# DIY Gun Blue



## plowjockey (Aug 18, 2008)

Have a coupe old long guns, that i cold blued years ago, starting to turn a little green from sitting.

Can't really pay to have them hot blued, but want to spruce them up, again.

Originally used the old birch-wood Casey stuff, looking for something a little better, this time.

Any tips appreciated.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

The shop I came from tested everything that was commonly available for touch-ups, and settled on keeping Brownells 44-40 at our benches. That was 10 years ago, though, and there may be better products out there now. 

I tend to think all cold/warm blues are going to be somewhat temporary. If you want a permanent solution, that, depending on the tools and scrap you have around, isn't going to cost you much more (if any more) than cold blue, look into express blue and rust blue. 

The only thing you'd have to buy, for either, is a bottle of the solution- so similar cost to cold blue. 

Both work best with a soft wire wheel mounted in your bench grinder, though steel wool pads or a wire card can work too. 

Express blue requires a tank that you can heat distilled water to bathe the parts in, and rust blue requires you to build a box to hold the parts, heated with a lightbulb. 

Both methods are going to be a little more of a time investment than cold blue. Express blue will have you cooking and wire wheeling the parts every 20-30 minutes over about 3 hours, and rust blue will have you wheeling the parts every couple days over a few weeks. 

Obviously, cold blue will work, as you've seen with your own experience, but express/rust is actually more durable, and longer lasting even than a traditional factory "hot" blue / black-oxide, is in many's opinion, better looking (think: old Winchester, deep satin-blue) and it can be done at home without a bunch of expensive equipment.

Edit to add: and be prepared for the old cold blue to STINK and clog up sand paper coming off. Don't know why, but it stinks. BAD. 

I can post pictures of an O/U I express blued about 15 years ago, if you're interested in doing it and want to see the results.


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## AdmiralD7S (Nov 1, 2013)

I would appreciate seeing pictures if you wouldn't mind posting.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

Pics below.
The shotgun was given to me by a retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. who used it to shoot trap from a flight deck on multiple floats. He gave it to me as a 'thanks' after a successful hunt for a Marco Polo ram in Tajikistan with a custom rifle I built for him. 

He said he often had to throw it down in a tool trough, and it was beat up bad. The stocks had missing chunks and weren't savable, and the steel was bare and rusted. 

We had factory-grade Du-Lite tanks, and the Citori's block and ribs are high-temp soldered, so I could have hot blued it. After I made the new stocks and got them finished, I was working the shop one slow Saturday, on my rotation, and decided to express blue it instead. 

Our express blue rig was a 3' x 6" x 6" stainless tank one of us drug in from the scrap yard, situated over a turkey-fryer burner on low-flame. In an express blue, you hang the parts in hot distilled water (130 degrees, if I recall, but the bottle will tell you for sure). You pull the parts out, brush on the solution, and stick it back in the water. 10 or 20 minutes later, you take the parts out, brush the blotchy rust off, brush more solution on, and put them back in the water. Repeat 10 or 12 times, and the blotchy finish builds up into a deep, even black. 

Rust blue is about the same process, but, instead of hot water, it hangs dry in a box with a pan of water heated by a lightbulb. And, instead of 10-20 minute cycle-time, it is 2-3 days between scrubs and applications of solution. 

For someone really wanting to do it on the cheap, there are recipes for making your own solution. I never tried it, but others report great success with it. Ready-made solution isn't expensive, though. There are variants that are bluer or blacker than others, and even some for old-school "browning". 

Didn't mean to complicate the request for cold-blue solutions. They obviously work, to some level of satisfaction at least, and I can vouch for Brownells 44-40. 

I just wanted to point out that a DIY'er can do a better-than-factory finish at home, for very little money and complication. 

This gun wasn't a safe queen after being re-worked. The bluing on it is about 15 years old. It was my main hunting shotgun for several years, and shot sporting clays every weekend for 4 or 5 years.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

I should add that, with both processes, you're limited to the sheen you can take the steel to. Since the finish gets repeatedly steel-wooled/brushed off, "brushed" is the ceiling on your polish. 

Polishing to about 320 grit is about as far as it is worth going. Even if you went to 800 and color-buffed for a Weatherby-like finish, the brushing is going to knock it back down. 

Most factory blue jobs aren't any finer than 320, but as far as custom-bluing jobs go, this is definitely a satin/light-satin, not gloss - about like Pre-64 Winchester blue.


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## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

plowjockey,

Look up a product called Van's Instant Gun Blue. You can find it at bobsmiricleproducts.com. Look for a video of it on You Tube.

Hope that helps.


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## Drizler (Jun 16, 2002)

Someplace back in time I happened upon an old book on gunsmithing. It dated to the 50's. In it were all kinds and sorts of browning , blackening, parkerizing and bluing techniques. It was amazing how easy it can be to rust blue something just puting it in a humid place and carding the rust off repeatedly and yea it will take a long time. 
Some of the bluing methods were much easier but naturally you had to boil it in a stainless tank (whose got one of those around shaped like that) in a solution. Some were a lot easier and they even had directions for how to make touch up blues, anodizing and all of it. 
One problem though. You need a couple acids in their concentrated form. Not much but the least inexpensive was around $75/ gallon :sob:from a chemist supply. Now if you happen to know somebody who buys the stuff for a business or school you maybe will be able to swing it. I didn't. 
I bet if you did some digging around you might be able to dig this info up or even find that book online. "Home Gunsmithing" or something similar from the 1950's. Don't forget if you need something far and away your local Public library will often get it for you.


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