Refinishing / repairing rifle bluing

It depends. How much needs refinishing and what are your expectations/skill level? For small touch ups cold blue works OK. For larger areas it is a poor choice. It simply does not match the deep, durable bluing that hot bluing provides. There's rust bluing which is more labour intensive but when you get it right the results can be very good. Then there's professional hot bluing, which is a really easy process of packing the rifle in a box, mailing it off and paying the bill.
 
Cold bluing is made for that. It's absolutely essential to degrease. As mentioned, it's not for the whole rifle and it's not as good as hot bluing. A bottle of Outers bluing runs less than $10.
 
sunray said:
Cold bluing is made for that. It's absolutely essential to degrease. As mentioned, it's not for the whole rifle and it's not as good as hot bluing. A bottle of Outers bluing runs less than $10.
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I'll have to give it a try. have a scratch I'd like to get rid of
 
I think Birchwood Casey made/makes touch up pens. Cold blue is excellent for small scratches, once oiled they are barely noticeable. Like Sunray said DEGREASE! You're wasting your time if you don't. I usually degrease and rinse with water a couple times before I start bluing. Use good clean water, depending on where you live your tap water may contaminate the surface.
 
If you're gonna use a cold blue product, I heartily recommend "Blue Wonder." I reblued an old 22 with it and it looked better than most new rifles these days. Gave a very deep, rich purple/blue that really made the old beater into something special! Wish I took a couple pictures, but I wasn't expecting the guy to pack up and move across the country without notice lol.
 
supernova said:
I think Birchwood Casey made/makes touch up pens. Cold blue is excellent for small scratches, once oiled they are barely noticeable. Like Sunray said DEGREASE! You're wasting your time if you don't. I usually degrease and rinse with water a couple times before I start bluing. Use good clean water, depending on where you live your tap water may contaminate the surface.
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Thats the one I was thinking of. Ive heard it works well.
 
sawzall said:
If you're gonna use a cold blue product, I heartily recommend "Blue Wonder." I reblued an old 22 with it and it looked better than most new rifles these days. Gave a very deep, rich purple/blue that really made the old beater into something special! Wish I took a couple pictures, but I wasn't expecting the guy to pack up and move across the country without notice lol.
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Ive seen that being sold at the gun show, from the sample barrels he had it looks like it too does a great job.
 
supernova said:
I think Birchwood Casey made/makes touch up pens. Cold blue is excellent for small scratches, once oiled they are barely noticeable. Like Sunray said DEGREASE! You're wasting your time if you don't. I usually degrease and rinse with water a couple times before I start bluing. Use good clean water, depending on where you live your tap water may contaminate the surface.
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Could only find the Black version online..will have to keep searching.. or do they call the dark blue black?
 
I've never bought the pens but I have bought their aluminum black which is a totally different product. For what it is, a handful of q tips and a bottle of cold blue does the same job.
 
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