I decided to remove the bluing that was added to refurbished SVT40s by the Soviet arsenal and return the bolt/bolt carrier back to it's silvery polish. I know I am probably going to get flack over it by some milsurp fanatics 
, but imo, it's a refurb and I am not doing a disgrace to it (and it isn't anything structural, IE drilling holes). Also the bluing itself was scratched up from the bolt moving back and forth over time. This one had a plum bluing as oppose to the gold kind.
Added: Since many people are going to try it out themselves (I am not responsible for any damage done), just a few notes:
-I did not remove the firing pin/spring, the damn retaining pin won't come out. I don't think they blued those two parts but I do no know for sure. Cocks and fires no problem though.
-Make sure you use a bore brush or something similar to clean out any rust where the recoil spring goes.
-Make sure you get all the left over, wet rust out. When you bake it to dry the water out, it gets all crusty and then you have to use steel wool to scrape it off, and that's no fun.
Anyway, the process to remove bluing is simple and cheap. All you need is white vinegar.
Here you can see the original bolt color.
Both bolt and bolt carrier are place in the tub of vinegar (you can see the scratched up finish I talked about).
This is where the magic happens. The bluing starts to rust (not effecting the metal under it) and the surface becomes an orange tinge.
Here some of the bluing has been wiped off.
Really orange now
Kinda of jumped to the end, but most of the bluing has been wiped off. Still some stubborn parts left.
After all the bluing is wiped off, I used super fine steel wool to get any small bits off. Then I rinsed the parts in water to get the vinegar out and baked for 10 min at 200 degrees to get all the water out. This is how they look now.
After polishing, they look awesome.
Sadly there is one issue I wasn't expecting. The bolt carrier had pitting from it's earlier days and some of the bluing had trouble getting off. It isn't very visible while in the rifle due to the dust cover, but still sucks
.
However, the new polished bolt does make the SVT40 look awesome!!!
So what do you guys think?
, but imo, it's a refurb and I am not doing a disgrace to it (and it isn't anything structural, IE drilling holes). Also the bluing itself was scratched up from the bolt moving back and forth over time. This one had a plum bluing as oppose to the gold kind.Added: Since many people are going to try it out themselves (I am not responsible for any damage done), just a few notes:
-I did not remove the firing pin/spring, the damn retaining pin won't come out. I don't think they blued those two parts but I do no know for sure. Cocks and fires no problem though.
-Make sure you use a bore brush or something similar to clean out any rust where the recoil spring goes.
-Make sure you get all the left over, wet rust out. When you bake it to dry the water out, it gets all crusty and then you have to use steel wool to scrape it off, and that's no fun.
Anyway, the process to remove bluing is simple and cheap. All you need is white vinegar.
Here you can see the original bolt color.
Both bolt and bolt carrier are place in the tub of vinegar (you can see the scratched up finish I talked about).
This is where the magic happens. The bluing starts to rust (not effecting the metal under it) and the surface becomes an orange tinge.
Here some of the bluing has been wiped off.
Really orange now
Kinda of jumped to the end, but most of the bluing has been wiped off. Still some stubborn parts left.
After all the bluing is wiped off, I used super fine steel wool to get any small bits off. Then I rinsed the parts in water to get the vinegar out and baked for 10 min at 200 degrees to get all the water out. This is how they look now.
After polishing, they look awesome.
Sadly there is one issue I wasn't expecting. The bolt carrier had pitting from it's earlier days and some of the bluing had trouble getting off. It isn't very visible while in the rifle due to the dust cover, but still sucks
.
However, the new polished bolt does make the SVT40 look awesome!!!
So what do you guys think?
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I guess because the SVT40 costs $750 and up over there, it is taboo to alter these priceless collector items. I think they are really pi$$ed that I said that an SVT costs about $300 over here.
