Rebuilding/Cleaning my old Cooey 39 tips?

[NickVR]

So.. I have an old Cooey 39 single shot .22, it was passed down from my Opa (grandpa) to me when he passed away.
Great little shooter and super fun! Brings back many great memories from my childhood, so the gun has seen better days, the wood stain is looking a little meh and worn. The barrel was super rusty as well. The inside of the barrel surprising is very clean and minimal pitting! I was very impressed.

So i tore it all apart, cleaned it and oiled it. I took the barrel off and sanded all the rust off, its looking super shiny now!

so.. Tips on re 'blueing' a barrel? or is there a way I can just use a high temperature paint or a spray on 'galvanized' paint, i'm looking for an easy way that looks good. I did some research on gun blue and it seemed tricky.. any pointers?

Also the stain, just sand the wood down good and use any wood stain on it?

Thanks alot guys!

 

[H4831]

Use cold blue. A good brand is Birchwood Casey.
If you have the barrel shiny, polish it some more. The keys to success are a good shiny surface, REALLY CLEAN. All traces of oils and marks from hands removed.
Just follow the dirictions on the tube of bluing.

 

[NickVR]

what do you use, sand paper or steel whool?

I am going to bass pro saturday so i'll have a look around

 

[gunsaholic]

When I cold blued, I would start with a coarser sand paper to get the bulk of the bluing off. Then I move up to finer wet/dry paper depending on how shiny and smooth I want it. The key is good prep and make sure all oil and grease is removed. Do not touch with bare hands. You will have to apply more than one coat of bluing. You have to use 0000 steel wool between each coat . Degrease between each coat not touching with your bare hands. Any dirt or oil on the finish between coats and you will screw it up. You only apply oil to the metal when you are satisfied with the depth of color. You can get excellent looking results. However, cold blue is not that durable and is prone to wearing off easier than other methods of bluing.

 

[rslowe]

I have done a couple of small projects with cold bluing and a couple of weapons also.
I have only used “Outers gun blue” from crappy tire. But I would try others if they were readily available.
Preparation is the key. I used emery cloth to remove the old bluing, and any marks on the metal.
I preheat the metal with a heat gun before I apply the bluing, and I use only fresh bluing from the bottle and I do not contaminate the bluing from other work.

Something that I found that appears to help is after I am done with the cold bluing, (could be 3-4 applications) and steel wool buffing with a wash down of clean water and dry off all the water, is to soak the metal in used engine oil.
The heaver the content of carbon in the oil the better. (Used Diesel engine oil seems to be the best so far) I typically place everything in a plastic bag, soaked in the used oil, overnight.
There is a marked improvement with used oil over new oil in the depth of the bluing.

I am sure that there other ways that work too, and it will be interesting to hear of them.

 

[H4831]

I have done a couple of small projects with cold bluing and a couple of weapons also.
I have only used “Outers gun blue” from crappy tire. But I would try others if they were readily available.
Preparation is the key. I used emery cloth to remove the old bluing, and any marks on the metal.
I preheat the metal with a heat gun before I apply the bluing, and I use only fresh bluing from the bottle and I do not contaminate the bluing from other work.

Something that I found that appears to help is after I am done with the cold bluing, (could be 3-4 applications) and steel wool buffing with a wash down of clean water and dry off all the water, is to soak the metal in used engine oil.
The heaver the content of carbon in the oil the better. (Used Diesel engine oil seems to be the best so far) I typically place everything in a plastic bag, soaked in the used oil, overnight.
There is a marked improvement with used oil over new oil in the depth of the bluing.

I am sure that there other ways that work too, and it will be interesting to hear of them.

I never heard of this, but it sounds great.
Thanks for giving us an innovative idea, that just plain makes sense.

 

[NorthCoastBigBore]

When I browned my first muzzleloader I was told by an old timer then to apply used engine oil, similar logic. Worked well on that one, 25 years later and the finish is still nice and rich.