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Old December 6, 2000, 10:38 PM   #1
Hays
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I have heard several on this board say they were going to re-blue a gun themselves. Is it difficult? What tools do you need? What materials do you need? Is there a resource someone could point me to?

I'm getting one of the AIM BHPs next week and thought I might give it a try. Thanks for your posts.
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Old December 6, 2000, 11:19 PM   #2
James K
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Most of the "DIY" kits use cold blue of one type or another. Cold blue will rarely give any good result used on a whole gun, and the blue is not very durable. The ads often say "used by gunsmiths", which is true, but only for touchup, not to blue an entire gun. Other bluing methods are either not feasible for DIY work (hot tank blue) or are tricky without experience (rust blue).

Unless the gun you receive is in very bad shape, leave it alone and don't worry about it. If you must have it blued, take it to a gunsmith and have the job done right with a hot tank blue. IMHO, it would be a waste of time and money to use a cold blue on it.

Also note that if a gun has any collector value at all, rebluing will destroy that portion of its value. Rebluing can often make a $200 gun out of a $2000 gun, and you pay for the job to boot!

Jim
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Old December 6, 2000, 11:42 PM   #3
Jim V
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I agree with Jim. Doing a firearm in cold blue is a waste of time, effort and a bottle of cold blue. There a number of other finishes that can be applied by the DIY types. http://www.brownells.com lists any number of them.

I have used cold blue on small parts to good effect and the blue is wearing as well as conventional hot blueing. Except I cleaned the parts well with alcohol and then heated them in boiling water, when they self dried when I pulled them out, I'd apply the blue. Several coats like that and then a good final rinse in fresh boiling water and a oat of oil they were done. Trying to do an entire pistol that way will result in streaks and uneven colors.
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Old December 6, 2000, 11:58 PM   #4
Hays
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Thanks for the response. What are some of the finishes that can be done well without special tools? Is there a particular brand that is best? Thanks.
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Old December 7, 2000, 03:43 AM   #5
GIT_SOME.45
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And the SMELL of Cold Blueing on a gun.... :barf:

Howard
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Old December 7, 2000, 04:17 AM   #6
4V50 Gary
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Don't fool around. Enroll in the NRA gunsmithing program and hot blue a whole bunch of guns during your one week class. I did and saved a lot of $ that way.

The one thing you can do is the cold rust blue process which takes several days. You strip the old finish off, polish the metal, degrease it, apply the solution and put it in a sweat box. After 12 hours, you remove it, card the rust, apply more solution, and restore it to the sweat box. This is repeated until you are satisfied with the darkness of the color. The metal is then neutralized and oiled to arrest the bluing process. It's left to sit 24-48 hours to cure before being reassembled.

We're not talking bottle finish stuff which is used for touch up but rather the old fashion non-hot bluing method. I've used the same method but to apply a brown finish to gun barrels.

For formulas, you can get it from an old gunsmith book (Brownells may have slow cold blue solutions, but I'm not sure).
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Old December 7, 2000, 07:46 AM   #7
AndABeer
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I have had good results with Brownells Teflon/Moly oven bake finish. The black and the dark gray (parkerized look) are the ones I have used.



http://www.brownells.com
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