Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Need an Opinion on Several Brownells Products

I am a home hobbiest/gunsmith. I would like to know what your experience has been with Brownells Oxpho-Blue and Dicropan t-4?
Also have you used the Pilkington Classic Gunstock finish? I was thinking of trying the red/brown on a Remington 31 buttstock that needs help. The forearm is fine and I just want to try and match the finish on this 1948 gun. Final question, any opinions on the Gun Sav R custom oil gunstock spray finish? They rate it at 5 stars. Must be good, right?

Thanks in advance 300 Savage.








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Brownell's has a neat service available through their tech staff... When buying parts and such they keep tabs on how many have been sold and how many returned... They almost never get a Bold trigger back, for example.

Oxphoblue is the best cold blue out there IME&O. The key is in getting the metal HOT. I pour boiling water on the metal and get it way too hot to touch. Put the OxphoBlue on and it will get things deep blue!

The color in that 31 finish is from age, not color applied at the factory. Applying a colored finish you can only guess at is a mistake, IMO. The 31 finish is varnish-based and probably just needs a good cleaning. Formby's furniture refinisher applied on a rag will allow you to clean off the grime on both pieces and probably do most of what you want to do.

Oils are the easiest finishes to apply and apply well. Spray cans do not add anything to the quality of the finish, nor to the ease of application. I consider oil finish in a can the answer to the question no one should be asking...
art

Brownells used to make a great stock finish called Lin-Speed. The last two bottles of this that I bought NEVER dried out and is STILL tacky. Stay away.

Wayne

+1 on the oxpho blue here too. I use a toaster oven set to 250* for smaller parts, and as said above, noiling hot water for bigger parts

Oxpho blue is tops. A very easy way to get a good finish is to spray your clean, polished parts with 409 Cleaner and apply the Oxpho Blue right on top of the cleaner. The cleaner acts as a wetting agent and also cut through any slight traces of oil still on the parts. It is important that you don't wait too long between finish polishing and applying the blue, certainly no more than 2 hours. The problem is oxidation begins to form on the surface of the metal. It is so thin you can't see it, but it is there. Iron loves oxygen. So as soon as you finish polishing, degrease and get on with the bluing and you will get a better finish.

RWO

you guys are a wealth of info!!!

woofer

Wayne
Any oil finish that sits too long in the can starts to polymerize. Adding a little oxygen speeds things up. When there is adequate oxygen and the reactions can restart there are too many deactivated sites in the oil and it cannot complete all of the reactions. Your oil will be gummy forever.

Never use old oil and if a new bottle fails to harden rapidly start again with another new bottle, preferably from a new source.
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