Best way to cold blue a few spots
- Thread starter pluie27
- Start date
All of the cold blueing chemical I have tried, have very different effects on different metal. Some take the blueing better than others. Some metal won't take it, others only blue slighly. Try it, and see for yourself. Personally, I've had ok results with Birchwood Casey Super Blue, but others will have their favorites. Ultimately, if you want to look factory, you have to pay for refinish and hot blueing.
For cold blueing, I make sure the metal is completely free of all oils (use acetone or alcohol), and apply the blueing multiple times, washing the metal with clean water between coats.
For cold blueing, I make sure the metal is completely free of all oils (use acetone or alcohol), and apply the blueing multiple times, washing the metal with clean water between coats.
I refinished my Great-Uncle's old Marlin Model 80 .22 over the winter, including touching up the bluing. The metal before I started had a lot of patches like the ones in the photo above, plus a spot on the action where it had bee filed down flat at some point in the last 70+years to mount a peep sight. I did not remove all the bluing. I used steel wool, 00, 000 and 0000 to clean it up and feather out the light spots. I tried Birchwood Casey Super Blue paste and did not like the results much. I had used Outers bluing kit in the past and it worked out okay then so I decided to try it again. I cleaned/degreased it with the cleaner supplied in the kit and then washed it all down with boiling hot water, I used kettles to heat it, and dried it with a clean Flitz microfiber cloth and air compressor. I just followed the instructions on the packaging and repeated the process several times until it all looked even. *The bluing was always applied while the metal was still hot.* I used a couple lengths of dowel in the muzzle and action to hang the gun between to stands on the workbench so it wasn't in contact with anything. Once i was done with the bluing I applied a coat of oil and left it for several days before reassembling it all.
