Stripping the Blue

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Bush pilot

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Hey all I am redoing a shotgun that was left in a fairly moist place for a long time. There is a little rust on most of the gun. I brushed the bore and it looks good. I would like to redo the barrel and the rest of it. What can I use to remove the rust and old blue? There has been mention of CLR in the past, I could buy that or I have 45gal drums of phosphoric acid. Would that do? I use this to clean aluminmum before painting, works good on it.

Bush pilot
 
Just a suggestion, but I've often wondered if muriatic acid would do a good job of removing blueing. It's actually hydrochloric acid, but sold in diluted form for treating swimming pools and etching concrete for painting in hardware stores. I've used it often to etch out the pattern on damascus knife blades.

I imagine it would do pretty quick work of stripping blueing and rust, but you would have to re-polish any surface that you applied it to, so you wouldn't want to get it on the inside of the barrel for certain if you were to try it.
 
Muriatic acid works great for removing bluing. If you dilute the acid remember not to add the water to the acid but rather add the acid to the water.

I've seen it recommended that the gun be washed in a baking soda solution to neutalize any residual acid.

Naval Jelly(Phosphoric Acid) is also a very good bluing remover and is available in most hardware store(paint dept). After using Naval Jelly you'll notice a gray coating on the metal. This is iron phosphate and it has to be polished off the metal befor bluing.
 
I use a piece of 2 inch ABS pipe capped at one end and long enough for a barrel and action. Standing on the capped end I almost fill it with hot water and about a cup of Muriatic acid. I stand well back and don't inhale the fumes.

I have already "cleaned" oil and gunk off the metal as best possible with solvents and dried it. Now I lower the barreled action in the pipe and it strips the blueing in about 20 seconds. I quickly rinse the barrelled action with a lot of hot water, dry it off and oil the bore.

Then the metal is ready for polishing or other prep work. No damage to the bore at all is done this way.
 
I just use a red 3M scotch-brite pad, to get it to the shiny steel. After that I use alcohol to wipe it down before applying the cold blue. I always wear rubber or latex gloves for this process so that I do not get oils or contaminants on the barrel before blueing. Just my method that works for me. I would also like to hear others ways of doing this for future projects as I am always open to ideas.
 
I use muriatic acid in a PVC pipe with a cap on the end. I seal the barrel with a corks from Home Depot. The barrel gets filled with water. For gas action semis you have to seal the gas port on the barrel as well. I've done this with modelling clay, (you can work it out after with a pin.)
 
I found out the hard way that CLR works too good at removing blueing.

Since my little accident, I have purposely soaked a rag in the stuff (even teh noname version) and just wiped blueing off of parts.

Works well.
 
There's no need to remove the old bluing. However, if you insist, bluing is a controlled rust process. Any rust remover will take it off. No acids required. Naval Jelly is one rust remover.
The rust can be removed with a brass wire wheel in a bench grinder. Don't forget the safety glasses.
 
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