Armory Sponsor
Posted: 8/30/2024 4:47:13 PM EDT
|
Picked up a broken $40 single shot as my first project. I broke it down into every individual piece then proceeded to wash each piece with a soapy cleaning solution with brass brush, I then spent quite awhile cleaning and degreasing everything with a wire brush, and I dried everything off well. I then used my bench wire wheel to really brush each piece, especially the stuff that had pitting or other marks. I bought the Birchwood Perma-Blue kit and used as directed: Rust remover, decreased, then bluing. Not happy, I repeated the process. Three times total. This is the hammer as an example of how its turned out thus far:  As you can, it's not very "blue" and it's messy. For those more experienced than me, what am i doing wrong here and how can I get a better, deeper, and more consistent bluing? |
|
Cold bluing isn’t really advisable for a whole pistol. Doable, but not ideal. Any variations in the steel are going to show, so if you can lose a bit of material, polish it out to an even finish throughout. I would sit it in white vinegar, which in addition to removing any residuals, kinda etches the surface. There are plenty of vids on YouTube with better help than I could give. |
Joined:
Feb 2022
Posts:
634
EE: 0% (0)
AZ, USA
|
The spots at the top of the hammer looking like rusted pitting, or what is left of it. The whiter part right next to it might be just different surface grains where the bluing wasn't taken well. That might be your spot to degrease much more. The rainbow coloration is where it starts to get taken, but might need two or three more turns to do bluing and rinsing. Local hardening of parts will affect bluing quality and coloration with cold bluing. Best degreasing with gun parts like slides, hammers, bushings and such I have done with dish soap. I do not use wire brushes since they will hold oil or grease. I do 2 to 4 applications by bluing, letting it sit for 45second or up to 2 minutes, rinse, repeat. When happy with preliminary results I throw the part in boiling water to darken it, drying, water displacement like WD40 and oiling. If a part has already rust or pitting I don't remove the rust, I boil it for 10-20 minutes in water in a stainless pot to convert the rust into black rust. |
|
Originally Posted By OmegamanX: Try using Brownells Opho-Blue instead. After degreasing and cleaning the parts, warm them up a bit before bluing. Repeat coats as many times as desired and buff with steel wool after each coat. When finished, wipe with an oiled cloth. Thank me later.  Oxpho Blue is my go to as far as cold blue is concerned. clean parts with denatured alcohol pour the Oxpho Blue into a container ..... don't dip/dunk/etc whatever you are applying it with into the bottle Warming the part to be blued definitely helps |
|
I made my own hot bluing solution. 1 lb of 100% sodium hydroxide (lye), 1/2 lb of sodium nitrate and a gallon of distilled water. It worked pretty good on a 1095 knife Attached File Attached File |
Joined:
May 2022
Posts:
2666
EE: 0% (0)
ND, USA
Armory Sponsor