Very Disappointed with The Epp's Bluing Process

[Expendable Nate]

worthless without pictures

[browninggold]

its called a hit and run complaint....

Business owners must just love the Internet sometimes :/

[westarm]

When you are one of the largest privately-owned businesses in the industry, you expect to hear both the good and the bad from customers. Take a look through the boards here and you will find plenty of reviews from customers who are more than satisfied with the service we provide on a day-to-day basis. Strangely enough, no one wants to jump on that bandwagon when someone says "Hey, they did great!", yet every single negative review never fails to blow up into multiple-page rants from the same few individuals who decide to contribute to the nonsense.

Charles U Farley: Funny you should post that picture. I overheard the conversation between our manager and this client. He was specifically asked if he expected his firearm to turn out in Smurf blue. His response was a "Yes". Go figure.

I guess we'll have to tell our gunsmiths to a few melted crayons to the bluing tank next time.

this is certainly not a very professional post, and I disagree with you, people jump on the bandwagon on this site all the time in reference to GOOD reviews, its not just bad ones, judging by the attitude perhaps you are just more familiar with the bad ones.

[westarm]

its called a hit and run complaint....

lol, he may have hit and run but the dealer decided to open mouth and insert foot, perhaps doing all the damage themselves. most of us were looking for a pic before judgement.

[badboybeeson]

lol, he may have hit and run but the dealer decided to open mouth and insert foot, perhaps doing all the damage themselves. most of us were looking for a pic before judgement.

we are all human.

[westarm]

we are all human.

true enough

[RRCo.]

The final color of the bluing depends on the steel alloy of the parts being blued, and on the bluing salts that are used. It will be a different color or shade on different parts.

Exactly.

It also depends on the condition of the beads: new or well broken up and the air pressure used. A high pressure blast with newer beads produces a highly stippled surface which will appear very dark after bluing.

If you want a polished slide you have to polish it, or to be more precise, you emery paper it, preferably with the emery paper glued to a flat stick so that your squishy fingers don't push the emery over or into corners and depressions and round those over in a way they were not finished originally.

In short, if you want an original finish, you have to finish in the original way.

Buffing wheels are dangerous weapons in unskilled hands.

Everyone who's ever seen a run of the mill hot tank reblue knows it doesn't duplicate the sort of straw blue you see on original 1911s. Never mind the polishing vs. beading issue.

If you want an original type finish you send the pistol to someone known to do that kind of work and achieve those results, but that kind of work won't come cheap.

We haven't been told anything about the discussion with Epps before the work was done, if there was any discussion. Nor have we seen any photos.

I don't see any sign that glass beading or sand blasting was any part of the original finish on Colt 1911s, which should be fairly obvious to anyone who spends five minutes looking at photos of originals online.

You get what you pay for, and what you ask for.

[lejarretnoir]

If the OP wanted an original finish on his Colt WWI 1911, glass bead finish is not it!

[Loyer]

The gun was a WW1 .455 and in terrible shape. It was very pitted.
Here are some photos of the bluing job. I did neglect to say that I paid for a medium polish as well as the glass bead and bluing.

If there is any sign of blue on the gun it is from the daylight and not seen by eye. The result is flat black.

[browninggold]

Yikes, no shade of blue is gonna make that gun look good!