YouTube - Nitre bluing a few gun parts. Holy crap, did that reaction hurt like hell. Keep posting like this. Remove the bolt & trigger group this might require a pin punch on some guns to pull the trigger group.From what little I can see in the picture here . Bluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. ")You're ABSOLUTELY right. Frequent TTAG commenter Dyspeptic Gunsmith saw the gun above in our postA Garden Gun Cultivates a Newfound Fascinationand answered reader questions about blueing/reblueing a gun thusly: If the rust is very fine and there is still substantial blueing left on the gun, you might want to strip the blueing. The only way to do that is to heat it until the metal de-magnetises, quench it again, and then temper to the desired hardness. There are many methods you can use to blue the steel. I have cut and polished 4 pieces of mild steel to demonstrate different colour stages. Posted December 21, 2009. Its nice when something can be re-used a time or two, especially when used in diversified ways. Safety is the number one priority so protect your body as much as possible. Examples of this finish are common on older pocket watches whose hands exhibit what is called 'peacock blue', a rich iridescent blue. This is how Colt made their rifles and pistols prior to Civil War you can read all about the process. Thanks a lot for sharing. It does provide good rust resistance, which is improved with oil. If the solution is still boiling vigorously, then you can expect the bluing to happen naturally. I think I was drinking heavily (and likely doing stupid things in my shop with high heat and flammables at the time, possibly while juggling chainsaws) at the time I made that comment - without reading carefully. This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Hunter Rising. Have proper ventilation and use proper modern safety gear! Step 3: Suspend the components in the bluing solution tank, However, if the bluing effect isnt satisfactory, then you can try giving the components an acid bath (using, Step 4: Rinse the components in a cold water tank then transfer them to a hot one, Step 5: Submerge the components in a tank filled with water displacing oil, Address: 4455 Camp Bowie Blvd, Ste 114 #852, Fort Worth, TX 76107. This is not necessary as long as you can hold your item appropriately and not cover where it is to be heated. This is as deadly as the lye-based hot salts, but more for the temperature of a large batch of salts. Polish to at least 400 grit. Not blessed with a climate controlled safe. Hot. That way, you can still use your oven for the rest of the evening. Mark the sharpened edge with a crayon. Heat source You will require at least one burner for bluing salts and two hot water burners. Can a softly tempered piece be re-tempered harder without going through the hardening procedure again? 2. New guns are typically available in blued finish options offered as the least-expensive finish, and this finish is also the least effective at providing rust resistance, relative to other finishes such as Parkerizing or hard chrome plating or nitriding processes like Tenifer. Thoroughly degrease the area to be reblued with acetone. The higher temperatures of the other processes as well as their caustic nature could weaken the soldered joints and make the gun hazardous to use. Not every manufacturer puts bittering agents in the solution and as one poison control nurse told me: (t)here is nothing you can do and it aint the good death.. List Price: $18.64 $18.64. The ideal setup is a pair of long sleeve gloves along with splash goggles and a face mask. It is slightly caustic, so be careful you dont leave it on the gun for long. Just remove the blue/rust, degrease, dry, then blue/card/boil-out/oil/drain. When youre done and have neutralized & washed off the Express Blue #1 solution, you then should spray down the barrel with water-displacing oil. The colours range through straw, gold, brown, purple, blue, teal, then black. Then, you can put the components back into the bluing tank and increase the temperature until you see the blued steel. Theres nothing wrong with your method, but is is very hazardous, especially to people who have never done anything like it before. fascinated with blacksmithing, but have not had an income to even get it started. Degrease a pad of 0000 steel wool with acetone. They melt at, oh, somewhere about 280F. Instead of applying the acid solution directly to the metal parts, the parts are placed in a sealed cabinet with a moisture source, a container of nitric acid and a container of hydrochloric acid. the cost of the burners or heaters to heat up all these tanks really only practical if you have natural gas available Before operating your torch, read all instructions so you know how to handle it safely. My current rifle builds are going to be parkerzied. The mixed fumes of the acids produce a uniform rust on the surface of the parts (inside and out) in about 12 hours. Rinse them in a cold water tank after. If you look at the temps that Tenifur(SP) and Melonite(sp) and early Pakerizing processes used this is nothing. Though it may seem tricky at first, youll be glad to have figured it out because knowing how to blue stainless steel will come in handy from time to time. Red rust is Fe2O3, and is incomplete rust it will continue allowing the surface to corrode over time hence the oil or wax. I have at least three cold blue solutions in my shop including Oxpho-blue, 44-40 and others. Just dont. Spilling salts at this temperature will instantly result in fire, because the KNO3 is a powerful oxidizer all on its own, and the added thermal energy will light anything on fire all alone. Every true outdoorsmans dream! I wore latex gloves, as Brownells recommended, but used a pot holder to handle the hot barrel, and that may have been the source. At 700, you start losing your blues and the steel starts becoming a wispy silvery-blue, not a dark brilliant blue. The inside barrel was saved by the fact it was so full of lead fouling. If you drop a piece of paper in there, or hydrocarbon compounds (like oil or grease on your part). The downsides are: the safety issue, which I laid out above, and which youve made clear. In this case cooking oil, rather than gun oil, acts to displace water and prevent rust. Many double-barreled shotguns are soft soldered (lead) or silver brazed together and many of the parts are attached by that method also. Use ice cubes. "headline": "How to Blue Stainless Steel in 5 Easy Steps: Complete Guide", 4.3 out of 5 stars 242 ratings-30% $12.99 $ 12. Higher carbon contents will take longer to heat. Youll want to clamp on the barrel directly under the sight youre about to drift out. With a simple heating and quenching process, you can make your steel last for much longer! After three coats, washing and drying, the finish was not too bad, considering I was (and am) a rank amateur. journeyman. Referring to the post that started all of this; Dyspeptic Gunsmith says: Approved. The easier of the two methods, hot bluing only requires some degreasing agent, a heating apparatus (a blow torch is perfect for this), and any kind of oil. Mea culpa. This process is also the only process safely used to re-blue vintage shotguns. I wish this article had come out sooner, since I did not know that 0000 steel wool may have oil in it. I have in the past few years became more and more. If you dont drain the barrel or action recesses properly before putting a barrel or action into a hot salt tank, then you will find out in a hell of a hurry as the water flashes to steam under the surface and again, splatters hot, highly caustic lye/nitrite salts all over you and your shop. Safety is the number one priority so protect your body as much as possible. I learned something slightly different than what you are teaching and that is I am willing to pay people like you to do this kind of stuff for me. It provides the stainless steel surface with a layer of protection, giving rust and corrosion resistance while reducing potential glare as well. Heating it again to a lower temperature will not introduce additional martensite. References But since this was my first project, with an inexpensive kit as a learning tool, and as I intend to do this again with a much more expensive kit, my trials and errors and your voice of experience will be very useful the next time around. The parts must be observed constantly for colour change. If a bank transfer is made but no receipt is uploaded within this period, your order will be cancelled. The robot gives the steel valve seat a quick blast with liquid nitrogen and drops the seat right in place. Once you get the colour you want, go outside to your oil container and fully quench your object into the oil! Reply So I buffed down the barrel with steel wool and started over heating the barrel in the oven before taking it outside to add the solution (which is nitric acid). For larger pieces of steel, you need to use a. on Introduction. Brownells has a product that will strip blueing and rust (Fe3O4 and Fe3O2, respectively) and not corrode the underlying steel.Remove the barrel & action from the stock. Either that or the steel wool. Hang the trigger group again, re-stock and you should be done. WebThe gun bluing process Start with 1 gallon of water and add it to a deep fryer that has been thoroughly cleaned. No. You are nitre blueing here. The tempering reduces the amount of martensite and thus makes the steel softer. Hot bluing is the current standard[6] in gun bluing, as both it and rust bluing provide the most permanent degree of rust-resistance and cosmetic protection of exposed gun metal, and hot bluing takes less time than rust bluing. } Hot blueing is a good process, especially if you have a lot of iron to shove through the blueing process quickly. Hunter Rising is a wikiHow Staff Writer based in Los Angeles. However, the chemicals from the bluing process can accomplish uneven staining on aluminium and polymer parts. I've never done anything like this but want to try. Alternitavely you can leave it in the oil bath to stabilize. There wasnt a whole lot of pain just yet until my buddy took the safety bottle of vinegar solution used to neutralize the alkaline NaOH salts, and then the pain was there. Bluing also helps to maintain the metal finish by resisting superficial scratching, and also helps to reduce glare to the eyes of the shooter when looking down the barrel of the gun. % of people told us that this article helped them. If I remember right they then heated them up a bit and applied fish oil orignal and I think latter switching to linseed oil to protect the finish and give it that wet look. Ive gotten hot blue salts on me splashed into my hair. Always wear goggles and gloves when operating a propane blow torch. You are a fantastic resource for all of us here. }. This step should be done before heating the steel, as the steel should be quenched immediately after removing from heat. You then oil or wax over the finish when youre done. Please be careful with the cold bluing solutions. I agree used oil works better and adding some copper and graphite seems to deepen the color and add more purple or plum to it. Blacksmith products to this day may occasionally be found made from blued steel by traditional craftsmen in cultures and segments of society who use that technology either by necessity or choice.[5]. This method must not be used on critically heat-treated parts such as receivers, slides or springs. Fe3O4 requires chemicals and/or heat to push the iron to full oxidation. As a small thank you, wed like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). A couple bottles of aged bourbon minimum. You want 0000 steel wool for carding between coats. The thickness of the oxide is a function of how hot you heat the steel (The color is due to interference of light reflecting from the surface of the oxide coating, and light reflecting from the oxide-steel interface). Oxides come after its been heated to a red heat and cooled. So you said the polishing is key for the coloring process. Reply Some people might not have a tank long enough to contain a barreled action to boil out. Soft, low-carbon steel was used, but strong materials were needed for the receivers of firearms. Turn the heat on and give a good regular stirring until it gets very hot and starts to steam. Color case hardening is the predecessor of all metal coloring typically employed in the firearms industry. Repeat 3 times. The part that is to race the other is heated normally up to about 220 especially if it is an aluminum casting like a cylinder head. By the time I was done it looked like it was a beat up 5 year old gun rather than a 1930s bolt .22 that came from a scrap yard. for 6-8 hours. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. The object on the left is a custom mild steel potentiometer knob! "@type": "ImageObject", [4], Bluing can also be done in a furnace, for example for a sword or other item traditionally made by a blacksmith or specialist such as a weapon-smith. Itll evaporate rather rapidly, but still, dont whip it at cars or house finishes. WebBluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. Dont. They have their place, but doing a whole gun with them isnt that place. Dont just leave them on a surface that could corrode or burn), get a new patch into the hemostats, soak, wring out, and keep going. Were committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. This works well for me. They should send you a stipend for your time. You dont want to affect the hardness of your steel in critical areas like actions, bolts, bolt lugs, barrels, chambers, etc. Cold blues will Next you hold it in front of your heat source until a blue oxide layer covers the whole blade edge. Just let any residual matter evaporate/dry. Your 700F temp is too high, IMO. To remove them, you put the action/barrel into a sturdy vise (padded with soft jaws) and you use a piece of brass rod to drift the sights out. For the process your metal should be nicely polished for the best results.The more shinier the polish the more your end result will glow. Haha. Quenched steel is harder, but it becomes more brittle. You have entered an incorrect email address! This crucible was heated to 730C (1,350F) for up to 6hours (the longer the heat was applied the thicker the case hardening). If you are referring to torch bluing, the Most knives, rifle receivers and barrels are heated to at least 1200F and cooled and drawn at 490F-700F. There are also methods of cold bluing, which do not require heat. Also Dont get the 275-300F bath on you. If the sights need to be stripped & blued, follow the same procedure, but dont polish on them. However, there are certain characteristics differences between the materials so knowing clearly how to blue stainless steel is really important. ", the wrong quality steel. "url": "https://shootingmystery.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/How-to-Blue-Stainless-Steel-in-5-Easy-Steps.jpg" just fyi, the old school method of case hardening steel is to get the piece so hot that a magnet will no longet stick to it and quickly quench it in used motor oil. Answer A non-linear resistance property of the blued steel of razor blades, foreshadowing the same property later discovered in semiconductor diode junctions, along with the ready availability of blued steel razor blades, led to the use of razor blades as a detector in crystal set AM radios that were built by servicemen (as foxhole radios) or by prisoners of war during World War II.[8]. Right now I'm working on excavator replacement pins! Drill bits and gun barrels are common examples. The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. You'll probably be fine following these instructions - you'll probably be OK driving home a little drunk, too. Large scale industrial hot bluing is often performed using a bluing furnace. http://cdn.spectrumbrands.com/~/media/Spectracide/Files/MSDS/SpectracideStumpRemoverGranulesSDSApr15.ashx. kitty litter (I would recommend the unused variety). It would be a good idea to get some gloves on. I used Brownells Plum Brown, a product that requires that the barrel be heated to 275 degrees to activate the reaction. Even with safety glasses and a full-face shield, a rubber apron, rubber boots, etc it is possible to get salts into your eyes and all over the rest of you. You will get it. Heat the gun parts. Heat the area you'd like to drill just until it starts to glow red, then allow it to cool slowly. Not only does it give you an alchemical feeling of satisfactionbut it also gives the metal a finish to stop corrosion. It is generally employed on smaller parts such as pins, screws, sights, etc. 2 years ago "dateModified": "2022-03-27", Aluminium (Al) and polymer parts cannot be blued, and no corrosion protection is provided. The actual temperature of the steel depends on the carbon content inside. Premium fencing blades are often offered with a blued finish. Did you ever find out what oil they were using? So As one newish to refined firearms ownership, what is the best way to store and protect a pistol or rifle from rusting, especially in areas like Oregon or Washington, Silicon socks, or ? I didnt drop outta my mommas womb being able to do this stuff. It costs an arm and a leg, and you can buy 0000 so cheaply at Wally World that it makes the acetone method worth your while. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. Any gun. Are you sure you want to heat the steel to 700F in that early step? Woodworkers doing furniture finishing will use 000 and 0000 wool, and they hate oil on their wool for rubbing down oil finishes. How to colour steel with heat (hot oil finish) is a simple but effective way of achieving a desired colour of choice.The colours are fantastic and often come out in a beautiful two-tone shine. Think big scars. What I forgot to mention in all of this is a detail that seems mundane, but it critically important: Wear cotton gloves. Mea maxima culpa - and I left my comment up rather than delete the thread (for now) just so I could reply and admit the My Dumb, rather than skulk away cleanly >;-), Question The cabinet is then sealed. Thanks, 8 years ago His enthusiasm for handling firearms and hunting gear inspired him to create the Shooting Mystery blog. Here is a video by Clevinger Customs illustrating it: I use the Brownells nitre blueing salts, which are a combination of sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, and potassium nitrate.