Casey's bluing paste

[Skans]

I just wanted to report that I got very good results using bluing paste to eliminate holster finish ware on one of my guns. I liked the results so much that I ended up doing the entire slide and the several areas on the frame.

The pistol has a mat blue/black finish. I did this while sitting on my couch watching a movie. After degreasing the gun with some alcohol, I applied the blue paste over the areas I wanted to blue, waited about 1-2 minutes, wiped it off, brushed it out with some fine steel wool, and repeated 2-3 more times. I didn't just wipe on the paste and let it sit - I continued to work it into the metal with a Q-tip until it started to dry.

Going into this, I had read all kinds of things about not using cold blue, streaking problems, coloration and color match problems, so I had pretty low expectations. This particular gun did not have any high gloss royal blue finish - just mat black. It also was in great shape, except for holster ware. I figured I didn't have much to lose. Much to my surprise, the gun looks like new. The bluing matches perfectly. No streaking, no blotchiness, covered all of the worn bright spots and the finish looks factory. I'm no expert, but I wouldn't be able to tell that it had a cold-blue touch-up.

I'll have to see how it wares, but during the process, I tested some areas by more aggressively buffing with the steel wool, and the blue did not come off at all.

I don't know if I'd try this on a Colt Python.........or would I???

[Wyoredman]

Skans, can you put up some pictures? I would like to see the results, as I have a few that could use this treatment. Thanks.

[Skans]

I'll try to get some pictures posted in tomorrow. Unfortunately however, I did not take any before pictures. I really did not expect it to come out as good as it did. You can just use your imagination and picture shiny areas around the muzzle end of the slide, bottom of the frame and normal holster ware areas.

[shortwave]

Thanks for the info Skans.

I actually bought some Casey's Blue'ing paste about a month ago in anticipation of a project I'm gonna do this winter. Have never used it before and your post gives me a boost of confidence as to the expected results.

[Hal]

I had horrible luck with it on one gun.
I had a badly rusted cap and ball revolver.
I took it down to bare metal w/wet/dry sandpaper, then boiled it in hot water/detergent, then degreased it with Xylene.
The bluing came out all blotchy. It was flat in some areas, and glossy in others and in still others it was hard to tell there was anything done.

I used it on some pieces/parts of an old .22 rifle I was redoing and it worked fine there.

Glad it worked out for you!

[Skans]

I had a badly rusted cap and ball revolver.

I'm thinking that the steel integrity could have changed if the gun was in that bad of shape. Or, maybe it was never uniform to begin with. The gun I used it on was an STI LS40 - modern steel mat-black pistol that only had holster/finish ware.

[drail]

Cold blue can be made to look very good if you know how to do it but it is very thin and very soft and will wear off even faster than the hot bluing did and offer very little protection against corrosion. Trust me.

[Skans]

I finally got around to taking a few pictures of the STI LS40 that I used Casey's bluing paste to touch up some holster ware. I don't have before pictures, but the ware was in the typical locations along the front of the slide, frame, and under the trigger guard. I did not strip off any of the old bluing.

[Lordy123]

After seeing this post I saw the paste at a gun show last weekend, I tried it on an old break action 16 gauge, I was really impressed with the results. I'll try to post pics later too.

Thanks!