Accidental exposure to the chemicals could result in serious injuries. I can keep a Krylon can always handy for touch-ups. First, let us go through a couple of bluing concepts that you have to know in order to achieve the desired result. This is a great time to point out that leaving guns in gun cases, especially the woolen/fleece cases, in the back of a closet, is one of the most sure-fire ways to rust the value completely out of a gun. Heres instructions from Mark Lee Supplies on using their Express Blue #1. You can blue heat-treated parts with no ill effects. You can use a heat gun, a blow dryer, or a torch for this. If a bank transfer is made but no receipt is uploaded within this period, your order will be cancelled. 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. Youre just using stump remover to do it. The usual mistake on buffing wheels is using too coarse a compound, and then the wheel becomes quite aggressive in removing material. YouTube - Nitre bluing a few gun parts. Red rust is Fe2O3, and is incomplete rust it will continue allowing the surface to corrode over time hence the oil or wax. Old school smiths use something called washing soda to strip oil off guns. { Blue Bluing Steel I rarely use them. Thoroughly degrease the area to be reblued with acetone. Bluing (steel) - Wikipedia At 700, you start losing your blues and the steel starts becoming a wispy silvery-blue, not a dark brilliant blue. Being prepared is important if you can not measure the temp. The blue appearance of the oxide film is also used as an indication of temperature when tempering carbon steel after hardening, indicating a state of temper suitable for springs. It does provide good rust resistance, which is improved with oil. My first time wasnt a stunning success. Cold blueing solutions usually just dont wear well. In the hot salt process, you will need, oh, four to six tanks, only one of which will be the heated blueing salts. Its easy enough to color metal with a torch, but it has always been a hit-or-miss process for me, and when it was a big hit, I was rarely able to re-create how it got that way. If youre interested, just ask and I can provide more details. Then, you can put the components back into the bluing tank and increase the temperature until you see the blued steel. Salts. My advice to people here: Unless youre a professional, and youre working in a shop with all the required safety gear (a cold water shower within a couple feet of the tanks, and an eyewash station next to the tanks, and someone working in the same shop every moment youre working on the salt tanks), DONT. This is often achieved without chemicals by simply heating the steel until a blue oxide film appears. 4.3 out of 5 stars 242 ratings-30% $12.99 $ 12. 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. They are still sometimes used by gunsmiths to obtain an authentic finish for a period gun of the time that rust bluing was in vogue, analogous to the use of browning on earlier representative firearm replicas. If you havent done it before, wait until I mention some items about it. Very helpful! Before operating your torch, read all instructions so you know how to handle it safely. This is not advisable. Excellent info. The hot washing soda tank typically used in gunsmith shops is caustic washing soda, and if you leave the gun in long enough, youll start to see corrosion on the gun before you get to the blueing step. You are nitre blueing here. The loose oxide was then carded (scrubbed) off, using a carding brush - a wire brush with soft, thin (usually about 0.002in (0.051mm) thick) wires - or wheel. You want 0000 steel wool for carding between coats. Use a coffee can or similarly shaped container as your quenching chamber. You should note that the blue layer is rather delicate so dont treat it roughly. I just had my first experience rust browning a barrel. I handed a buddy my wallet and cell phone, and stepped under the safety shower and got wet. Fill a heat-safe container with water or oil deep enough to submerge your steel. Treating with an oiled coating enhances the protection offered by the bluing. Cold blues will react with steel at room temperature, but you get more aggressive reactions when you heat the gun to, oh, 150 to 200F. Youll have a hot caustic degreaser tank (about 10 minutes), then a cold rinse tank, then into the hot salts for, oh, 15 to 20 minutes, then out into the hot rinse, then into a cold running rinse tank, then into a water displacing oil tank for 20 minutes or so. That surface rust on the barrel could be polished off easily. Oil binds with the metal and prevent it from getting air/chemicals to corrode. I can see my wife walking in and shaking her headabout as vigorously as when I asked if I could use the dishwasher to clean some tools. Most knives, rifle receivers and barrels are heated to at least 1200F and cooled and drawn at 490F-700F. "https://www.facebook.com/Shooting-Mystery-110244180901951", OK, Buffing wheels, which Im making their own break-out response from the blueing salt issue: Buffing wheels are useful things in a gun shop. Also buffing wheels pre blue. The differing rate of cooling for each area produced a different color creating that rainbow effect. It greatly helped me to learn how to blue a gun perfectly at home. Remove any previous finish. Use a steel tool to stir (remember the fumes). kitty litter (I would recommend the unused variety). It had been thoroughly degreased before my first attempt, but in trying to repair a poor result, I apparently contaminated it a bit. Also, the results you indicate are typical of still having some oil on the gun. A couple bottles of aged bourbon minimum. There is something really rewarding about this technique. Work on a metal or steel surface, such as an anvil, to avoid any fire hazards. If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Black iron wire You will need black iron wire to tie around any object you It is usually inadvisable to use cold bluing as a touch-up where friction is present. Christopher Graham writes all the content and reviews on this site with the help of his team of hunters and shooters. The object on the left is a custom mild steel potentiometer knob! My apologies for the background noise in the first half of the video We had compressors running where I RF: Expect a write-up from me on Rust blueing and parkerizing in the next couple of weeks. Metal Finishing Guru. This finish allows them to be stored in high-moisture conditions, like sports bags, without rusting. How to Colour Steel With HEAT : 5 Steps (with Pictures) The rod was heated and the plate 2" square was inserted and the rod shrunk onto it. Either of these two methods is called 'hot bluing'. Ill go into parkerization later this week. Once you get the colour you want, go outside to your oil container and fully quench your object into the oil! These include hot bluing, cold bluing, niter bluing, and so on. Im talking like 90+ minutes to heat the salt bath to 285F. My current rifle builds are going to be parkerzied. Both ingredients are super cheap. "Rust bluing" and "fume bluing" provide the best rust and corrosion resistance as the process continually converts any metal that is capable of rusting into magnetite (Fe3O4). Because so many people are trying to do this sort of thing on the cheap, thats when I start thundering in my warnings about safety. 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. Again, dont mess around with these chemicals and only handle them with extreme attention. If you need to use a blow torch, focus the flame tip on the area you want hardened. Wait for 10 15 minutes and then take out the components. Share it with us! -An old container filled with your chosen degreaser (unleaded petrol), -Your desired polished metal object/s (very important! Life is good. 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). gas coverage is another big one. Quenched steel is harder, but it becomes more brittle. Blue Metal Shell 13 in 1 Welding Torch Nozzle Tip Cleaner For Welder Soldering. By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. WD-40, as mentioned earlier, is a water-displacing oil compound not a penetrating lube, and for preventing rust, WD-40 actually works pretty well, but it doesnt last like cosmoline or waxy oils used for long-term rust prevention. If there is any finish left on the metal, it will interfere with the bluing pr Dang it all. After spending most of his career as a firearms expert and enthusiast, he retreated to the great outdoors to raise his family in peace and quiet. Hopefully these concepts suggest caution and diligence for what you are doing. Fume bluing is another process similar to rust bluing. You can improve your results by doing two things: 1. blue steel 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. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 914,567 times. Youll want to clamp on the barrel directly under the sight youre about to drift out. To obtain oil-free steel wool, get some acetone in a container (say, an old, clean yogurt container you were going to throw away anyway). 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. 3.3k. The tempering reduces the amount of martensite and thus makes the steel softer. Cold blueing is OK for touchups, at best. "author": "Christopher Graham", "https://www.pinterest.com/theshootingmystery/", I saw you reference a coleman stove and propane tank for heating solution. Add the two together and you have what is akin to rocket fuel in your face a way of oxidizing almost any organic material with insufficient water for cooling into a furious flame. 1. You will need:-2x containers (one of them preferably being metal for the oil)-oil -unleaded petrol/Acetone/Terpentine/Rubbing alcohol or any goo When youre using hot blueing salts, youd better be on top of your game, or you can seriously injure yourself. Heat the area with a torch until it stops sweating. And for the next (after the next) installment, how to do hard case coloring. After that, slowly and steadily stir the solution in the tank to dissolve the salt. For this reason, it is considered not to add any appreciable thickness to precisely-machined gun parts. With HSS you're looking for 2500-3000rpm, M35 or M42 cobalt bits 3000-3600rpm, and carbide 10k-12krpm. All About Bluing Steel Stainless Steel Necessary Gears and Tools Procedure Step 1: Ready the bluing tank Step 2: Process the components of the gun Step 3: Suspend Blue or Black rust is complete passivation of the steel surface Fe3O4. Safety is the number one priority so protect your body as much as possible. 4 years ago Note that it has to be a different tank from the one you used for Step 2. I plan on doing this on a couple of older beaters first. 2 years ago, For the record The gentleman said multiple times that the plastic container shown in the pictures was just for the instructional photos and to be sure that the container is made of metal for this process, (Homer Simpson smacking his forehead: "DOH! Go on and start bluing! Thanks, 8 years ago Bluing may be applied by immersing steel parts in a solution of potassium nitrate, sodium hydroxide, and water heated to the boiling point, 275310F (135154C) depending on the recipe. Vegetable oil has a higher boiling point, so the hot steel will take longer to cool and reduce the chance of it cracking. You can also heat the oil to create different effects. Just let any residual matter evaporate/dry. Dont leave cold blue solutions around anywhere pets or kids could get at them. "image": { When you add water to a hot salt tank, you get an explosion of steam, and you need to develop some skill in adding the water with a very fine copper pipe on your water hose to prevent steam blow-outs spattering salts all over you. This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Hunter Rising. The practice of bluing steel takes time and an exquisite eye for detail. Various processes are used for the oxidizing process. Mea culpa. you may benefit from the use of a gas lense as well. Ive used this method in a pinch to make a tap from a cheap mild steel bolt to chase out galled female threads. In the nitre bluing process, polished and cleaned steel parts are immersed in a bath of molten saltstypically potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate (sometimes with 9.4 grams (0.33oz) of manganese dioxide per pound of total nitrate). How to Hot Blue Steel with a Torch- A Step-by-Step Guide It is usually sold in a 1lb bottle for $3, you'll need 3 or 4 pounds probably. Hardening will cause it to be more brittle, which could cause the hammer to chip and cause injury. JUST DONT. What I forgot to mention in all of this is a detail that seems mundane, but it critically important: Wear cotton gloves. Oil and grease really are the enemy because youre trying to (literally) corrode the metal. I can then get the temp to be 600F spot-on in a lead melting pot. Any gun. When the first patch gets really funky, then drop that in your plastic garbage container (remember, these patches have been soaked in acid solutions! How to Blue (Bluing) Steel Using Oven Or Torch and Oil Aluminium (Al) and polymer parts cannot be blued, and no corrosion protection is provided. Thank you all who had a part in the production of this important information! Theres a reason why I buy up clapped-out guns and stuff where people look at me with a WTF?! We use cookies to make wikiHow great. Technically speaking, bluing is more or less a conversion of red iron oxide (Fe2O3) to black iron oxide (Fe3O4). Hot. Once it's cooled down, take the object out of the oil and place it on a piece of paper/cloth and let it set for about 20 minutes. Many older browning and bluing formulas are based on corrosive solutions (necessary to cause metal to rust), and often contain cyanide or mercury salts solutions that are especially toxic to humans. Add 5 lbs of regular table salt to the water. Youll need some shop rolls, ranging from 180 to 400 grit (typical 4-packs are 180, 240, 320 and 400 grit, in 1, 1.5 or 2. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/8\/81\/Harden-Steel-Step-1-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Harden-Steel-Step-1-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/8\/81\/Harden-Steel-Step-1-Version-3.jpg\/aid1214287-v4-728px-Harden-Steel-Step-1-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"