Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors I need a barrel blued

I have a Valmet "Lion" barrel in 12 ga O/U that looks like it's been Parkerized and I would like to have it blued.My local guy lost his shop locale and now works out of his house and doesn't have his hot bluing tanks anymore.I have another friend who has a sand blasting chamber so I can remove the existing finish.does anyone recommend a good bluer?

Most O/U can't be hot blued; the barrels and rib are usually soldered on and can't take the heat of hot bluing. You'll need to look for someone that does rust bluing.

I can slow rust blue it. $125.00. $100.00 if you strip it and it doesn't need buffing.

Shouldn't buff it anyway! There is such a thing as getting steel too highly polished if doing a rust blue job. 400x or maybe 600x is as fine as you need to go. Backed with a semi-flexible backer, sheet abrasives won't smear the lettering on the barrel either, nor will it soften other edges.

I wouldn't be surprised if Valmet barrels are brazed together, rather than soft soldered. That would allow them into a hot caustic blue tank, all else being equal.

If it were me, I would hand polish it myself and send it on up to Corelokt.

I'd only buff w/ coarse to remove pitting on rust blue work. I've got a sweet machine rigged. 4 pulley sheave connected to a dual arbor, run by a 3/4hp pump motor. I've an assortment of hard felt wheels and then some Brownells tallow based compounds kept in the kitchen fridge.
I keep a pair of super soft wire brushes on a different buffer for soft blending and carding. One for chrome-moly, one for stainless.

very interested sounds like you know your stuff please email me at kmlashleyaol.com for shipping info
thanks
kelly