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Jim Watson · July 23, 2012, 01:48 PM

A lot of good information here.

If you want to try your hand at bluing some of your polish practice pieces, there are cheaper ways than the $1000 - $2500 for a Brownell's or Du-Lite hot blue setup.

Rust blue is slow but doesn't take a lot of equipment and supplies. And it looks great when well done.

You can blue handguns and other small items in a cookpot with a combination of fertilizer products.
http://www.blindhogg.com/homemadesalts.html

Brownells bluing instructions cover the use of Oxpho Blue for large areas and whole guns instead of its normal touchup application. I have a couple done that way by a local 'smith who did not want to start up the tanks for one job. It looks as good as hot blue but I have not used them enough to tell how it will wear. But for a practice piece on the cheap, it would do fine.

GunKote is about the thinnest of the spray finishes and will show up surface flaws almost as well as blue or plate. It goes on over grit blasted or Parkerized surfaces, not bright polish, though.

I'm thinking of ways to develop skills without a big investment. You might not like the work in the end.

July 23, 2012, 01:48 PM	#14
Jim Watson Senior Member Join Date: October 25, 2001 Location: Alabama Posts: 18,535	A lot of good information here. If you want to try your hand at bluing some of your polish practice pieces, there are cheaper ways than the $1000 - $2500 for a Brownell's or Du-Lite hot blue setup. Rust blue is slow but doesn't take a lot of equipment and supplies. And it looks great when well done. You can blue handguns and other small items in a cookpot with a combination of fertilizer products. http://www.blindhogg.com/homemadesalts.html Brownells bluing instructions cover the use of Oxpho Blue for large areas and whole guns instead of its normal touchup application. I have a couple done that way by a local 'smith who did not want to start up the tanks for one job. It looks as good as hot blue but I have not used them enough to tell how it will wear. But for a practice piece on the cheap, it would do fine. GunKote is about the thinnest of the spray finishes and will show up surface flaws almost as well as blue or plate. It goes on over grit blasted or Parkerized surfaces, not bright polish, though. I'm thinking of ways to develop skills without a big investment. You might not like the work in the end.