The ideal setup is a pair of long sleeve gloves along with splash goggles and a face mask. Once the solution reaches its boiling point, turn down the burner to about one-third of the boiling temperature and let it stay there. OK, Buffing wheels, which Im making their own break-out response from the blueing salt issue: Buffing wheels are useful things in a gun shop. Dont scrub the solution onto the gun, just run a patch that is not dripping wet down one complete run on the barrel/action in one smooth stroke. I think DGs method is a lot safer than mine. I learned something slightly different than what you are teaching and that is I am willing to pay people like you to do this kind of stuff for me. $3.59. I believe the change of color is due to a growing thickness of an oxide layer. ", not only fun, but also profitable. And thats about everything you need to know about stainless steel bluing. Youre a gunsmith who has a lot of nice guns! Then you pull it out and scrape off the oil along the blade edge. "https://www.facebook.com/Shooting-Mystery-110244180901951", Keep them in that state while you heat them but be sure to not boil up the tank. Depending on the manufacturers manual, youll have to prepare roughly 6 to 8 tanks to perform the bluing effectively and efficiently. Cold blueing solutions usually just dont wear well. Cold bluing is not particularly resistant to holster wear, nor does it provide a large degree of rust resistance. "https://twitter.com/Shoot1ngMystery", My first time wasnt a stunning success. Why do you bother with all this crap?. Pour in some acetone, and while wearing rubber gloves (dishwashing gloves are OK), put in a pad of 0000 steel wool, swish it around and pull it out. }, Also buffing wheels pre blue. You are nitre blueing here. For hazzalandy: carbon content has nothing to do with the color process, it is only the temperature you heat to, and to a lesser extent, the time spent hot. "height": "800", . He has more than three years of experience writing for and working with wikiHow. When everything is set up, put on your protective gear and then get down to business. Itll evaporate rather rapidly, but still, dont whip it at cars or house finishes. The head is fixtured and and an arm holding the valve seat moves the the proper location. It's worth noting that there can be some additives in motor oil that release hydrocarbons when burnt which is a known carcinogens to the body (in other words: Bad Stuff!). You have entered an incorrect email address! Cold blues will react with steel at room temperature, but you get more aggressive reactions when you heat the gun to, oh, 150 to 200F. You can then use a soft brush to gently remove all the residue of the cleaning solution on the components. Hardened steel prevents knife blades from dulling and tools from bending and breaking. Hunter Rising is a wikiHow Staff Writer based in Los Angeles. Its much cheaper anyways. What I forgot to mention in all of this is a detail that seems mundane, but it critically important: Wear cotton gloves. the cost of the burners or heaters to heat up all these tanks really only practical if you have natural gas available Ive gotten hot blue salts on me splashed into my hair. Your container should be relatively larger than your object. You should keep guns in a safe, if you can. Ships from and sold by Direct-Wholesale. Rinse them in a cold water tank after. For more information on using a blowtorch and protecting the steel, scroll down! You wouldnt need salts. I pulled the temp off the top of my head. Ill wait for and look forward to your article! A few safety items: on Introduction, Hello my name is Joe and Im doing a project where Im trying to achieve the same outcome. Heat the gun parts. You heat the outside member only when you do a shrink fit.). Cooking off the more volatile hydrocarbons leaving the heavier ones produces a different effect yet again. All those materials the leather and bone the coal where sources of carbon and other trace elements. This answer was tested with a utility knife blade and it drilled through with ease. "@type": "Organization", Excessive buffing on stainless steel could result in a grainy appearance so do it with care. While still hot and while wearing rubber gloves rub the bluing compound Into the steel with the steel wool. Then, you can put the components back into the bluing tank and increase the temperature until you see the blued steel. That way, you can still use your oven for the rest of the evening. You have a degreased gun, and now you need to get the metal hot enough that the reaction will oxidize the steel as much as possible. 2. Quenching the steel rapidly cools it so the alloys inside harden together. Accidental exposure to the chemicals could result in serious injuries. "@context": "http://schema.org/", The potassium nitrate will liquefy at around this temperature and blue your items at a relatively quick speed. "logo": { Ive hot salt blued guns in a shop with the proper equipment and you can shove a river of iron through a single hot salt tank in an afternoon. Colour case hardening occurs when soft steels were packed in a reasonably airtight crucible in a mixture of charred leather, bone charcoal and wood charcoal. I can keep a Krylon can always handy for touch-ups. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. On another thread, we can go into nitre blueing, which is basically heating pins/screws/bits/bobs to 600F in a molten salt bath. Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). Gee, Im thinkin Duro or cero coat maybe even Krylon might be a good enough.. Any gun. Rinse them in a cold water tank after. Either of these two methods is called 'hot bluing'. The usual mistake on buffing wheels is using too coarse a compound, and then the wheel becomes quite aggressive in removing material. ", the wrong quality steel. I dont have that much blueing to do in my shop, so I dont use hot salts. Sometimes at this point, I come just a fraction away from the heat to go through colours a bit slower. High temperatures and dangerous chemicals mean that a moment of carelessness can make you pay a heavy price. 84 or Du-Lite 3-0. Hot NaOH is so alkaline it is great as dissolving organic materials. There are many simple ways to achieve good bluing. Next, suspend the components in a cleaning solution tank to get rid of dirt, oil, grease, and crud. Keep a grade B fire extinguisher nearby in case of a fire. We strongly advise that you only push through with this process if you are absolutely confident that you are able to perform the necessary precautions. Heat source You will require at least one burner for bluing salts and two hot water burners. The mixture is heated to 310 to 321C (590 to 610F) and the parts are suspended in this solution with wire. The thickness of the oxide is a function of how hot you heat the steel (The color is due to interference of light reflecting from the surface of the oxide coating, and light reflecting from the oxide-steel interface). Usually they would pack the parts in crucibles and surround them with leather, wood, coal,bone etcThey would heat them up to 1200F to 1500F and hold them at this temp. When youre done, attach the thermometer to the tank and fire up the burner. Following the treatment in the bluing tank, relocate the components to a cold water tank. Salts. Very helpful! Next you hold it in front of your heat source until a blue oxide layer covers the whole blade edge. "name": "Shooting Mystery", This is a great source that you can learn lots of information from and I'll advise it to to a handfuls of others. Reply This is an alternative method for creating the black oxide coating. Quenched steel is harder, but it becomes more brittle. In the automotive world this is a common practice. Rust bluing is also used on shotgun barrels that are soldered to the rib between the barrels, as hot bluing solutions melt the solder during the bluing process. Make sure the piece is chemically clean, sandblasting followed by power wire brushing is good then stop heating when you hit purple because the heat will travel. Here is a video by Clevinger Customs illustrating it: I use the Brownells nitre blueing salts, which are a combination of sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, and potassium nitrate. Fume bluing is another process similar to rust bluing. Now securely hold your piece with whatever you have chosen. Polish to at least 400 grit. Any more advice is welcome SteelJunkee Joined May 6, 2018 Messages 891 Mix equal parts of cream and liquid Brownells Oxpho Blue. ")You're ABSOLUTELY right. Brownells has a product that will strip blueing and rust (Fe3O4 and Fe3O2, respectively) and not corrode the underlying steel.Remove the barrel & action from the stock. You dont want to affect the hardness of your steel in critical areas like actions, bolts, bolt lugs, barrels, chambers, etc. For most of the time, guns that utilize carbon steel components are the prime candidates for bluing but its totally possible to color stainless steel blue as well. The process isnt intended for bronze. Battery acid is childs play compared to blueing salts. There's also blued hardware available, like nuts, bolts, screws, and hinges. And I work alone in my shop, and lack the required (IMO) safety facilities that are needed. It was left in a flannel gun case in the back of a moist closet for 25+ years. Its a good process for processing lots of guns, but I simply cannot recommend it for people who just want to do a gun here or a gun there.. Gas burners can usually do the job for this. I use it, oh so cautiously in making my biodiesel. After that, slowly and steadily stir the solution in the tank to dissolve the salt. Youre just using stump remover to do it. Below is a link to a video I found on YouTube that shows the process. Sign up for wikiHow's weekly email newsletter. Black oxide provides minimal protection against corrosion, unless also treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting and galvanic action. RF: Expect a write-up from me on Rust blueing and parkerizing in the next couple of weeks. Oil-free steel wool is also sold by woodworking shops. By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. Different colors can be achieved through variations of this method including quenching in oil instead of water. This crucible was heated to 730C (1,350F) for up to 6hours (the longer the heat was applied the thicker the case hardening). The hot washing soda tank typically used in gunsmith shops is caustic washing soda, and if you leave the gun in long enough, youll start to see corrosion on the gun before you get to the blueing step. Brand: Logix. "I have very limited knowledge as to how metal can be manipulated for different applications. it would appear these sights are drifted into dovetails. I use a pickling paste. Your tanks better be tight, your stands for the tanks better be rigid, youd better have top-of-the-line fire extinguishers (NB the plural) available to you. Frequent TTAG commenter Dyspeptic Gunsmith saw the gun above in our postA Garden Gun Cultivates a Newfound Fascinationand answered reader questions about blueing/reblueing a gun thusly: If the rust is very fine and there is still substantial blueing left on the gun, you might want to strip the blueing. The wire is extremely small in diameter, so you have to take that into consideration. I wore latex gloves, as Brownells recommended, but used a pot holder to handle the hot barrel, and that may have been the source. Im asking because theres a guy on YouTube recommending Brown Express first, then several layers of Blue over that. That doesnt happen easily or by accident. Never know when it will come in handy. You want to be in the range of 600 to 650F. Craig, torch bluing is a real thing that has been use a lot in the custom gun world, mostly for screw heads but even for complete muzzle loader creations ( the vendor will be quite proud of his work it seems as cost increases considerably to a finished item). on Introduction. It repeats the process adn by the time the head moves on to the next station all the parts are seated presumably for the life of the head. Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full pricewine, food delivery, clothing and more. Tenifer get's up to (1077F) last I checked and was the 5th step in Glock heat treating after that they Pakerize it. I really appreciate you taking the time to share it DG. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Thank you all who had a part in the production of this important information! Very true. Wear thick gloves and a face mask before you quench your steel so the water or oil doesnt splash onto your hands. All About Bluing Steel Stainless Steel Necessary Gears and Tools Procedure Step 1: Ready the bluing tank Step 2: Process the components of the gun Step 3: Suspend on Introduction, looks nice but you are using what is known as heat treatment which will darken steel, not using bluing salts as in gun bluing of rifle barrels all in all very nice instructable, Reply This process is also the only process safely used to re-blue vintage shotguns. We will verify and confirm your receipt within 3 working days from the date you upload it. Pour in When you add water to a hot salt tank, you get an explosion of steam, and you need to develop some skill in adding the water with a very fine copper pipe on your water hose to prevent steam blow-outs spattering salts all over you. "https://www.pinterest.com/theshootingmystery/", this article statement In my case I drilled/threaded the metal piece and made a holder with a threaded end. His enthusiasm for handling firearms and hunting gear inspired him to create the Shooting Mystery blog. . You will get it. To temper the steel so it isn't brittle, place it in an oven heated to 375 F for 3 hours, and then it let it cool overnight. They are still sometimes used by gunsmiths to obtain an authentic finish for a period gun of the time that rust bluing was in vogue, analogous to the use of browning on earlier representative firearm replicas. You might be able to start at 320 grit. That surface rust on the barrel could be polished off easily. There wasnt a whole lot of pain just yet until my buddy took the safety bottle of vinegar solution used to neutralize the alkaline NaOH salts, and then the pain was there. I have always wondered about storage in gun soft cases or the foamed Hard cases, and humid or dry, heat and cold. Thank you, DG! After that, slowly and steadily stir the solution in, Step 2: Process the components of the gun, Wait for 10 15 minutes and then take out the components. Use a coffee can or similarly shaped container as your quenching chamber. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The rust then turns to black-blue Fe3O4. 5. Above you can see some example pictures of the colour shades that can be achieved with this techniques.Have fun doing it! The hotter the steel, the further the oxygen can diffuse through the oxide coating, so the coating builds thicker before it protects the steel from further oxidation. it takes a long time to heat up a long (ie barreled action length) tank that is, oh, three barrels wide. You should note that the blue layer is rather delicate so dont treat it roughly. Mea culpa. At the end of this heating process the crucible is removed from the oven and positioned over a bath of water with air forced through a perforated coil in the bottom of the bath. 2 years ago I can then get the temp to be 600F spot-on in a lead melting pot. I thought there was something that could help improve the colors but wasnt sure until I came across this. I have also had good results with 5w/30 motor oil, I've also used two-stroke oil with good results. fascinated with blacksmithing, but have not had an income to even get it started. References It will first turn gold, then orange, then red, purple, blue and then dark grey! In literally 10 seconds on a buffing wheel incorrectly applied, I could screw that up to a point where it might take be eight+ hours of hand polishing to recover my prior results. Its for mild steel, which must be greased, oiled or otherwise coated with something to stop it from rusting almost immediately. Bluing is most commonly used by gun manufacturers, gunsmiths, and gun owners to improve the cosmetic appearance of and provide a measure of corrosion resistance to their firearms. The rod was heated and the plate 2" square was inserted and the rod shrunk onto it. I found through my bluing adventure that different oils do act slighty different but ultimately everything I've used has done the job. I am using bronze, is it for a polish? You should put the brass drift (which you can make out of a piece of brass rod about 1/4 in diameter) on the sight base, and then start tapping the end of the drift with a small hammer. -An old container filled with your chosen degreaser (unleaded petrol), -Your desired polished metal object/s (very important! Last Updated: May 13, 2022 The de-greasing you do directly affects the uniformity of the browning or blueing. Heat the Steel. A couple bottles of aged bourbon minimum. Wait for a day to let the bluing properly cure before you do anything else to it. Initially case hardening was used but did not offer any aesthetics. BUT like so many power tools on guns, it is possible to create expensive screw-ups to fix on guns with power tools, and buffing wheels are no exception. Fe3O4 requires chemicals and/or heat to push the iron to full oxidation. "Rust bluing" and "fume bluing" provide the best rust and corrosion resistance as the process continually converts any metal that is capable of rusting into magnetite (Fe3O4). Think big scars. Interesting and informative as always. Alternatively, You could store them in a hard case (like a pelican with a purge) and throw some desiccant packs in there as well. This article was very, "I've been working with steel since I was a child, and reviewing these proper methods and skills makes my projects, "It surely educated me on several points. So basically, youll want the rifle in the vise with the muzzle pointed to your left. My current rifle builds are going to be parkerzied. Enjoy! If you tempered the steel with a blow torch, set the metal on an anvil or another large steel surface to conduct the heat. And then there is the difference between general care and storage vs available daily carried protection pistols living in a some sort of Holster (nylon or leather) , good, bad, take them out or leave them in? It is named after the blue-black appearance of the resulting protective finish. Be careful since considerable heat might be generated in the process. Even a fingerprint will affect the consistency of the colour. "Cold" bluing is generally a selenium dioxide based compound that colours steel black, or more often a very dark grey. To shrink, I assumed you heated the steel plate only, to expand the hole in it. For more information on using a blowtorch and protecting the steel, scroll down! If you do not get crazy and over heat the steel there is no reason to be fearful of the process. Dont pour water in to your bath! The steel will pull some of the carbon out of the oil while quenching and harden the outer portion of the metal. One of the reasons I hand-polish up to 600 and buff only above that is that when you see one of my barrels (by holding it up to a light source, and sighting down the barrel from the muzzle at your eye to the breech out at arms length), you see no dips, waves, ripples, etc. I wish this article had come out sooner, since I did not know that 0000 steel wool may have oil in it. Water is great for rapidly quenching the hot metal, but it could cause thin steel to distort or crack. Drill bits and gun barrels are common examples. The part that is to race the other is heated normally up to about 220 especially if it is an aluminum casting like a cylinder head. How to Blue (Bluing) Steel Using Oven Or Torch and Oil Method OOMAN 2.28K subscribers Subscribe 872 112K views 4 years ago My apologies for the background I wish I had known more about the process, heating (I was working outside on a 60 degree day) I may have to check with my friend to see if it needs reblued again, Im sure he never shot it. Both ingredients are super cheap. New guns are typically available in blued finish options offered as the least-expensive finish, and this finish is also the least effective at providing rust resistance, relative to other finishes such as Parkerizing or hard chrome plating or nitriding processes like Tenifer. If the sights need to be stripped & blued, follow the same procedure, but dont polish on them. 4. Once you get the colour you want, go outside to your oil container and fully quench your object into the oil!Note: I know a plastic container is Question Hopefully these concepts suggest caution and diligence for what you are doing. You can also heat the oil to create different effects. How do I harden a steel hammer so that is lasts longer and is more durable? ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Once you get the colour you want, go outside to your oil container and fully quench your object into the oil! Do this outside, so you can do this next part: Just whip the steel wool at arms length to extract the excess acetone. It is one smoooooth profile, from one end to the other. DG should receive a stipend for his valuable contributions to TTAG. All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. The cotton gloves insulate your fingers from the heated barrel, and they prevent oils from your skin from getting on the raw steel. To harden steel, start by heating the metal directly with a blow torch until it turns a cherry red color. So you will get a shinier finish. It is a difficult product to apply evenly, offers minimal protection and is generally best used for small fast repair jobs and touch-ups.[2][3]. I rarely use them. If cold bluing is the only practical option, the area should be kept oiled to extend the life of the coating as much as possible. Ferrari installs valve seats in their aluminum cylinder heads via robot. Theres nothing wrong with your method, but is is very hazardous, especially to people who have never done anything like it before. The downsides are: the safety issue, which I laid out above, and which youve made clear. Bluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. The colours range through straw, gold, brown, purple, blue, teal, then black. Let them cool down as you take a closer look at the bluing effect. on Introduction. However, due to the unique qualities of stainless steel, you cant simply blue the material however way you like. Think big scars. Contemporary heat-treatable steels did not exist or were in their infancy. Similarly, stainless steel parts may be immersed in a mixture of nitrates and chromates, similarly heated. All blued parts still require oiling to prevent rust. Right now I'm working on excavator replacement pins! You can get a IR non-contact thermometer for less than $20 at Harbor Freight. You might need two applications to clean up more deeply rusted spots. THANKS DG. It turns out I have. Blow torches only heat a small concentrated area. 5 years ago, I found that heating will turn steel silver ~> gold ~> violet ~> blue. The steel is also used for producing great police flashlights with awesome durability. If a bank transfer is made but no receipt is uploaded within this period, your order will be cancelled. Just remove the blue/rust, degrease, dry, then blue/card/boil-out/oil/drain. DG thank you. The easier of the two methods, hot bluing only requires some degreasing agent, a heating apparatus (a blow torch is perfect for this), and any kind of oil. If everything appears good, then you can transfer the components into a hot water tank. If you look at the temps that Tenifur(SP) and Melonite(sp) and early Pakerizing processes used this is nothing. LOGIX 20910 Butane Torch, Cooking Torch, Torch for Creme Brulee, Refillable, 9.6 oz, Blue Steel . To obtain oil-free steel wool, get some acetone in a container (say, an old, clean yogurt container you were going to throw away anyway). You can not do this method with Aluminium because it won't reach the temperatures required for bluing, it will just melt. After spending most of his career as a firearms expert and enthusiast, he retreated to the great outdoors to raise his family in peace and quiet. ", informative and did not use technical language and concepts that would have left me floundering and none the wiser. Some people might not have a tank long enough to contain a barreled action to boil out. It can soften up some paints and plastics. If you are referring to torch bluing, the The only way to do that is to heat it until the metal de-magnetises, quench it again, and then temper to the desired hardness. I have done a cold blue on a very rusted .22 for a friend. This will keep the bluing from adhering to the sharpened edge. There are also methods of cold bluing, which do not require heat. I guess Ill have to just be happy drying toilet paper. Old school smiths use something called washing soda to strip oil off guns. Either that or the steel wool. "Bluing" is the process of oxidizing steel to create a durable, corrosion-resistant layer. That seems wasteful. Just use distilled water. 500F-600F is often all that is needed and the parts can be done over and over again you just have to clean between each attempt. If youre interested, just ask and I can provide more details. By using our site, you agree to our. Fill a heat-safe container with water or oil deep enough to submerge your steel. It is generally employed on smaller parts such as pins, screws, sights, etc. It does provide good rust resistance, which is improved with oil. Theres a reason why I buy up clapped-out guns and stuff where people look at me with a WTF?! If you havent done it before, wait until I mention some items about it. on Step 1. Can a softly tempered piece be re-tempered harder without going through the hardening procedure again? Thats one way to get dyspeptic to write articles! (Its Crystalline Potassium Nitrate 100%) $6.18 So you said the polishing is key for the coloring process. Participated in the Explore Science Contest. The blue appearance of the oxide film is also used as an indication of temperature when tempering carbon steel after hardening, indicating a state of temper suitable for springs. -something to hold your object with i.e. Always back your paper when youre polishing over edges and up against features.
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