I have to finish my M76 and Galil first and buy the materials. With HSS you're looking for 2500-3000rpm, M35 or M42 cobalt bits 3000-3600rpm, and carbide 10k-12krpm. I used Express Blue #1 on lots of guns, where I want something less labor intensive than slow rust blueing (which I wont describe here): most steel wool isnt oil-free. There are also methods of cold bluing, which do not require heat. Its much cheaper anyways. Cold blueing is OK for touchups, at best. If you want to blue something fast I have a cheap hot blue method: Lowes stump remover: I guess Ill have to just be happy drying toilet paper. Most cold blueing agents contain some selenium dioxide in them to enable to them to react at room temps. Then you can express blue it with a propane torch and a tank of boiling water. Hot blueing salts attack soft solders on guns, so it isnt to be done on old shotguns and some older rifles. DG thank you. By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. When youre using hot blueing salts, youd better be on top of your game, or you can seriously injure yourself. Bluing is also used in seasoning cast-iron cookware, to render it relatively rust-proof and non-stick. Where/how did you think I got to the point I could make nice guns? WebBluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. If youre using acetone to de-oil, dont be afraid to do it more than once. You might also want to read our article on how to easily darken stainless steel or blacken stainless steel for more ways to personalize your gear. Even at room temperature, the salts are highly caustic and will eat into your eyes or skin in seconds not minutes. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. It is also used by machinists, to protect and beautify tools made for their own use. After three coats, washing and drying, the finish was not too bad, considering I was (and am) a rank amateur. The reason why blued guns rust is that something was allowed to attack the surface blueing and get through it to new steel or the blueing job wasnt deep enough to complete passivate the surface from red rust. To heat this, I use a Coleman camp stove and a 15# jug of LPG gas. Think big scars. This is a great source that you can learn lots of information from and I'll advise it to to a handfuls of others. Ill wait for and look forward to your article! For this reason, it is considered not to add any appreciable thickness to precisely-machined gun parts. The loose oxide was then carded (scrubbed) off, using a carding brush - a wire brush with soft, thin (usually about 0.002in (0.051mm) thick) wires - or wheel. Be patient in the first few minutes as the metal needs to reach the temperatures where it changes colour! It will first turn gold, then orange, then red, purple, blue and then dark grey! Even a fingerprint will affect the consistency of the colour. Next you hold it in front of your heat source until a blue oxide layer covers the whole blade edge. For the process your metal should be nicely polished for the best results.The more shinier the polish the more your end result will glow. Its a good process, but it isnt a 1:1 replacement for blueing. Ive learned a LOT. I use it, oh so cautiously in making my biodiesel. Just use distilled water. Now securely hold your piece with whatever you have chosen. Battery acid is childs play compared to blueing salts. ", Thanks for always being so willing to share, Sir. We will verify and confirm your receipt within 3 working days from the date you upload it. Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full pricewine, food delivery, clothing and more. Im asking because theres a guy on YouTube recommending Brown Express first, then several layers of Blue over that. In my case I drilled/threaded the metal piece and made a holder with a threaded end. Remove the bolt & trigger group this might require a pin punch on some guns to pull the trigger group.From what little I can see in the picture here . Sign up for wikiHow's weekly email newsletter. Also, the results you indicate are typical of still having some oil on the gun. The parts can often be put together with little or no forces need and friction lock together and the one parts shrinks and the other part expands. Keep a grade B fire extinguisher nearby in case of a fire. Red rust is Fe2O3, and is incomplete rust it will continue allowing the surface to corrode over time hence the oil or wax. The parts are then oiled and allowed to stand overnight. I ended up with some spots where the browning did not take, and a few dull spots, most of which I was able to buff out with steel wool soaked with gun oil. Various processes are used for the oxidizing process. Add in the 250F+ temperatures of the salts when they hit your skin, and youre both burned thermally and chemically in seconds. Mea culpa. Only 3 left in stock - order soon. I have always wondered about storage in gun soft cases or the foamed Hard cases, and humid or dry, heat and cold. Bluing is also used for providing coloring for steel parts of fine clocks and other fine metalwork. I really appreciate you taking the time to share it DG. Blue or Black rust is complete passivation of the steel surface Fe3O4. First, let us go through a couple of bluing concepts that you have to know in order to achieve the desired result. To harden steel, start by heating the metal directly with a blow torch until it turns a cherry red color. Water is great for rapidly quenching the hot metal, but it could cause thin steel to distort or crack. The parts are then boiled in distilled water, blown dry, then carded, as with rust bluing. Drill bits and gun barrels are common examples. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. Hot. It is caused by a layer of oxide that forms when the steel is heated. To remove pitting and keep the barrel profile intact requires skill with a file, and that requires hands-on training. Ive dealt with strong acids and strong bases in lab work, and I fear the strong bases more. Could I use stainless steel earrings that I have got? 3. Now you can start.Apply heat to your object and heat up gently and equally. As I'm bluing round pieces I slowly and evenly rotate the piece over Ferrari installs valve seats in their aluminum cylinder heads via robot. When everything is set up, put on your protective gear and then get down to business. on Introduction. Its the corrosive gift that just keeps on giving. Take them out after a couple of minutes and then wipe them clean to remove excess oil. What did you use for polishing your pieces and Im guessing you polished then added the chemicals after?Thanks, Joe, Question All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. Black iron wire You will need black iron wire to tie around any object you I want to add rainbow color to safety razor blades that would be used again, how can I do this? Theres a reason I didnt pursue a career in chemistry. The process was to coat the gun parts in an acid solution, let the parts rust uniformly, then immerse the parts in boiling water to convert the red oxide Fe2O3 to black oxide Fe3O4, which forms a more protective, stable coating than the red oxide; the boiling water also removes any remaining residue from the applied acid solution (often nitric acid and hydrochloric acid diluted in water). I dont use hot salt blueing because much of my work is on older double guns, which have ribs that are soft-soldered into place. It is slightly caustic, so be careful you dont leave it on the gun for long. Why do you bother with all this crap?. 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. Remember the oil is probably gonna release some smoke/fumes once the piece is quenched so as said before: please do this step in a well ventilated area. The use of stainless steel alloy varies a lot from one manufacturer to the other and thats why the bluing effect wont always be consistent. That seems wasteful. Keep them in that state while you heat them but be sure to not boil up the tank. This signifies that the steel is tempered. Every true outdoorsmans dream! Use ice cubes. The inside barrel was saved by the fact it was so full of lead fouling. WebHeat the blade for 15 to 20 minutes in an oven set on 325 Fahrenheit if the handle is metal. 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]. However, rust bluing small areas often match, blend, and wear better than any cold bluing process. They should send you a stipend for your time. Then, use a pair of tongs to carry the steel to a container filled with water or vegetable, and submerge the hot metal in the liquid. Just dont. "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). Go on and start bluing! The "hot" process is an alkali salt solution using potassium nitrite or sodium nitrate and sodium hydroxide, referred to as "traditional caustic black", that is typically done at an elevated temperature, 135 to 155C (275 to 311F). SO, DG; unless I missed it, I am assuming the torch is used separate from heating the tank/ container with the boiling solution. I've never done anything like this but want to try. Dont touch the metal with your bare hands since it could cause severe burns. I can then get the temp to be 600F spot-on in a lead melting pot. Use your torch to bring up wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. This is not advisable. "mainEntityOfPage": "https://shootingmystery.com/blue-stainless-steel-beginners/", Fill the tank with a suitable amount of water then add in the bluing salt using the correct ratio. Try it on some unimportant pieces first. I'm trying to be positive and constructive, and think this is: for an amateur to stick a very hot torch-heated metal object into a plastic container filled with oil is simply dumb (ok, more polite: "irresponsible") at best, highly dangerous at worst. Its a pretty straightforward process. You can make a Caustic Soda KNO3 water bath: 65% Lye (aka sodium hydroxide) There is something really rewarding about this technique. 'Browning' is controlled red rust Fe2O3, and is also known as 'pluming' or 'plum brown'. Life is good. The head is fixtured and and an arm holding the valve seat moves the the proper location. The plate turned blue just like you ible and I was told this was an effect of compression fitting.the rod didn't change colour even though it had the heat applied to it so was it actually the compression fit that changed the plates colour. Use hemostats to hold a cleaning patch wetted with the solution and apply in nice, long, even strokes. Todos los derechos reservados. If you look at the temps that Tenifur(SP) and Melonite(sp) and early Pakerizing processes used this is nothing. After the Civil War they switched to another process. Gun companies dont/wont do it because they want to make quick money, and today its all phosphates and bake-on appliance paint (you didnt think a guy who calls Glocks cheez-whiz was going to sing the praises of Duracote or Cerakote, did you?). 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. Work on a metal or steel surface, such as an anvil, to avoid any fire hazards. Your container should be relatively larger than your object. Fill a heat-safe container with water or oil deep enough to submerge your steel. Metal parts that look black or blue-black are usually blued (rather than painted). Use a smaller toaster oven if your piece of steel fits inside. "I have very limited knowledge as to how metal can be manipulated for different applications. When youre using polishing paper, you think that 600 grit is very fine, and it is taking you hours to polish out something to 600. Before operating your torch, read all instructions so you know how to handle it safely. When the first patch gets really funky, then drop that in your plastic garbage container (remember, these patches have been soaked in acid solutions! The steel is also used for producing great police flashlights with awesome durability. gas coverage is another big one. 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 kitty litter (I would recommend the unused variety). Picture Information. It is usually inadvisable to use cold bluing as a touch-up where friction is present. Youll need some shop rolls, ranging from 180 to 400 grit (typical 4-packs are 180, 240, 320 and 400 grit, in 1, 1.5 or 2. As I'm bluing round pieces I slowly and evenly rotate the piece over the flame to equally disburse the heat. Most waters in the Rockies clear out to the west coast will have high(er) dissolved solids in them. The cotton gloves insulate your fingers from the heated barrel, and they prevent oils from your skin from getting on the raw steel. highfour, case hardening is a bit different from what you describe.. Usually, the steel needs some time in a medium that will allow carbon to penetrate the surface, and we are talking 15 minutes to several hours. Nowadays, even mild steel does have a certain amount of carbon in the alloy, which can explain your observations, if you google "super quench," you should find a waterbased quench that is rumoured to do the same, but in my humble opinion, water can do just that as well. Ok you gotta help me out herewhen I was studying mechanical engineering a good few years back a project I done involved using a compression fit of 1/4" thick plate steel into 1" thick steel rod, both mild steel. It greatly helped me to learn how to blue a gun perfectly at home. I have in the past few years became more and more. If you want it smoother/shinier, you can polish up to 600 grit, with wet-or-dry paper. 1. The reason I ask is that when you heat steel that is in the white to 600F, you get a brilliant blue all on its own. I hope to someday have good knowledge to pass on to people, heh. When the liquid stops bubbling, remove the metal from the container and wipe off any excess liquid. I pulled the temp off the top of my head. Ive cut and pasted this to my notes on the cloud. $3.59. 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. Oil and grease really are the enemy because youre trying to (literally) corrode the metal. on Introduction. Keep heating the steel until you notice a blue color form on the metal. }, Not only does it give you an alchemical feeling of satisfactionbut it also gives the metal a finish to stop corrosion. Safety notes: Dont use an aluminum pan. Should something happen, seek medical help right away. I tried heating the barrel in sections (as Brownells says is ok) but did not get a very good result, being unable to get a uniform heat in any =thing approaching more than a few inches at a time. It also looks good on AK type weapons of which I have three to park. Larger flames produce less heat while smaller flames produce a higher heat. The downsides are: the safety issue, which I laid out above, and which youve made clear. Safety is the number one priority so protect your body as much as possible. In order to confirm the bank transfer, you will need to upload a receipt or take a screenshot of your transfer within 1 day from your payment date. The wire is extremely small in diameter, so you have to take that into consideration. Keep a fire extinguisher near your workstation in case of a fire. This is a great time to point out that leaving guns in gun cases, especially the woolen/fleece cases, in the back of a closet, is one of the most sure-fire ways to rust the value completely out of a gun. } 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. An ideal temperature is 180 degrees Fahrenheit but it also depends on the manual. RF: Expect a write-up from me on Rust blueing and parkerizing in the next couple of weeks. Answer The parts must be observed constantly for colour change. Probably the main one is the content of so-called "carbon, "I was looking at making a set of plate armor and I wanted to see how to harden the breastplate. You are a fantastic resource for all of us here. If there is any finish left on the metal, it will interfere with the bluing pr Historically, razor blades were often blued steel. Cooking off the more volatile hydrocarbons leaving the heavier ones produces a different effect yet again.