The last time I tried to do any "cold bluing" was 40 years ago on a shotgun barrel and I made a mess of it.
I understand that chemicals and the process itself has improved since then.
I am thinking of touching up my two new "ladies" in some of the places that are totally bare.
click image to enlarge....
These are going to be "working girls" and since I got both for a very resonable price I do not want to send them away to the high end refinishers (it would be nice but finances dictate otherwise).
I can follow directions and my handyman skills have improved somewhat over the past four decades.
Any thoughts or recommendations on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
I've used the 'cold blue' markers to do some touch up, works good and I couldn't tell where the mark was when I was done. Not sure how it works on large areas however.
+1 on the Oxpho Blue, I have used it to completely blue two guns and to touch up others. The biggest thing is to make sure the metal is thoroughly de-grease the metal, I generally use acetone but you must blue immediately or it will rust. Sometimes it may take two or more applications to match or get the depth of blue you want just do a quick wipe down with acetone before each application.
It isn't anywhere near as thick or durable as standard hot-dip bluing and wears off again after awhile; but it's easy to reapply as needed and keeps them pretty. Just consider it as a little "makeup" for your girls :wink:
Your new girls really do look great without any makeup. Some folks seem to have good results from cold blue but I never did. The touch up spots always looked blotchy and rapidly wore off. I've given up on effective cold blue but I haven't tried any in some time.
Cold blue takes a bit of skill and craftsmanship. To do a truly proper job, I think you'd need to strip the entire gun down and start over. If they were mine, and I truly wanted a working gun... I'd do duracoat.
Good to know. I've often thought about buying one of those old rusty guns at a gun show for little of nothing and trying to clean it up. I figured I'd disassemble it, sand all of the rust off, polish with a dremel, then attempt to re-blue the gun. Unfortunately, I just can't seem to find the time for such a project. It would be fun, though.
I have recently used the Brownell's Oxpho Blue and it works fine. In fact, you can't even see the difference where I touched up the old finish.Degrease as above and then make sure you wipe some good gun oil after all is done. Should be fine.
I keep a bottle of Van's Instant Blue around and it has always done a good job. Covers scratches and other wear and tear and has yet to come off on me.
In the meantime buy a package of very fine steel wool. Like 0000 extra fine.
Be careful that you don't contaminate your bottle and it stores forever. You can use cotton swabs as applicators but don't dip used ones back into the bottle.
Always use a new swab every time you dip.
Apply it...and then steel wool it pretty hard.
Believe it or not...rubbing with the fine steel wool will not scratch your existing bluing.
It's a much softer steel than the gun steel.
Then repeat the applications as many times as is necessary to get the color nice and deep.
Buy the smallest bottle if you're just going to do little touch-ups.
It goes a long way.
I have a complete 1911 that I cold blued with OXPHO blue. It actually looks pretty doggone decent and I did a really good pre-polishing job on it.
It does show "holster wear" quicker than a good HOT blue (in the usual areas) but, it touches up very quickly and easily.
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