moonlight machine
Active member
I have a few small parts to be blued, can anybody do a proper job of it?
Cold blueing is just about a waste of time/money.....rubs off quite rapidly in use........The solid blue/ black is done with hot caustic solution blues at around 200F in a tank......Incidentally ,the best old time blues all used mercuric compounds ,and so are no longer available,except in third world countries.
I've been cold bluing for over half a century - and browning.
Instead of taking advice from the nattering nabobs, check out you tube.
A new looking butt plate on a used Kraig, is out of place.
I've restored museum collections of firearms.
Not on this one, the rest of it looks better than new. What brand of cold blue do you recommend?
As others have said, cold bluing is inferior to a hot caustic blue. Hot caustic bluing is easy to do, but the bluing salt is impossible to get because it is made with ammonium nitrate and it is now a controlled substance. So my question is there a replacement for ammonium nitrate as an oxidizer with the caustic soda? I suppose I could go around the neighborhood policing up sun dried dog shit and rolling my own, but I would rather not.
And do you want hot blued or rust blued
Eg my rem rolling block would have tree things going on the rust blued parts like the barrel
Color case hardened receiver and the the just blue tempered stuff.
Not sure what they used on your butt plate
That is a matter of experimentation.
Not all gun steels are the same. The steel on a Mauser's barrel and receiver are not the same as that of the ejector spring. Thus each bluing solution will act differently.
I currently have 3 different cold bluing solutions on my work bench.
If I don't like the results, it is easy to polish off, and try another.
I don't want you to get the impression that cold bluing is as easy as painting. It requires preparation, possible heat and several applications.
The real question is do you want the satisfaction of doing it yourself, or the convenience of outsourcing it?