Blueing on top of Parkerizing?

[Mister Donut]

I just saw a post in EE where someone said that he applied Cold Blue to his M14 on top of the factory parkerizing, what benefit does this have and how does it affect the appearance? Cold bluing generally produces a semi gloss finish where parkerizing produces a matte finish, so I was wondering how it would look. Images in the EE post aren't very clear.

 

[Smcx]

I'm not sure that would work properly, or that it would be effective at all. I'm guessing that the parkerizing is just temporarily stained by the cold blue.

 

[Blastattack]

I'm not sure that would work properly, or that it would be effective at all. I'm guessing that the parkerizing is just temporarily stained by the cold blue.

This. No different than putting sharpie all over it. Parkerizing and Blueing are surface conversion finishes that chemically change the composition of the surface metal. They are mutually exclusive and neither can be effectively applied over the other.

 

[sunray]

Putting cold bluing on top of Parkerizing does nothing except waste time and money. Might colour it a bit, but it won't make Parkerizing shiney.
Using cold bluing to cover scratches in Parkerizing does though. There's no touching up Parkerizing, but cold bluing can be used for that on Parkerizing. Doesn't add much in the way of rust protection though.
Parkerizing isn't a surface conversion finish. It's a coating.

 

[Mister Donut]

Yeah, I looked into Parkerizing an I’ve dabbled with blueing, so I was wondering what exactly he was doing. I guess he was just covering up scratches with cold blue because I know you can’t touch up Parkerizing (have to boil it in a few ingredients right?). Speaking of sharpies, I bought a touch-up pen from Cabela’s last year, and that’s all it was, a sharpie.

 

[j.a.wallace]

Yes you can blue over parkerizing but not the other way. I,ve done this on a number of occasions..but cold blue over top of parkerizing..kinda like kissing your sister..it,s not done in polite society.Jack Wallace