How many smiths caustic blue, or slow rust blue in Canada?

Cleftwynd

Cleftwynd

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I haven't been able to find much information about gunsmiths that do traditional slow rust bluing, or hot bluing for that matter. It seems most farm it out (and do not share their source), or stick to coatings these days.

Would anyone have a list of gunsmiths that do either one, or both? An educated guess would be better than nothing!!

Thanks in advance to any that have some helpful information.
 
I know a smith in Oshawa that does rust blueing, (blacking, he calls it) but I can't really recommend him. He knows his stuff, but he's semi-retired from the trade and I have a couple of jobs there that I'm having a hard time getting him to complete. I'll pm the contact details.

Ed Von Atzigen in Peterborough blued a couple of rifle barrels for me, but I don't know if he does it himself or farms it out.
 
I'm far from a "Smith" but I have done a fair bit of hot caustic blueing the last couple years.

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I am addicted to it! Always looking for old rusty guns.

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I hot blued for over 40 years... stopped doing it last year... Semi retired and don't need the polishing hassle. I kind of specialized in high quality prep and it took a lot of effort. Bluing is easy... it's all in the prep...

I'll sell my tanks, burners and salts if anyone wants it all... Shipping will be a b itch though...
 
Nobody seems to want to do the hard part anymore, lol. I am just trying to find smiths that blue as part of their business to contact for consulting purposes. Business plan requirement, have to show there is an opportunity for such things ....
 
Hey SkyTop, do you blue other peoples stuff? I would be interested in cleaning up my own stuff and getting someone to re-blue it, and know a few other people interested.
 
Where do you guys that do your own bluing, get the salts and chemicals?, that seems to be the hardest part of the job to me.
 
I paid for some salts off a guy in B.C. early this year. Totally ripped me off. Sent the money to him and he never mailed the salts. Stay away from a guy selling blueing stuff on KIJIJI from B.C. with the initials R.K.!!!!!
 
It's really becoming a lost art, my New Smith & Wesson does not come close to the lustre of my old 1971 model..

Wish there was a local guy who did this I love that rich deep Blue that looks almost black.
 
All u need is lye from the hardware store and potassium or sodium nitrate, some recipies have a couple other ingredients. Lye to bring the boiling point up to 270-290 and nitrates to the blueing, they are black as tobys a**. Like Guntech said once you do a few the blueing part is easy, its all in the prep work, polishing etc. Blueing hides nothing, its like doing your own drywall job and after painting any little imperfections are magnified.
 
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I used to mix my own but in later years switched to Brownell's bluing salts...so much easier to use... across border shipping is really costly so I would have a couple of kegs shipped close to the border and drive across and pick them up. Lasted many years.
 
"...gunsmiths that do..." It's extremely time consuming and requires a room with no ferrous metals in it that matter.
"...Nobody seems to want to do the hard part anymore..." It's more that nobody wants to pay for it. Most customers want everything done for next to nothing and they don't want to wait for a quality job.
 
guntech said:
I used to mix my own but in later years switched to Brownell's bluing salts...so much easier to use... across border shipping is really costly so I would have a couple of kegs shipped close to the border and drive across and pick them up. Lasted many years.
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A good deal for a guy that can throw a rock into a stiff breeze and still get it across the border!
 
sunray said:
"...gunsmiths that do..." It's extremely time consuming and requires a room with no ferrous metals in it that matter.
"...Nobody seems to want to do the hard part anymore..." It's more that nobody wants to pay for it. Most customers want everything done for next to nothing and they don't want to wait for a quality job.
Click to expand...

Mark this date on the calendar...I completely agree with sunray!
 
Yeah, no kidding BUM!

It is nice being this close to the US border, however, his area is the land that time forgot in most cases.
 
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