gun bluing

Y

yoyo

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Hi, I have a pre64 winchester 70, but the blue is worn badly on the barrel. So I decided to strip the barrel and reblue it with the most expansive cold blue I could find, the Blue Wonder gun blue. But now the barrel looks brownish, and fine rust starts to develop if I don't apply enough gun oil on it. What would be you advise? How much does it costs to reblue the barrel by a gunsmith? Thanks in advance.
 
I would think most shops could blue your barrel only for anywhere from $50 to $100 depending on how bad the metal is now and how good you want it to look.... and if it gets done another batch of blueing on their time frame.
 
Do it yourself! Chuck all that cold blue s**t in the garbage, oh wait, you can't, you have to wait for toxic waste day in your community.

Look up rust bluing on this site, there have been a number of good discussions in the past. The chemicals are relatively mild (compared to cold/hot bluing) and cheap. All it takes is time and elbow grease, just don't get the elbow grease on the barrel :)

Ian
 
I have a couple old Cooey project guns that I want to clean up and both need to be reblued.

Is there anyone around Waterloo Ontario who offers factory grade or better gun bluing services? I'm not bothered by having to wait until they have enough parts to run a batch. Is costing typically done on a per gun or per part or weight basis?

I'm also curious about the DIY rust bluing. Since my project guns were so cheap, I'd be willing to try that if the results look uniform and are as durable as factory blue. I also see the advantage that the bore remains untouched unless bores are plugged for bath bluing.

I've never had good luck with cold bluing but then again, I only ever used the stuff they sell at Canadian Tire.
 
Thanks for your input guys. I think I will contact a gunsmith to see what is the price. If it's too high then I will give the rust bluing a try.
 
yoyo said:
Thanks for your input guys. I think I will contact a gunsmith to see what is the price. If it's too high then I will give the rust bluing a try.
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Rust bluing needs to be boiled to get the colour darker and away from the brown colour. Boiling will also remove the chemicals which are continuing to rust your barrrel.
Before you rush off to have it redone, try pouring lots of boiling water over the barrel, card off the rust with fine steel wool and oil and see how you like the result.

cheers mooncoon
 
For rust blue, do you go through several applications until you get the colour and luster desired?

Also, newbie question. What does carding mean? I've seen this term several times on this forum wrt metal finishing.
 
Scragbait said:
For rust blue, do you go through several applications until you get the colour and luster desired?
Click to expand...

I usually do 7-8 applications.

Also, newbie question. What does carding mean? I've seen this term several times on this forum wrt metal finishing.
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After the metal has rusted it must be boiled for 5-10 minutes. After boiling the metal is covered with a loose black scale that has to be removed before the bluing chemical can be re-applied. Carding(sometimes called scratching) is the process of removing the loose stuff. I use a stainless steel wire wheel turning at low(500) rpm in my drill press. Fine steewool can also be used.
 
I googled a bit about rust bluing, it seems to be fairly doable. But I checked in Brownells, they can't ship bluing chemicals into Canada. Where do you guys get the rust bluing solution? And which one gives you the best result? Thanks.

Edit: Sorry, I found several rust bluing solution that Brownells will ship to Canada, but which one do you recommend? thanks
 
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