refinishing

[The Virginian]

I have repeated the process as many as 10x to get the right color so, 5x might not have been enough. Did you use a mild stainless steel wire brush? Sometimes over sanding and using brushes with steel that is too hard can cause details to get fuzzy. Boiling too long can also cause the blue to appear black, but give it time to "age" as it will mellow to a blue grey over the years.

[alvin]

Originally Posted by The Virginian

Did you use a mild stainless steel wire brush?

Yes, "Carding", I used 0000 steel wool. I also reblued a screw driver (came with a CAI Nagant revolver), and found "Russian Steel" was way harder to blue than "German Steel".... I cannot even remember how many times I had to repeat for that screw driver..... probably 10-15 times. Finally, it turned into black as well, which is the "correct" color for CAI guns, I was so happy.