Plum Finish on SVT-40 Bolt Carrier

gnutcha

gnutcha

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I was cleaning my newly purchased SVT-40 this weekend. I had the rifle completely stripped down and I was soaking all the parts in a pail of gun cleaner. I was using the homemade cleaner "ed's red" I had read about this cleaner on the American boards so I thought I would give it a try.

It works very well except for one possible problem.

I was giving all the parts a wipe with some superfine steel wool and when I got to the bolt carrier the steel wool started taking off the Plum coating. :eek: I was very tempted to continue and take all the plum off but I thought i had best make some inquiries before I do.

So I have two questions.

What is the plum coloured coating, I thought it was some sort of arsenal re-finish bluing but it comes off really easy with the ed's red.:confused:

If i carefully remove the plum (it is a nice yellow/gold underneath) am I damaging the collectability/value of the rifle?

I have already removed enough of the plum that i am going to have to remove it. It looks bad with the scratches, i just want to know if anyone else has experienced this?
 
Plum...pudding?

I guess it was an aborted blueing job or a too cold bath or both.
Sometimes, some nickel alloys tend to go towards the puplish side but, usually, the coating is quite hard and resistant.
You could try having that part reblued or parkerized.
Good luck!
PP.:)
 
^^
The problem with rebluing/parkerizing is that it'll definatly alter the collector value. The SVT-40's without the plum finish were left in the white, and no SVT-40 parts were ever parkerized.
 
Skippy said:
The steel wool might also be the problem, it'll take of blueing as well if you're not careful.
Click to expand...


I was quite careful though, that's what caused my concern. I was careful and used the same steel wool on blued parts with not a scratch on it. I can actually rub the plum off with my finger on raised surfaces with the ed's red.

It's going to have to come off now. I have seen both white and "gold" bolt carriers on SVT-40's as well as the "plum" on arsenal refinished so I really can't see the harm in removing the plum as long as the underlying "gold" coating on the bolt carrier is not scratched or damaged.
 
Original finish of the bolt carrier should be white as well as the bolt itself. The plum finish on both is the result of of high nickle content in the steel and not hot enough/long enough in the bluing bath.
 
The original carrier is made of steel with a high nickel content to resists corrosion and then case hardened. When you blue it it turns purple and doesn't take well. It's a result of the refurb process.

You see the same thing on many WW2 era K98k extractors and springs that went through Russian refurb.
 
Claven2 said:
The original carrier is made of steel with a high nickel content to resists corrosion and then case hardened. When you blue it it turns purple and doesn't take well. It's a result of the refurb process.

You see the same thing on many WW2 era K98k extractors and springs that went through Russian refurb.
Click to expand...

You also see plum colored extractors on 100% all original and unaltered WW2 German K98's. It's the reaction with the metal that causes the plum color.
 
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