Can anyone tell me about the pos/neg of Cerakote? Is rust protection as good as hot blueing? Vs cold blueing? Looking at my options on a couple older rifles. One had the blueing removed and was sprayed with clear coat. That's rusting in a few spots so it should get refinished properly one day...
Cerakote vs hot blue vs cold blue
- Thread starter stovepipe699
- Start date
- Location
- calgary alberta
Cold blue offers little to no rust protection. Good quality hot blueing offers some rust protection but depends on oil to actually keep rust at bay. It looks nice, scratches easily though. Hot blueing only dark blue or black for colors normally, some high nickle content steels give a purple color when hot blued.
CeraKote is a 2 part ceramic epoxy coating that is very durablefor protection, but only where it has been applied, so inside a barrel or action for example will still be open to rust if no oil barrier is present. CeraKote comes in many colors.
Hope that helps.
CeraKote is a 2 part ceramic epoxy coating that is very durablefor protection, but only where it has been applied, so inside a barrel or action for example will still be open to rust if no oil barrier is present. CeraKote comes in many colors.
Hope that helps.
Sounds like a good option. Thanks!
I won't bother with cold blueing then, thanks!
Never hear of proper rust blueing? I hot blued for a lot of years and have the scars. Hot blue leaves the bore with the result that it oxides the bore and requires a time to normalize. Plugs can result in people thinking your have a rare skin condition.
Rust blueing was used on the original Winchester model 70 super grades being considered better than there bath hot blue.
All double barrel shotguns were rust blued because hot blueing caused the solder to separate from the ribs. I expect to ketch S##t with saying this but in the days before stainless barrels target shooters never hot blued and left them in the white.
No I haven't heard of "proper rust blueing". How is it done?
With due respect the internet is your friend. Lots of very good info. I have a model 1912 20 ga Winchester that has been shot over 5 bird dogs that has 75% rust blue left and a restock that a beaver would not look at. Understand that it is a far more labour intensive method lasting than hot blue and not as shiny as hot blue.
Most cold blue is a copper-selenium based process which's hard to make even and is quite 'flimsy'. Ceracoat is durable but can look tacky. Hot blue is nitrate-lye based, hard wearing, but unsuitable in some circumstances and always dangerous to do. Parkerizing is one of, if not the, hardest wearing, bland finish out there and revolves around manganese phosphate. Rust blue involves controlled rusting using any of a dozen methods, followed by boiling in water which converts the brown to black; it is considered the best finish but is slow and expensive.
Thank you for the comparisons.
Anyone know what type of bluing process is used that leaves that brownish hue in the metal when viewed under light? (Not the plumb colour). Curious if that's the rust bluing, or because of the type of metal.
Lots of older M700's and Rugers seem to have it on the barrels.
Lots of older M700's and Rugers seem to have it on the barrels.
- Location
- calgary alberta
melonite treatment or salt bath nitriding DOES provide a very hard surface finish. We finish our actions in that manner. Our experience with having barrels done has been mostly poor leading to incredibly fast copper fouling that is difficult to get out, hence no longer offering that barrel finish. For an action, I can't think of a better or more durable finish for an action. Barrels, not so much. At least with the processes available in Canada.
Joel has worked out his own proprietary recipe and it just is not practical to ship barrels back and forth.
Here's a rust bluing thread from a few years ago to which I contributed.
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/958035-Rust-bluing?p=9036678&highlight=Rust#post9036678
