yes Sir I’m aware of that.
I’m referring to blueing after the blasting has been done.

I believe the only option is bluing colored cerakote...

Never tried it, I got some bluing to do this week, ill try it on a test piece of steel to see how it comes out

You can blue stainless steel barrels

You can blue stainless steel barrels

Please let us know how it turns out.

How about Nitride? Might be another option.

I have had a few stainless barrels "blued". I sent them out to an outfit called "Unico of Milwaukee" Look them up

Going to fine bead blast the test piece and the put the netting on and coarse bead blast then blue

Sounds good

Going to fine bead blast the test piece and the put the netting on and coarse bead blast then blue

The barrel I have has a polished finish where the netting was touching the barrel and the exposed area that wasn’t covered with the netting is a matte finish so it creates a contrast effect.

Gemby58
Could you polish a piece, put the netting on and bead blast it to see how that would turn out as well.
I an interested in seeing your results either or both ways.

Thanks

I know that Remington had a BDL model 700 with what looked like a blued barrel. When reading barrel markings says stainless steel. That is my hunting rifle for deer made in the late 60,s or early 70,s.

Interesting thread. I had no idea that stainless steel could be blued.

Brownells sells bluing salts that will blue stainless but not all refinishers use it since it requires a separate tank. It works much better on matte finished metal than bright polish so bead blasting before use is ideal. I personally have not used the product but I’m not sure you can blue stainless and carbon steel at the same time. The barrel and receiver probably have to be blued separately.
The factory stainless barrels were normally iron plated then blued which produced a grayish finish that was not extremely durable.

You can blue a carbon action with a stainless barrel in a standard blueing tanks. The stainless barrel will not blue, may be a slight shade darker but will cause no harm to the action or contaminate the tank. You have to use special stainless blueing salts in a separate tank to blue stainless, but you can blue stainless. I believe Winchester did it with the .264 and Remington at first with the 7mm mags.

Why bother when there are so many other good finishes